THEFT OF A GUN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14817, 26 April 1910, Page 5

THEFT OF A GUN

CONFESSION BY THE 'ACCUSED. PORTIONS SOLD TO GERMANY. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. / PARIS, April 24. Dechamps, who was arrested in connection with the gun theft, has confessed that lie sold parts of the mitrailleuse to Germany. On August 27 an improved machine gun, a combination of the Maxim and Puteaux type*, known a-s the improved St.. Etienno model, was stolen from the Chanzy barracks, Chalons-sur-Marne. It was generally believed in France that tho gun had found its way over tho German border. Although' tho sighting apparatus appears to .have been overlooked and left behind by the thief, tho theft of the breech and barrel_ involved the disclosure of tho secret of improved mechanism for cooling the barrel. Tho weight of the stolen gun is 40 kilogrammes, and rumours were current to tho effect that a .suspicious-looking motor .car was seen in tho neighbourhood of'the bar-, racks on the night of the theft. Iho authorities were at a ' loss to explain by what means the. gun was conveyed unobserved across tho barrack yard. The barracks were occupied by tho 106 th French Infantry Regiment. The suspected thief was a corporal who disappeared, and presumably tho man now arrested is believed to be he. Five arrests were made last September, . including the alleged mistress of the suspect.

The Paris papei Matin pubished a scries of anicles on the alleged methods of the German.spy agencies. The names of the principal agents are given, and their ajicged practices make edifying reading. According to this account Frenchmen in straitened circumstances or in conflict with the law are lured into the toils of these agents, by boing informed that a legacy has been left to them in Germany, and they are invited to come to Luxemburg- in order to fulfil certain formalities in connection with the bequest.. Sums of-money are advanced to tho unsuspecting victims, and finally the prospect of earning a competence is held out to them if they-consent to provide information on military questions. If tho victim trie? to shake off the yoke he is warned that he will be denounced to the French police as a spy. Tho German frontier police, moreover, are said to be on the look-out for deserters from the Frenoh army with a view ft securing their services. Somo of the German spy agencies are described ,ns regular acadomics for tho purpose of training these new recruits. -

It was the Matin that published a statement by General Leon Durand, Comman-der-in-Chief of tho Sixth Army Corps at Chalons, who stated that in Jiis district German spies swarmed everywhere, some o[ them disguised as farm labourcre, others as trade assistants, and others again as tramps. German women were continually going backwards and forwards between Metz or Strnssburg and Nancy or Chalons. Whenever he went on a tour of inspection to Verdun or elsewhere he generally found that his motor car was bejjg followed by German officers in another motor car.

In a contemptuous telegram from Berlin, the Cologne Gazette retorted that France seemed to be suffering from a fresh attack of "spy fever," such as prevailed in France about 20 years ago, and such as had taken possession of England, though "happily only for a short time." With regard especially to the published statements of General Durand, the journal considered that he must either have been incorrectly reported or have spoken "in comprehensible angel" at the theft of the French gun. It was remarked that "espionage'' of tho whole-sale- and obtrusive kind of which General Durand accuses the Germans would be not only clumsiness, but madness. Th« Cologne Gazette oven suggested that disguised German' officers who pursue a general on his tours of inspection might be arrested.