AFTER 19 YEARS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17955, 6 December 1932, Page 5

AFTER 19 YEARS

TRIAL FOR TREASON FIRST GERMAN GAS ATTACK ALLEGED BETRAYAL TO FRENCH (E!ec. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (Received December 6, 11 a.m.) LONDON, Dec. 5. The Times’ Berlin correspondent states that 19 years after the first German gas attack at Ypres, a German exsoldier named Jager is now on trial for treason at Leipzig for allegedly betraying the attack on the enemy. Tbe evidence is based on an article by General Ferry, French commander of the sector, which was published in 1930, in which ho alleged that Jager gave the position of the gas batteries and accused French generals of failure to protect their troops. A representative of the Reichswehr Ministry is pressing for .lager’s conviction, and insists that the French took measures to reduce their losses, also mitigating the effect of the attack. Jager denies desertion and betrayal, and claims that he strayed into "the enemy’s trenches and that the French deduced the imminence of a gas attack from a wadding pad he carried as part of his equipment.