SPY CENTRE

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 March 1939, Page 2

SPY CENTRE

STORY OF UNMASKING LONDON. February 14. With the death in a Hamburg hospital of a German girl who became a Gretna Green bride, it is now possible to reveal how a spy centre with dangerous ramifications was unmasked to the British and American Secret Services, The story goes back to May last year, when Mrs. Jessie Jordan. Scotch by birth but German by marriage, was sentenced in Edinburgh io four years’ penal servitude for breaches 01. the Official Secrets Act. Her daughter. Marga Reid, was present in Court. After she had heard her mother plead guilty she turned to a reporter and said angrily: — “It is all the fault of Herr Ostjes, of Hamburg. He is a member of the Gestapo, the German Secret Police. It was Herr Ostjes who made the suggestion to my mother that she should confirm information of- military importance. when she came to Scotland.

"My mother missed the Leith steamer at: Hamburg, and stayed with Herr Ostjes and his wife while she was waiting for the next. boat. I am convinced that if she had not met. Herr Ostjes she would not have undertaken spy work." Marga’s mot tier, now in gaol in Edinburgh. does not know of her disclosure. She herself gave no information about her accomplice, and until the end. Marga, 100, had told the police nothing. , They had questioned her closely about her mother’s visits to Aidershot and R.A.F. airfields in Scotland and England, “f must be loyal to her." she said at. the time. Marga. who was twenty-three, married Mr. Thomas Reid, a Glasgow canvasser. al Gretna Green after her mother’s arrest. tn November she went to Hamburg to visit friends.