WOMEN AS SPIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17110, 15 March 1919, Page 2 (Supplement)

WOMEN AS SPIES.

ACTIVITIES IN ENGLAND.

Women spies in England gave the authorities considerable trouble for a time owing to the fact that they were frequently moving in the best society. Early in 1915 a woman, who has been described as both beautiful and fascinating, suddenly appeared in London circles. She had a luxuriously-furnished flat in Mayfair, where she entertained on a lavish scale. Frequenters of her social gatherings included well-known society women and both military and naval officers. She was a spy working with a German, and it was through the pair of them having been seen lunching at a quiet restaurant that both were caught. Another woman moving in West End circles was caught by two different means. One day a Belgian, who had just landed in England, told the authorities that when he was in Paris he had been asked by a fashionable woman if he would bring a letter over to England and deliver it to a certain address in the West of London.

The man refused, and gave the address to the authorities, who set a watch upon the woman. She still moved about in the best restaurants, where she generally dined and got into conversation with officers. One day, however, she received a letter brought bv hand by someone from Paris. Its contents must have disturbed her, for she '' rang up" a man living in Essex on the coast, and her conversation being overheard, she was reported to the authorities, with the result that she was arrested.

The man, who was a spy, lived in a spot where he was able to signal to submarines at sea. He eventually shared a spy's fate. it is interesting to learn that the woman spy in Paris was also caught and sentenced to imprisonment.