France Round Up Nazi Spies by Sensational Move

Northern Advocate, 15 July 1939, Page 7

France Round Up Nazi Spies by Sensational Move

(Received 1-30 p.m.) LONDON, July 14

The Independent Cable Service says a network of Nazi bribery, intrigue and espionage, which in wartime might have brought a score of prominent Frenchmen before military courts to answer for their lives, was bared last evening by France’s anti-spy squad, to the second bureau. At least 150 cases, in which people are suspected of acting as- the Nazis’ propaganda agents, are already being investigated. The first hint that a military swoop was pending came at the end of June, when Henry R. Luce, proprietor and editor of the American magazine. “Time,” was sued by a syndicate of Paris journalists for publishing a report that Paris newspapers were receiving money from foreign countries, and that the Paris press was “the sewer of the world.”

Luce apologised, but it is believed he had privately instructed his solicitors to prepare evidence to fight the case. The dossier of facts they collected was handed to the military authorities last week.

The two newspaper executives who were arrested are being held at Cherche Midi Prison, and are accused of acting as Nazi propaganda agents for the press. The arrests were followed by the expulsion from France of Herr Otto Abetz. It is believed Abetz was the head of a German propaganda bureau [originally started by Herr von Ribbentrop, now Nazi Foreign Minister, in his champagne-selling days. He had an entertaining allowance of £2OOO a | month, and employed unsuspected (women in society as go-betweens.

M. Henri do Kerillis, the “Winston Churchill of France,” declares that over £IOO,OOO was spent by the Germans in propaganda payments during the Munich crisis.

ers, Fedor Burgman, and received letters from Hamburg exporters named Raedler, which were intercepted by the Post Office, ostensibly concerning racing and enclosing money purporting to be placed on horses. Adams in reply sent books and other information, including a copy of the Infantry Training Manual, which though it could be purchased at bookstalls, would be useful to an enemy.

A photostatic copy of a code, also intercepted, was produced in court. Adams pleaded not guilty and was remanded. Bail was refused.