AUSTRALIA. GERMAN SPY IN

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 145998, 3 December 1917, Page 5

AUSTRALIA. GERMAN SPY IN

A CLEVER COUNTESS. It is known on the authority of certain of tho Federal Ministers that a Prussian lady, the Countess von Schauniberg, who caused quite a flutter in Australian society not very long before tho war, was a spy of the very first water, and that sue was instrumental in placing in German bands the monopoly of Australian metal products which was so vigorously smashed, not so long ago, by Mr. W. M. Hughes. This Countess came to Australia with a bag-full of credentials, put up at the Hotel Australia, and was worshipped in a somewhat adulatory fashion by a certain section.

The Countess had written out, apparently for her personal enjoyment, the story of her wanderings in this part of the world. She had hidden nothing. She gloried in the good work she was doing for her Kaiser, and her espionage triumphs in Australia. Some time since the outbreak of tho war she was passing through Switzerland, and these interesting writings were taken from her bag, and found their way into British hands. Extracts from them have been published recently in American papers. Australian Ministers, thereupon interrogated, admitted that the Countess had been a very successful spy in Australia, but they have not yet allowed the newspapers to publish the true story of her Australian activities. Some of the papers have published the extracts from the American journals. Tho Countess says that she was selected by the Kaiser'to proceed to Australia and get the metals concessions, that she met on the steamer a Sir Percy Plumer, who was going out on behalf of English interests, to get the concessions; that she was beautiful, and got into Sir Percy’s good graces; that he told her that he was going to inquire into a new smelting process which would greatly cheapen the handling of tho ores, and enable the English to easily outbid the Germans for the metal concessions. The Countess says that when she arrived in Australia she consulted with certain German experts, who were in despair; they knew that the new process was a success, and that they could not hope to bid against the English interests. So they concocted a plot. The Countess used her friends and her influence to be admitted to the demonstration, and she contrived to introduce a chemical which made the official test a failure. “Sir Percy berated the crestfallen inventor as a humbug, and the inventor left in high temper. Soon German interests had signed up for the- output of the entire mines. I had not failed my Kaiser.” There are those who are not inclined to believe this account of tho manner in which the Germans obtained their amazing hold on the Australian metal industry. But tho fact remains that the Germans did get this monopoly; and that tho German Countess, on the admission of Federal Ministers, was one of the most successful and dangerous German spies who visited Australia in pre-war days.