GERMAN SPIES

Evening Star, Issue 17155, 23 September 1919, Page 3

GERMAN SPIES

STORY OF VON HORST AND LILIAN 1 ■ . TROY.

More interest was excited by the caae of Baron Von Honsfc and Lilian Scott Tlroy than in thia.t of any other of tho shady oTmraotera employed by the Germans in this oountrv before and during the war (says the London 'Dispatch'), \but the mysteries surrounding their activities have not been> dispelled until, now. In the following article, from onaufthoritative eouroe, tho full story of this extraordinary pair is first disclosed. • Most" people'are firmly convinced that, besides the Kttle army of humbly-paid spies who were set to ferret out naval and military secrets, ithe German Government was employing persons in nigh positions to foment political troubles.'in England, with a view to paralysing the British Government on the arrival of "The Day." They wore not far wrong, though in one case only was there sufficient evidence to convert suspicion into certainty. This was the d3se of Baron Louis Von Horst and Lilian Scott Troy. Louis Von Ho'st was the son of a Prussian draper in a sinaM way of business. Like nuiiiy young Germans, he emigrated to America with his brothers, and engaged in the hop business. Business took him to Obburg, where he married tne daughter of the American Vice-Consul. The marriage was not a happy one, and some years before the vyivr Horst came to London without his wife, and founded' the Horst Company, dealers in American and German hops, with offices in the city and a factory in Bennondsey. During ©no of his visits to Coburg he was created a baron; for reasons that have never been explained. His brothers, who were American citizens, attributed his successful intrigue for a title to vanity, and ■asserted that he was .really an American. He himself adopted the prefix of "von," and registered himself as a, German. OPENING OF THE CAMPAIGN.

About 1912 he made the acquaintance of Miss Troy, an American woman who had lived for some years in this country as a journalist. During the London dock strike in 1912 he was found to be supporting the strikers with money to an extent which was believed to be outside his moans. Close on the heels of the strike cam© the suffragette disturbances. Horst and Troy at once opened up relations with the leaders, and Horst appeared to surety for one of the women who wae admitted to bail.

While tho movement was at its height the landing of laxms in Ulster took place. and almost immediately the pair betook themselves to the south of Ireland, partly, they said, to select a suitable looalitv for growing hops', and partly to visit Castle Trov, which the lady declared to l be the

home of her ancestors. In Ireland Miss Troy was a lady of wealth and position, who employed Horst as her secretary. Indeed, she was occasionally described t-vs Lady do Troy and as "Miss Lilian Trov, of California, who in the near future will acain become the possessor of Castle Troy."'' The pleasant fiction that her ancestors had been evicted from the property was circulated to account for the interest they took in this part of Ireland. Hop growing was not the only declared object o? the visit. In tire 'Limerick Echo' of December 23, 1913, appeared a letter in which Miss Troy descants upon the advantage of making Queens-town a [xn't of -dall for the steamers of the Hamburg-American Line. She says i "It will be interesting to obnerve how easily the German captains navigate in a harbor which English captains assort 'gives them nerves."' While in Ireland Horst presented a Mauser rifle to the Volunteers of Ballysinion, and the presentation was made the occasion for a review and speechmaking, which was reported at length in the local Press. Certain facts about this rifle were not reported. About two months before the war Horst called upon a London dealer and askod for quotations for Mauser rifles in parcels of from 20 to SO, with ammunition and bayonets. A quotation was obtained for him, but when he next called he said he would take two only at that time, adding by way of explanation, "I am a Home Ruler. It was I who initiated the Irish Volunteers. I may want a lot of these." The dealer .showed, him a diamond ring, and he said :" Oh, no,;- : that is of no use to me now. Where I am going that would melt." He wanted the quotation urgently, as he was shortly going to Germany. A CHANGE FJtOM BLUSTER,

Within a month war was declared, and with consummate impudence the pair immediately went to the authorities with a proposal that they should found and* conduct a society for the support of distressed Germans, who had been unable to return to their own country. Apparently they did not realise that many of their past activities were known, and, when the baron blustered into a certain public offico to claim offioial recognition for hie philanthropic efforts he found himself suddenly obliged to meet an offensive of questions.. He acquitted 1 himself very badly. His whole manner changed at once, and ho became cringing and apologetic, after the manner of the German of his class.

It will seem strange to some that he was not put upon his trial; probably it was one of the cases where the obvious inference on his conduct before the war fell short of legal proof. And so into an internment camp he went, protesting volubly against the indignity. Then from the four corners of the earth Horst's with strong GermanAmerican accents began to flow into the country ready to prove against the baron's own admission that he was a German subject, that he was and always had been an American citizen. But interned the baron remained until the armistice, when he was repatriated to Germany. The baron was a stoutly-built, "blustering, red-faced person of about 60, growing a little bald, and rotund about the paunch, the sort of man who could be convivial in his cups and jovial in a speech at a public dinner. Bliss Troy was a florid, fair woman of about 40, broad-shouldered, and inclined to stoutness, very voluble and even strident in speech—in fact, one of those women who

take root in a chair till they have had their say, and never depart without leaving their listeners.exhausted behind them. Whence did this large-hearted man of business get his money, first for the hop business, then for free meals to strikers' children, for the Suffragettes, ,for the excursions to Ireland, ana the rifles? How was he remunerated for his loss of timo?

What we do know is that Vpn Kuhlmann, of the German Embassy, had been paying very particular attention to -the political difficulties in England, and had secretly reported to his Government that they were so acute that she was not to be seriously considered in the event of a world war. MAKING HER WEIGHT FELT.

Tho future possessor of Troy G'a&tle now to make her weight felt. In association with tho baron, she had founded a picture palace at Croydon, which now became a meeting-place for disgruntled policemen and revolutionaries who were working to provoke soldiers to mutiny; and the liquidation of this property as an enemy concern made it diffiful for (the authorities to deport her while she was a party to the suit. .' Aa might have been expected of euoh a woman, ehe began to makb reckless charges of corruption against the commandant of the internment camp, the police, the civil aufchoratdos, .and, nidged, everyone who had anything to do with the baron. What had really ha>ppftn*d was this. In her customary di.sguiso of 'u, lady of large property she had visited the barou at the Internment camp, in ccder to gain a hold over the commandtant, which 18 the usual procedure of tlhe blackmailer, she had sent him a oase of rnesrriuanß»of champagne, which he returned to her with a shajrp note. It must have shocked 'a lady of her varied *xperienoa that lanycme should (resent the offer of a bribe, and ehe was determined to hava her reveng«. A ftear that Mttla adventure no one who ventured to do hits duty was safe from hex malicious And) lying tongue. She set herself to procure interviews with every official hv tram If tbey ooasented to eeb

her ehe misrepresented! what they said; if | they declined, as was generally the case, she accused ibem of being bribed by some- j body else. , | At last' came tlie- armistice, arid with i iv the repatriation of Baron Von Horst, > protesting loudly to Germany. Her lili- ' gation was fhiMiod, audit beoame possible to bundle her out of tho country whose hos- i pitality ehe had abused. Tlie ship waa , chosen, the passage was booked, and on | tho day before tho ship sailed a. polios j officer called at heir iho use with a taxi j to tako her to the boat train. She had ', been out all morning, but she immediately ; feigned illness, and declared blmt she i could riot be moved. A doctor was called, j and on,Ms certificate that she was. quite j fit to travel eUsa was taken to the train I

and put on boiuixl. Then for a space the«) was peace. It j was like tfhe space between the lighting of the fusia and the explosion of the cracker. There wore tte reporters who come on board in New York; the I rash - Americans who make anti-British speeches; the Hearst newspapers, and she used them oil. |

The explosion lost & little of its impressiveniess in its passage across the Atlantic, bu* that waa no fault of hers, or of the compositor who set the headlines. She worked 'her sympathy for tho "wrongs" of Ireland, the corruption and duplicity O'f the British officials' and th© alleged American nationality of Von Horst for all they were worth, and she headed straight for California, leaving & trailing glory of newspaper paragraphs in her wake. '