BOMBS IN SWISS TRAINS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue LXXIV, 8 February 1918, Page 3

BOMBS IN SWISS TRAINS.

PLOT TO' DESTROY LINES AND STATIONS. ..

GERMANS IMPLICATED

PARIS, Nov. 27. A special telegram to the Matin from its Zurich correspondent, says:—

I telegraphed last Saturday that two bombs had been found, charged with lyddite. An investigation opened by the police at Zurich is still proceeding. Another bomb discovery has been made of a still greater character, as it reveals the existence of a plot aiming at the destruction of certain railway stations and lines in Switzerland. This I sensational news, which the papers had hitherto concealed from their readers, is now made public by the Zurich Socialist organ, the Volksrecht. This paper declares that afc the end of last week a large quantity of bombs, containing ether and petrol, the explosion of which would have sufficed to blow to pieces an entire district, was found in a passenger train travelling between Zurich and Schaffhouse, the border town on the , German-Swiss frontier.

A complaint has been lodged against a man whose name is not mentioned, and who is charged with manufacturing bombs, which were afterwards concealed in an empty l_ou.se. The person lodging this complaint has submitted to the authorities two of the bombs, as proof of his allegations. Furthermore, it would appear that, following the enquiry made .after the serious dia-fcurb-ances at Zurich and the discovery ot the first two bombs, the police made several arrests, which revealed tbe existence of a regular organisation of espionagu in the Swiss-German capital. The Volksrechtj after recalling a similar affair discovered a few months a£o a_ Lugano., in which the ex-Ger-,man Consul wa_ implicated, says: "We have here to deal with a criminal organisation wnich aims at the carrying out of a whole series of murders, not only in the city of Zurich, but on the railways. With what object, and why at .his particular moment !•* There is also reason to believe that on the occasion of the sanguinary outbreak on November ±7 certain police instigators took part. This belief is strengthened by tne fact that thje search warrants and arrests made have led to the discovery of a fresh hotbed of espionage in connection with which further search warrants have been effected in Paris and Geneva, the results of which are as yet unknown.''

PARIS, Nov. 27. The Petit Parisien publishes an interview with a magistrate who has arrived from Switzerland, who gives some details of the German organisation in Switzerland^ aiming at weakening the morai cf tne Allies by means of the "defeatist campaign.

"It was at J-erne,'' said the magistrate, "that the defeatist manoeuvre whicn httl to the retreat of the Italian armies was prepared. It is also there that nev plots are being organised at the present moment, a tact which fortunately is known to the Allies." "