THEFT OF A GUN

Otago Witness, Issue 2928, 27 April 1910, Page 25

THEFT OF A GUN

PARIS, April 24. Dechamps, who was arrested in connection with the gun theft, has confessed that he sold parts of the mitrailleuse to Germany.

On August 27 an improved machine gun, a combination of the Maxim and Puteaux types, known as the improved St. Etienne model, was stolen from the Chanzy barracks, Chalons-sur-Marne. It was generally believed, in Franco that the gun had found its way over the German border. Although the sighting apparatus appears to have been overlooked and left behind by the thief, the theft of the breech and barrel involved the disclosure of the secret of improved mechanism for cooling the barrel. The weight of the stolen gun is 40 kilogrammes, and rumours were current to the effeot that a suspicious-looking motor car was seen in the neighbourhood of the barracks on the night of the theft. . Ibe authorities were at a loss to explain by what means' the gun was conveyed unobserved across the barrack yard. The barracks were occupied by the 106th French Infantry Regiment. the suspected thief was a corporal who disappeared, and presumably the man now arrested is believed to be he. Five arrests were made last September, including the alleged mistress of the suspect. The Paris papar Matin pubished a series of articles on the alleged methods of the German spy agencies. The names of the principal agents are given, and their ajleged 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 being 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 the 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 the victim tries to shake off the yoke he is warned that he will be denounced to the Freneh police as a spy. The German frontier police, moreover, are said to be on the look-out for deserters from the French airmy with a view to securing their services. iSome of the German spy agencies are desoribed m regular academies for the purpose of training these new recruits. It was the Matin that published a statement by General. Leon Durand, Comman-der-in-Chief of the Sixth Army Corps at Ghalons, who stated that in his district German spies swarmed 1 everywhere, some of them disguised as farm labourers, othere as trade assistants, and ofcheirs again as tramps. German women were continually going backwards and forwards between Metz, or Strassburg and Nancy or Chalons. "Whenever he went on a tour of inspection to Verdun or elsewhere he generally found

that his motor car war bei>i,g followed bj German officers in another motor car.

In a contemptuous telegram from Ber* lin, 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 suaa as had taken possession of England, thought "happily only for a short time." WitJ* regard especially to the published statements of General Durand, the journal considered that he must either have beer'} incorrectly reported or have spoken " in. comprehensible anger" at the theft of-tba French gun. It was remarked that " espionage'' of the whole-sale and obtrusive kind of which General Diirand accuse* the Germans would be not only clumsiness, but madness. Th« Colosrne Gazette evea suggested that disguised German officer* who pursue a general on his tours of inspection might be arrested.