A POLICE DISCOVERY

Waipa Post, Volume 38, Issue 2271, 21 February 1929, Page 7

A POLICE DISCOVERY

DEADLY STOCK OF GERMS IN VILLA. Is there somewhere in London a house of mystery stocked with some of the deadliest germs known to science, ready to be employed in response to the will of some ghoulish enemy of society? This alarming question (says the Paris correspondent of the Sunday Chronicle) is raised by M. Jean Chiappe, Prefect 'of Police there, following one of the most sensational discoveries ever made by the authorities in a raid on a quiet villa at No-gent-sur-Marne. In a secret room of a house tenanted by a man named Sc'hirmer, the police found a number of test tubes containing supplies of such deadly germs as those of cholera, leprosy and consumption. The police are satisfied that these had been prepared for some sinister purpose, and although the charge on which Schirmer has been arrested is one of fraud, the police claim they have in their hands a criminal of monstrous type hitherto unknown outside the pages of fiction. It is alleged that he has in his possession sufficient germs to inoculate thousands with these terrible scourges, and spread through the world an epidemic worse than anything known to history. Schirmer is thought to be the head of an international gang of dope peddlers, and the police are positive from the papers in their hands that he has been sending supplies of germs to London for some time past. "I will just tell you nothing about my plans, but I do say this: For God's

sake be careful how you handle those tubes," Schirmer is alleged to have stated when in custody. He added that the police had in their possession enough germs to destroy the whole world."