FEMALE SPY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19700, 29 January 1926, Page 9

FEMALE SPY

PRETTY GIRL DANCER. A FRENCH SENSATION. (Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright.) PARIS, January 27. A pretty girl dancer named Andree Lofevre has been arrested in connection with spying against Englishmen, A search of a packet of papers addressed to T. L. Leather, at an English bank in Paris, resulted in the discovery of a letter sending the girl 1850 francs in return for certain information regarding warships at Brest. The girl got the information from young naval officers,—A. and N.Z. Cable. Following the arrest of Marcelle Monseil, an artist’s model, the police _ on December 7 last, arrested three British subjects for alleged syning in connection with aviation. They also arrested Lionel Wiet, who posed as a naval officer. The [Britishers were Phillips, the director of a wireless telegraph company, William. Fisher, his employee. and John Leather, an engineer. Thov admit that they knew Marcelle, but do:uv the spying. Marcelle made a full confession, including the names of two foreign agents for whom she was spying in connection with naval aviation secrets. She says that she heard of Wiot’s arrest when she was returning to Paris with secret instructions hidden in a curbed tube inside her garter. Fearing disclosures she emptied the tube and also destroyed papers concealed in her cloak. Her tom clothing confirms the confession. Marcelle is a Frenchwoman, and is described as a second Matahari. the actress sp- who was shot in Vincennes in war-time. The authorities are secretive about the power employing the woman, but state that it is not Germany. The discovery was due to mere chance. Wiet' was arrested for attempting to defraud officers at the Versailles garrison, hut during the magistrate’s examination he chanced to mention Marcelle. The police immediately recognised the name as that of a woman who had visited many ports and aviation grounds. Marcelle denies that Wiet was an accomplice. She told the police that she was about to become a parachutist in order to descend into the ■aviation camps at Versailles and Villa Coublay.