SECRETS OF FORTS

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 May 1938, Page 4

SECRETS OF FORTS

GIVEN TO GERMANS. METZ, April 20. A spy plot, in which two French contractors, trusted with secret work on the Maginot Line—France’s chain of underground forts along the German frontier —employed two German engineers to help them in their plans, has been discovered by Metz military police. The four men are now in gaol in Strasbourg. The Frenchmen, Marcel Nuss and his brother Maurice, are said to have passed all the official plans given them by the authorities Io Ludwig Schissele and Julius Brichle, who live at Kehl, just over the frontier from Strasbourg. The Germans examined the plans at their leisure and then prepared for new works to be carried out for the French authorities at the suggestion of•the brothers. The discover}' has caused a sensation on the frontier, where France for some time has been carrying out large-scale alterations to make her defences, believed impregnable, even stronger. Now' it is feared that German agents possess full details of a great part of these plans. Also, the discovery follows the visit of two spies, masquerading as French officers, to the forts at Boulav, near Metz. They arrived in a car with a French military number. The driver was dressed as a French soldier. They knew the password and spent some time examining the defences. A few minutes after they had driven away the two French officers whom they had impersonated arrived. Widespread search for the spies has failedIhe local newspapers are demanding that the Government change the law to permit the death penalty being given to spies to stamp out the extensive spy organisation in the district.