FRENCH SPY TRIAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17251, 29 August 1919, Page 9

FRENCH SPY TRIAL.

.a. TRAITORS IN COURT. COUNTRYMEN BETRAYED. MANY ACTS OF TREACHERY. Can a German officer be called to give evidence before a French court-martial? This question has been raised doling the trial by a Paris court-martial of the notorious gang known as " the Informers of Laon," and has caused intense excitement and a violent protest by the defence, writes a correspondent from Paris. Towards the end of last year a resident of Laon met on the Paris boulevards a German named Thomas, of Alsatian origin, who, during a part of the German occupation of Laon. was an agent in the service of th* Secret Police Department of the German 7th Army. Thomas was arrested, and admitted that he had been a German Secret agent, whose sp- !al work consisted in discovering stray J . ed soldiers and reporting to the kommandatur residents who were contravening German orders. To carry- out his work Thomas was helped by some residents of questionable reputation, who became spy agents in bis pay. These in turn be denounced to the French police, and the result was that 25 persons, 20 of whom are French, including 12 women, were arrested. They are an altogether miserable lot, either alcoholic brutes or clever scoundrels, who received sums varying from £10 to £15 for each information they gave to the enemy against their fellow-country-men and women. Dreadful stories of ill-treatment and torture inflicted on people who had been denounced for housing Allied soldiers or leaving the village without permission, are being told in Court. Allied soldier? asfi peaceful citizens were shot as the result of " informations " given by the people in the dock. They all plead that they were the victims of Thomas, who either posed as their friend, or obtained " informations " from them by threats. Apart from Thomas, who seems to have played the part of a cruel tyrant in the region of Laon, the most notable of the gang is a Frenchman named Toque, an ex-colonial administrator, who was sent to prison sevisral years before the war, and dismissed for ill-treating natives in a French African colony. Toque, who is a well-educated man, and very clever, was living at La,-on when the Germans arrived. He is accused not only of having betrayed his compatriots and of having been associated with Thomas in his dirty work, but also of writing for the notorious paper, La Gazette des Ardennes, which the Germans published in French in order to spread, false news and depress the population of the invaded regions of France. Toque argues that he was penniless, and that it was to enable him to buy bread for his wife and child that be accepted money to write for the Gazette, but that he never wrote a word against France. When the President read parts of his articles, which were strongly favourable to Germany, Toque objected that the Ger- | mans had themselves altered these articles. " But," retorted the President, " here are the manuscripts written in your own handwriting—you did not know I had them." The prisoner did not answer. Excitement in Court. Toque argues also that not only did he never betray any fellow-countryman, but that, on the contrary, he was himself believed to be an agent, of the French Foreign Office, and that after having been denounced as such to a German police official, Lieutenant Fur-wenches, he was sent from Laon to a- reprisals camp. " Yon are sure of the name of . this officer?" asked the President, and as the prisoner replied in the affirmative, " well,' said the President, " Lieutenant Furwen ches, you may be surprised to hear, has: been arrested at Amiens a few days ago. He will be called to give evidence." This statement caused much excitement. " You cannot c3ll a Boche to give evidence here," shouted several counsels. Calm was restored when the. Colonel President declared that for the present, at least, the Boche officer would be questioned about the affair by a magistrate. Toque has to answer three charges—recruiting of spies for Germany, acting as informer against French residents in the invaded districts, and writing articles foi the Gazette des Ardennes. His tactics now are to plead that he was. an unwilling victim of German cunning. Thus, he declared in his examination, that because he refused a proposal of Captain Groth chief of the German Department of Infor ruation, to edit a journal for the publics tion of diplomatic documents, he was per secuted and treated as a French agent Also, he declares, he refused an offer o 30,000 francs to go to Paris with his wif< for the purpose of spying. Women's Terrible Grimes. When he left Laon for Fourmies the in habitants, headed by the Mayor, mad' things uncomfortable for him. In despair he wrote to the Kaiser. He claims tha his letter was a protest against Germai methods; but the Kaiser's reply took th form of sending him to the Gazette de ! Ardennes, the notorious pro-German pro paganda sheet. Toque became a contribu tor to this journal, his articles being pah for at the rate of twopence a line. The women prisoners are accused o many acts of terrible treachery. Marie Petrot denounced one of he neighbours for having a hidden store o red cabbages.- That is an instance of sor did envy. Far more terrible are the crimes witl which Alice Aubert is charged. In June 1917, in complicity with her lover, a youtl of eighteen, she denounced to Emi Thomas, the German detective, two Sene gales© tirailleurs, who were hidden at tb house of a Mme. Hain, in a village on tb Serre. All three proceeded to Mme Hain's house. Thomas tried persuasioi first, and promised that the fugitive should have their lives spared if they v-er at once given up. Mme. Hain protests and refused. Then Thomas threatened U have everybody arrested. The Senegales were in hiding behind a sham ch.mnev and heard everything that was said Rather than allow their protectors to b arrested they came forth and voluntaril; gave themselves up. * They were tried be fore a court-martial and shot next day. Denounced Her Husband. M. Fricoteaux, Mayor of the village his deputy, and a rural policeman, wer all tried and similarly shot. Mme. Hain' son was sentenced to death, but the pen alty was commuted to twenty years' ban labour. His 16-year-old daughter wa given one "year's imprisonment. Othe similarly vindictive sentences were passed The woman Aubert confesses that she re ceived 300 marks as the price of he treachery. The same woman is alleged to have de nounced to the Germans a miller who, ah declared, had Riven shelter to a Frenc aviator who had fallen behind the Genna lines. But her charges couid not be ur held. Another woman, Adele Schuster, is a< cused of ha vine denounced her own hut band; and a third woman, Gabrielle Lan bert, whose husband was fighting in th French army, betrayed her father-in-lav who was sentenced to twelve years' ha? labour. This woman, according to th accusation, actually sat on courts-martif and directed the judges.