GERMAN SPIES IN LONDON.

North Otago Times, 6 September 1906, Page 2 (Supplement)

GERMAN SPIES IN LONDON.

IMPORTANT PAPERS STOLEN FROM A FRENCH AG ENT. An extraordinary espionage .affair in London has come lo the knowledge of the "Daily Mirror 1 ." Letters .which show Hint France is nt present preparing with nil ■•'energy against the possible event of a rupture with Germany were stolen in London -one Friday night recently from an Englishman in- the service of .the French Government. The thieves; were three Frenchmen, who are 'obviously in the pay of Germany.. The Englishman who was formerly an ollicer in the British Army, and who was* aware that for some clays he had been shadowed by spies, paid a visit on the night in question to a lady who is a near relative of a former French Minister of War.' At the lady's house, which is situated in the neighbourhood of Shepherd's bush, he was handed a packet of letters, addressed to.'him by the oxMinister of War,

FRANCE'S WARLIKE PREPARATIONS, j The letters, sent as they were by a close friend, contained information of the greatest importance. They, stated that Franco was purchasing enormous quantities of hay for transmission to the frontiers, and that the War Department was working day and night to prepare for a campaign ! that might follow the termination of the Algcciras Conference, and contained the names of several of the Englishman's friends wlio would take \ high command in the event of war, J After reading tho letters—which,, j because of their importance, had not j been sent through the post, but car-! ricd by a trusted messenger—the Englishman left his, hostess's house and made his way to the tube station at Shepherd's Bush, - j On the way he called, in at an ! hotel and asked for refreshment. Soou ! afterwards ho heard a greeting in ■French, and a man with a tanned •face and rigid manner of a recently-. discharged soldier introduced himself as tin ex-corporal in the Second : Zouaves, whom the Englishman had known in Paris and Madagascar.

He also introduced a friend in the person of a former corporal in the French Foreign Legion, and a third man, also, a Frenchman, who was apparently an artisan. i DEI/GGED TEA AND COFFEE. \ Used as he was to the intrigues of j foreign diplomacy, the Englishman, j obtaining proof from two of them ■ that they had senwi France in lh~' field, allowed himself to be persuaded to accompany the men to their lodgings in the vicinity. "When, at midnight, we arrived at the Frenchmen's lodgings," said ( the Englishman when seen at his hotel, "one of the Frenchmen • made, tea over a stove, and, as we tallied about doings in Madagascar and Al- ; gicrs, where I was a close friend of j General' Willoughby, we drank a mixture of coffee and tea. ! "Then I suddenly went to 'sleep,; and it was not till three hours af-, tcrwards that I woke. Then, not •' suspecting anything, I prepared for my journey homewards. THE WIIONG OVERCOAT. "One of the men helped me on with an overcoat which I thought was mine until I reached my rooms.- Then, i feeling for some tobacco, I put my| hand' through a hole 'in one of the : pockets, and 1 discovered that during my sleep my brand-new coat had "been" Replaced by an old ori'c of very inferior cut.

"Instantly my hand went to tho pocket where my papers had been. Tliev were gone ! "I knew then that the Frenchmen were traitors to their country-de-sci'ters, in all probability, who had been bought with German gold. "I drove to Scotland Yard and reported my loss. But what is the good ? lly this time the papers have doubtless been photographed and copies sent to the Secret Service in Berlin."