A POSSIBLE SPY.

Colonist, Volume LVII, Issue 13730, 19 March 1915, Page 2

A POSSIBLE SPY.

As is well known there were German spies in the -Navy before the outbreak of war, and how well they concealed their identity may be judged from the following story, which a well-known doctor relates.

A friend of his in the Medical Corps was called upon to operate on a marine, and it was necessary to put the patient under chloroform. The sailor immediately began to talk in German, to the astonishment of everyone, for in ordinary life he spoke English without a trace of accent.

When he recovered consciousness, he was taxed with being a German, and then confessed that he had actually served in the German Army. But he had been brought up in England, and could speak either language equally well.

When he was well again he was arrested as an alien enemy and a possible spy.