MATA HARI

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 9, 8 December 1932, Page 2

MATA HARI

. COURTESAN AND SPY. HER EXECUTION IN PARIS. ' Major Thomas Coulson, 0.8. E., has written a thrilling book on the romantic adventures of Mata Hari, the famous dancer, who, while fulfilling theatrical engagements in Paris during tire Great War acted as a spy for the German Army and was responsible for the deaths of thousands of Allied soldiers. Being a woman of unusual beauty with a subtle personality, she drew to her side statesmen and soldiers and the attention she received from them made her entrance into circles, which otherwise would have been closed to her, quito easy, thus facilitating the successful discharge of her duties as a super-spy for the enemy. MATA HARI’S NATIONALITY.

In the early days of her career in Paris Mata Hari proved herself to be brilliant in the art of deception. This was when she went to the city merely as a dancer in vaudevi/le houses. It was customary for her to hold semiprivate seances quite apart from the theatre, which fed to her 'amazing power over men of position and influence. “It was such a scene,” says Major Coulson, “as might be witnessed in the intimacy of the elegant palaces of, say, the votaries of luxury.” Before a group of selected guests, reclining in luxurious ease after copious sacramental libations, and surrounded by her worshippers, she invoked the image of her youth. Then followed a story of her early life which found many believers. “I was born,” she said in the soft languorous tone associated with the mysterious East, “in the South of India, on the coast of Malabar, in the holy city of Jaffnapa.tam, the child of a family within the sacred caste of Brahma. By reason of his piety and pureness of heart my father was called Assirvadam, which means ‘The Blessing of God.’ My mother was a glorious bayadere (ministrant) in the temple of Kanda Swany. She died when she was fourteen; on the same day I was born. The priests of the temple having cremated my mother, adopted me under the baptismal name of Mata Hari, which means ‘Eye of the Dawn.’ ”

Then followed an account of her alleged life in the temple and her training as a bayadere, stating that “it wasou the purple granite altar of the Kanda Swany that, at the age of thirteen, I danced for the first time completely nude.” Continuing Mata Hari gave a description of imaginary ceremonies and festivities ip honour of the God Siva, which eclipsed the Bacchanalian fetes of decadent Rome and, therefore, indescribable. She told how she followed her profession in the temple until one day a handsome English officer saw her performance and violated the sacred rules of her caste by speaking to her. They fell in love with each other, and the officer having rescued her from (he temple, married her. A son Norman was born, but the child did not live long, his death being the result of a typically Oriental act of poisoning. Thus she gave to her life, says Major Coulson, a current of vibrant, barbaric adventure, heavily coloured by the mystery and romance of the unknown East, which was rendered all the more plausible by Nature’s gifts. For this Dutch girl, in Holland of homely parents, was endowed with a strangely Oriental cast of countenance, and an amber-tinted body which she inherited, not from her alleged Hindu parents, but from Jewish progenitors. DUTCH, NOT HINDU.

The real Mata Hari was born in the little Dutch town of Leeuwarden, on August 7, 1876, and was given the baptismal names of Margaret Gertrude. Her nearest approach to Oriental ancestry was a strain of Jewish blood through her father’s descent. Her father (Adam Zelle) was a business man, and the mother, a good looking woman of the typical Dutch type, came from the better class family of van der Meulen. Margaret Gertrude attended the State school, and at the age of 14, when she was supposed to have been rescued from the Kanda Swany, was in a religious institution in Holland, remaining there until she was 18, 'when she met Captain Campbell McLeod, ot Scottish descent, who held a commission in the Dutch Colonial Army, and married him. Later they resided in Java with their two children (Norman and Jeanne Louise). Captain McLeod commanded a battalion of the Colonial Army Reserve in Java, and after his transfer to the reserve of officers the ill-assorted pair returned to Amsterdam, where they eventually separated. Her "application for a divorce was refused, but later it was granted to her husband.

Furnished with the necessary money Margaret made for Paris and souglrt employment as an artist’s model, but with only a fair amount of success. She returned to Holland for a time, and then one day descended upon the gay Paris like a thunderclap. Margaret Gertrude Zelle was no more: the curtain had risen definitely on Mata Hari, the Red Dancer. She established her reputation in that city and it was there she achieved the highest flights of her fame. Her other conquests in Berlin, Rome, Vienna, and London were but reflections of her Parisian success. From 1905 her love affairs followed her like an unending procession. From her admirers she received such substantial homage that before long she was established in a sumptuous apartment near the Champs-Elysees; she had her private carriage and a collar of pearls. One who knew her well said “she was not really pretty, her features lacking refinement. There was something bestial about the lips, cheeks and jaw. Only her eyes and arms were absolute in their beauty. Those who said she had the most beautiful arms in the world did not exaggerate. And her eyes! Eyes that were magnetic and enigmatic, ever changing, yet over of velvety softness, commanding and pleading, melancholy and mean,, those terrible eyes in whose depths so many souls were drowned, actually merited the adoration awarded them.” THE NEW SPY.

It was in 1907 that Mata Hari first came* in touch with tho German spy system through making the acquaintance of Herr von Jagow, the chief of the Berlin police. In 1910 she was sent to Lorrach (Bavaria) where the authorities conducted a regular spies’ “academy,” and here she received a finishing course in the delicate art. Spies are invariably addressed and known by a number. Mata Hari was H2l. . After her graduation from Lorrach Mata Hari was restored to her position as a vaudeville' “star” and equipped to resume her position as a courtesan so that sho might exercise her newly-developed talent. She travelled from one city to another and became a familiar figure at army, manoeuvres where she was invariably the cherished companion of some highly-placed officer, her purpose unsuspected because of her notoriety. After the declaration of war between Germany and France Mata Hari was successful in obtaining Eapers which enabled her to take up er residence in Paris. She made

the journey via London, the British warning the French of the spy’s presence there and of her intended destination. She was' not arrested because a spy enjoys the customary privilege of being innocent until there is material proof of guilt. The book furnishes lengthy details of the efforts made by Mata Hari to obtain information of value to the German Army, even to the extent of visiting dens of infamy at night to get in touch with French and foreign officers to learn military secrets while they were intoxicated. But all her information of Allied military affairs did not come from this tainted source, and other methods were used for the benefit of her German chiefs in Holland to whom she succeeded in sending her material. BETRAYAL OF FRENCH.

One in particular receives special prominence in the book. After the offensive in Artois in May, and June of 1915, an extensive Allied offensive in Champagne with a simultaneous attack in Artois was duly planned and the preparation masked accordingly. One of the three zones for the attack was in front of Vittel where all the bustling activity of preparation must go surging eastward through the small town, where hospitals and air squadrons were located. Mata Hari, who was a suspected person, suddenly announced that she had enrolled in the French Red Cross and was instructed to report for duty at the hospital in Vittel. She further stated that an old • friend, Captain Marov, an officer of the Russian contingent serving on the Western Front, was in hospital at Vittel, having become blind through wounds and that she was going to the stricken man’s side to comfort and console him. While at Vittel Mata Hari, when away from Marov, used her talents to the best advantage and gained the knowledge she sought. In one position (the Chemin des Dames) the Germans prior to the attack had only 90 battalions; when it was launched the force had been increased to 192 battalions. When a general order closed th» operations the French had lost 80,000 killed and 100,0U0 wounded, as a result of the Germans becoming aware of the place and time of attack. The army had been betrayed and yet the betrayer was inviolate through the absence of proof, the method the woman employed in sending her information through to Amsterdam not having been discovered. . ,

With her work at Vittel accomplished, Mata Hari proceeded to Madrid (via Paris), to fulfil a dancing engagement, and in the Spanish capital she was in close touch • with the German secret service. In January of 1916 Mata Hari, who had in the meantime returned to Paris, left France for Holland via England. On arrival at Falmouth she "was taken to London and accused of being a dangerous person by carrying on correspondence with the enemy. This of course she denied in the first interview with the British authorities, but in a second interview admitted she was a spy—not for Germany but for the French, a piece of sheer stupidity, as the French were net likely to employ her to spy upon their British friends. The British, with insufficient evidence to take her before the Court, allowed her to depart for Holland.

MATA HARI DUPED

At this time the Allied agents were proving troublesome in Belgium and Mata Hari was sent back to France through Switzerland to obtain information to enable the Germans to break up the nest of spies. In Paris she took a bold course by calling at the office of the Second Bureau and asking for employment in the French secret service, and as proof tlrat slio was genuine in her desire to work for France mentioned that German submarines in March would attempt to land rifles on the African coast with the object of stirring up trouble among the native population of Morocco and Algeria, and thus prevent French troops from being despatched to the Western Front. The information proved to be correct and two submarines -were destroyed. This was, outwardly, accepted by the French as sufficient proof of her integrity, but she was now to undergo a severe test. She was ordered to proceed to Brussels, and was given a list of “French agents” in Belgium and a copy of instructions to be conveyed to them. She was told to guard the precious document with her life, should such an extreme penalty be exacted in its defence, as the value of that piece of paper was invaluable. Mata Hari did not take speciul precautions to conceal the document about her person; it was simpler and much quicker for the purpose for which they were intended to put them into a letter sent by prearranged channels directly to the German espionage leaders in Holland. Mata Hari proceeded on her journey to Holland via England, and was detained several days in London, the police stating that there was a difficulty in obtaining a berth for her, but when she eventually found herself at sea she discovered that she was bound for Spain and not Holland, the London police having frustrated her attempt to reach Holland, no doubt as a result of communications from the French Second Bureau. As to the list of agents in Belgium given to Mata Hari by the Second Bureau all the names were fictitious but one, w ho was placed there on purpose as he was a traitor who was serving two masters. Three weeks later he was shot by the Germans. But there was no report to the Second Bureau by Mata Hari regarding the Belgian mission. On arrival in Madrid Mata Hari was sent by. German officials on a delicate mission to Barcelona, from which city she was recalled and ordered to Paris. Money being required, von Kroon, the German agent in Madrid, sent a radio message to Amsterdam in Iris private diplomatic cipher, simply asking that money be sent to the spy H2l through the usual channels. When he put his name to that radio message, which was picked up by the French and deciphered, he signed the death warrant of Mata Hari, the Red Dancer. Once again in Paris the Red Dancer renewed her wild pleasures of former years, her public luncheons and dinners assuming a decidedly diplomatic flavour. The Second Bureau, knowing that she was making secret enquiries regarding the latest tanks in the field, considered the time opportune to have her explanation of the Belgian fiasco and' the radio message concerning the spy H2l.

THE SPY’S UNMASKING. The first question put to her, “how long have you been in the German secret service,” was a great shock; the unexpected blow stunned her. Major Coulson says; '“For a moment she rocked unsteadily in the chair and her face went livid. It was no longer the assured, audacious Mata Hari who looked with terrified eyes at the officer and whimpered; I . . I do not understand.” The next question was, “Tell me,. H2l, when you first became a spy in the enemy’s pay?” With those words Mata Hari must have known that the career of the Red Dancer had drawn to its close. That night she tossed feverishly on the hard bed in a cell of tho prison of Saint-Lazare. The time had now come for Mata Hari to answer for her crime before her judges —brother officers of the men

whom she had sent to their deaths in hundreds. Maitrc Clunet, a wellknown French advocate, 75 years of age, who had fallen in love with her when she was at the height of her beauty and power, undertook her defence voluntarily. A searching investigation into her activities as a spy followed, and the farther tire enquiry proceeded the greater was Mata Hari’s recognition of the fact that a great pit was opening at her feet, so complete and accurate was the evidence produced against lrer. The Red Dancer among her many replies to the charges brought against her, said she was neither French nor German, but belonged to a neutral country and had done nothing to injure France. Despite Maitre. (Jlunet’s efforts on her behalf Mata Hari was found guilty and sentenced to death. When the sentence was announced Maitre Clunet, whose love for the Red Dancer still remained, despite the years which had flown, wept unashamed. The final act in the drama is vividly described by Major Coulson. The actual moment for the execution was fixed for 5.47 a.m. and an hour before this time the officials charged with the execution collected at the prison to carry out their unpleasant task. The prisoner was sleeping peacefully when they arrived, and the two Sisters of Mercy who were with her in her last few days on earth had to shake her gently to inform her that her advocate’s plea for a remission of sentence had been denied and tlrat she was to die that morning. “What? It is not possible; it cannot be possible,” was all she • could say, and then commenced her preparations for the ceremony in which she was cast to play the principal role. Before leaving her cell she called the Protestant minister before whom she knelt and was baptised in the rites of Anabaptism. Then the officers entered the cell and claimed their prisoner. In the prison director’s office she wrote three letters—one to her young daughter full of wise motherly counsel to guide aright her life; one to a favoured French lover who had braved public condemnation to bear witness at the court-martial in her favour; and one to the absent Russian officer, Captain Marov.

THE FINAL SCENE

Tire party of guards, official witnesses and the prisoner got into waiting cars and proceeded without delay to the place of execution —the rifle range at Vincennes. They arrived just as a chili dawn was lighting a grey sky, and troops were found to be already drawn up in readiness, forming three sides of a hollow square. On the open side of this formation was the sinister tree, stripped of its leaves and branches, to which Mata Han was conducted. The priest lraving completed his ministrations, stepped back, and the gendarmes pressed the condemned woman against the treetrunk. When a bandage was produced to shut out from her sight the final preparations for her' death Mata Hari disdainfully waved it aside. Quickly the young officer in command of the firing party gave his orders: “Take aim.”

Slowly he raised his sword to give the signal which would produce the fatal volley. Mata Hari gaily kissed her hand to the minister and to the old advocate who was now a pitifully, weak old man, weeping unrestrainedly. To the young officer standing with upraised sword she said in a sweet voice: ; “Thank you, Monsieur.”

“Fire.”

At the crack of the rifles there was a deadly hush which lasted until the doctors had certified death. At the foot of a bare tree thele was a heap of huddled skirts “where a woman’s face lay smiling enigmatically at the overhanging canopy of Heaven.” Just prior to the execution there were rumours of an attempt to prevent the sentence of the court martial being carried out, which caused some anxiety to the officials. Even Mata Hari believed that she would be rescued from her fate by the scheming of her friends. One of the plotters was believed to have bribed the officer in charge of the firing party to use blank cartridges, and it was said that the gendarmes responsible lor pinioning Mata Hari’s arms were also bribed to fasten the cords so lightly that her body could sink to the ground when the shots were fired. (It was found later that the knot of the rope had not been fastened.) Then arrange merits had to be made to make the coffin admit enough air to keep her reasonably comfortable after the ceremony, and the grave had to be dug shallow enough to prevent so much earth being thrown on the coffin that the occupant would suffocate. All these details, says Major Coulson, are important in view of what happened later. They probably explain why many people still find m Mata Hari’s amazing composure the strong underlying conviction that all she had to do was to play a part as though the turf on the rifle range at Vincennes was the stageboards of the familiar Olympia and her death a childish deception. When the bandage was refused Mata Han probably believed she had no need to fear death, especially a death in which she was merely playing a part for the deception of some five thousand interested'spectators in order to carry out the instructions of a faithful lover whose unseen hands were arranging the details. . . . . After the execution no one claimed the body. The next morning morbid curiosity induced several people to visit the cemetery, and to their chagrin they found the shallow grave was empty. “Instantly tire report spread that Mata Hari had escaped the bullets of her executioners and had been carried off by the lover who had planned the escape. “What is the secret of the empty grave? A grisly tale. Before the execution a medical college, with the gruesome hunger for human bodies upon which to conduct the surgical experiments from which suffering humanity benefits, asked the authorities to surrender this body of a criminal for dissection. In accordance with their usual practice when there was no claimant, the authorities made this concession to science. On the evening of the morning that Mata Hari was shot her body was disinterred and carried to the clinic, where the surgeons had ample proof that death was due to the bullets of the firing party.”

A gold medal'presented by the King for the head boy at King Edward the Seventh Grammar School, King s Lynn has been awarded to Ronald Russell Thornhill, the son of a Metlrwold farmer.