NETWORK OF SPYING

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12643, 31 December 1926, Page 5

NETWORK OF SPYING

FRENCH REPORT DETECTION BRITISH EX-OFFICER ARRESTED WORKING FOR GERMANY? Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. (Received December 30, 9.15 p.m.) LONDON, December 30. _ Another attack of “spy mania” is threatened as the result of the arrest in Paris of Vivian Stranders. who during the war served with the Royal Flying Corps, and later was attached to the Inter-Allied Aeronautical Commission in Germany. It is asserted that a network of spying in France and Britain on behalf of Germany has been discovered, and that at the head of it is Dr. Weber, e men of many names and high attainments, who gives the impression of being a rich idler, but who is really a most active man. The “Daily Express” correspondent in Paris says that Weber made two

trigs to England this year. He visited London, Newcastle and Portsmouth. A coincidence is that each visit marked the disappearance of documents relating to national defence. In one case it was announced that the documents were found again, but this was only after photographs of the papers had reached Berlin. THB WOMAN IN THE CASE. The “Daily Chronicle” correspondent reports that the police are searching for a pretty blonde who left a note in a hotel after Stranders’s departure, in which she wrote: “1 love you, your Ginette.” Stranders’s advocate stresses the fact that there is no proof that he communicated anything of a really secret nature. ~ , It is revealed that Sootland Yard co-operated with the _ French _ police, and watched the airports in case Stranders arrived ■' bv airplane. The “Evening News” says that Stranders admitted that he received 5000 gold, marks for information supplied to Germany on a list o£ questions which he learned and destroyed. STRANDERS HAS A DEFENCE. (Received December SO, 8:15 p.m.) PARIS. December ,39. Notable industrialists are expected to he called in defence of Stranders. who affirms that he is the victim of vengeance in connection with his private affairs. He represented a French aircraft firm, and frequently made journeys from France to Germany. The polioe contend- that the mysterious Dr Weber, with whom Stranders corresponded, is really the head of a German spv organisation. The arrest of Stranders followed the, discovery of a pocket-hook containing notes' of the latest French aero engines.