A SPY IN LILLE

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 31 December 1926, Page 9

A SPY IN LILLE

DEATH IN PRISON

A STORY excelling in close-knit romantic detail the most ingenious of spy romanees is the account of the work done for the British Intelligence Department during the war by Madame Louise de Bettignies, of Lille, and her assistant, Madame Leonic Vanhoutte, of Roubaix. This is told in Blackwood’s Magazine for October. Madame de Bettignies obtained permission in October, 1914, to leave Lille. On landing at Folkestone the British officers who questioned the refugees were so struck by the intelligence and exactness of her answers, and the extent of her knowledge of German movements, that they suggested she should return to Lille and organise a spy service. As a graduate of Lille University, with a good knowledge of German, she was well equipped. With reluctance she accepted, and as she was bound for St. Omer, then the British headquarters, she was conducted across and presented to Sir John French. At Phillipine, a tiny village on the Dutch frontier, she was shown by a guide a place where she could crawl under the barbed wire into Belgium. On returning to Lille her first task was to organise a spy service whien would keep the British informed of the' train movements and transport behind the. German lines. For this she chose with greatest care men or women who dwelt near railway bridges, level crossings, and cross roads, and who had the sole duty of noting down the number of the trains, or motor-lorries, passing along the roads, and eliciting any information regarding their contents. This work, built up by her lasted throughout the war, and in April and May, 1918, the Allies knew exactly the number of ambulance trains containing wounded coming back from Mount Kemmel. As they knew also the number of divisions engaged, the state of the enemy’s defences could b:> estimated. Not one of these humble spies, many of whom insisted on working for nothing, betrayed his trust during the war. A more difficult problem was that of organising a system of plotting German batteries, munition dumps, and military movements behind the lines. This had to be done by people of greater education. One doctor in Lille distinguished himself particularly, and between. May and August, 1915, the German batteries

GREAT INTELLIGENCE WORK

in the Lille district were destroyed three times. Much information was gathered from restaurant gossip. At daybreak Madame de Bettingnies wrote her reports on thin Japanese paper, with a fine pen, for her chief at Folkestone. At that time of day she was safest from interruption. She herself travelled like a shuttle-cock between Flushing and Lille by one of three or four secret routes. One of her helpers expressed doubt, whether her information was really getting through, and suggested at the foot of one of his own reports that the British Intelligence Department should arrange that the new German dump at Tourcoing, shown on his plan, should be bombed between midnight and 1 o’clock. This was done, and tlie staff was reassured.

She became suspected in time, and her lieutenant, Leonie Vanhoutte, was arrested and confronted with her photograph. She denied any knowledge of her friend. Misfortune set in. Having arranged for a carrier pigeon to be dropped from an aeroplane at a certain place, she spread her “washing” on the ground to indicate the spot. A passing doctor saw the pigeon swung dotyn in its aluminium cage, and. informed the authorities. Becoming rather. reckless, she attempted a journey with only one passport where two were necessary, and was arrested. She managed to swallow her rice paper report. At Tourai she was offered a glass of milk containing a strong emetic, but she refused it, and managed to spill the contents when an attempt was made to force it on her. Her nerves were worn and very “edgy,” and against her own orders she tried to protect herself when confronted by.a scientist who was her accomplice, by saying she had worked six months for him as a dressmaker. This ho and his wife denied. She was placed in a cell next to that of Madame Vanhoutte, and within a few days a woman said to have been sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment for complicity in the plans of Nurse Cavil was placed in her cell. This woman, named Ladriere, was a decoy or “monton.” and prevailed on her to give her a letter to Transmit to her friend. A nervous wreek, she betrayed herself with a note written in lemon juice. Sentenced to imprisonment for life, she died in prison on September 27, 1,918.