ALLEGED GERMAN SPY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19453, 8 October 1926, Page 11

ALLEGED GERMAN SPY.

ACTIVITIES IN ENGLAND. PLOT TO AID AN INVASION.! INTERNED DURING THE WAR. ACCUSATIONS AND DENIALS. By Telecraph—Press Association— Copyright. (Received 8.35 p.m.) > A. and N.Z. LONDON, Oct, 7. The story of an alleged German spy was told before a mixed British and German tribunal in London. The case was one in which Herman Leibbrand was sued for a sum of £lslß by the Bankruptcy Trustee. Counsel for claimant said the first suggestion that Leibbrand had served the. German Government arose in 1911 at the time of the. Agadir incident. He was then seen in possession of a telegram which on being translated read: "The squirrel" (meaning the, ex-Kaiser) "is about to jump." In 1912, continued counsel, Liebbrand rented a house at Felixstowe and endeavoured to 'secure the control of electrical undertakings. He sought to construct a light railway which would have been no use in .that sparsely populated district, but, would have been of enormous utility to an invading army. Tt was further alleged that Leibbrand took soundings in the sea under the pretence of fishing. When the war broke out ho destroyed a large, number of documents and buried others in a hole in his garden. Leibbrand was denounced and interned. Later he. was repatriated. Counsel for the German Government argued that Leibbrand belonged to no State. He had forfeited his German nationality owing to his 10 years' absence from that country. Counsel denied that the man had belonged to the German secret service. Asked why, if Leibbrand was a spy, he had not been tried by court-martial, counsel for claimant replied that the British Government was not in possession of the facts which had since been disclosed. The Court reserved its decision.