FRENCH OFFICER’S TRIAL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 287, 1 November 1934, Page 7

FRENCH OFFICER’S TRIAL.

VERDICT’ AWAITED.

LONDON, Oct. 31. The German agent, Krauss, giving evidence against Captain Froge, alleged that Froge supplied him with copies of plans for training and also supplied plans for emergency mobilisation at Belfort and other documents.

Froge denied association with Krauss. He admitted operations on the Bourse in which lie lost £SOO but the capital was supplied by relatives. He had ceased to speculate before the alleged meeting with Krauss. The prosecution said that handwriting experts had identified as Froge’s communications to Krauss which the accused had declared were forgeries. The verdict will be announced on November 5.

Captain Froge, a French officer with a distinguished record, is accused of betraying secret army plans to a foreign Power. Feeling in the army is very high, as Froge hitherto had been blameless, and it is felt that this may be another Dreyfus case. Froge’s accusers are Geissmann, a deserter from the Austrian army, who turned police informer, and Ivrauss, a Polish exofficer, who admits he has been a spy in the service of Germany. Froge has throughout protested his innocence and accuses Geissman of forgery. Ivrauss states that he paid Froge £2OOO for a plan of the air defences of Belfort and other frontier defences.