NEAR FRENCH PORTS

Taranaki Daily News, 6 August 1937, Page 5

NEAR FRENCH PORTS

DISCOVERY OF SPIES MADE. FLIER AND GERMAN AGENTS. Paris, July 26. The discovery of an organisation engaged in spying and another in arms trafficking has alarmed French military circles. The espionage group is believed to have extensive contacts along sections of France's eastern frontier, including the Maginot Line of fortiflcations. Secret service operatives first learned of the spying fhrough the arrest in France of a Belgian, Corporal Simon, of the Third Artillery Regiment, stationed

ht Liege. He was charged with desertion, theft o^ documents, and espionage. Papers found on him led to the arrest of Jean Sellier, 35, a French airman. In Sellier's home/' were found maps, notes on smuggled arms, photographs of French warships and military aircraft, and lists containing the names of German and French aviators. There was , also a compromising letter from a Ger-j man Consul in Belgium. _ _ j Some of these documents, it is alleged, j linked Sellier with Gefman agents at Metz, Dijon, Strassbourg, and Chamonix. I Other searches at Marseilles revealed : evidence of a heavy traffic in smuggled , arms. In the home of Phillipe Buccini the police found revolvers, machineguns and rifles.