GERMAN ARCH-SPY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24491, 27 December 1940, Page 4

GERMAN ARCH-SPY

AMBASSADOR AT PARIS PRE-WAR ACTIVITIES INTRIGUE IN FRANCE Otto Abetz, the German Ambassador in Paris, who went to Vichy . to straighten out the Laval-Flandin tangle to Germany's advantage, is Hitler's arch-spy of the underworld. Abetz likes to call himself the " Uncrowned King of France." He assisted Laval when he tried to spin a web to decoy Marshal Petain to Paris. " But," says a special correspondent of the Daily Express, "he is most unlike a spider. His carefully-parted fair hair, his wide-set expressionless cold blue'eyes, his perfectly-tailored suits, and his graciousness do not suggest the German. Yet his eyes look dangerous. "He was originally a poor teacher of French at Kai-»sruhe. He 'married a beautiful Frenchwoman, and made frienuf with industrialists, deputies, and journalists, and with Ribbentrop "The latter, when he became Ambassador to London, remembered Abetz, who understood France, and after that things happened quickly Abetz has been living in Paris hotels, but took a salon where he entertained lavishly and formed the Franco-Ger-man Committee. " Many distinguished Frenchmen visited the palatial house which Abetz mysteriously acquired in Berlin Madame Bonnet, whose husband was then Foreign Minister, became a preal friend of Abetz and his wife. M. Bonnet became a shareholder in German dye works. Abetz was then spending £2OOO a month bribing French newspapers and winning over industrialists by playing upon their fears of Bolshevism and organising Fascism in France His espionage workers included two titled women. " Daladier expelled Abetz from France in June, 1939. but his work of breaking down unity was then finished. We slow old British did rather better. Abetz arrived by air at Croydon,four years ago. but next day, after a visit from Scotland Yard officials, departed."