MASTER SPIES

Waikato Times, Volume 105, Issue 17713, 17 May 1929, Page 4

MASTER SPIES

(By JOSEPH GOLLOMB, Author of “Master Man Hunters.”) ’

The temptation in telling the story ' of Mata Harl, the dancer spy, is to retail the accepted version. She was

an Oriental of Satanic bent, runs the story; in secret temples in India the born vampire spent years studying the art of ensnaring men; then she descended on Europe, and with her bewitching beauty and sinister powers she lured the great to their ruin and sent whole armies to their graves. The destruction she brought about is, alas, history. The rest of the tale is borrowed from grand opera and the melodrama of yesterday—romantic tinsel, which is beginning to look shoddy before the steely glitter of the new romance. • All this makes a story, not because she was a wonder in herself, for in reality she was a commonplace woman without a gift more subtle than that of a seductive body and face. But she was part of one great modern spy organisation pitted .against another in j a world war; and thereby hangs a tale ! as new as to-day, as complex as oui age, and yet reminiscent gorgeouslj of the Arabian Mights

Guest Put to Steep.

Her Own Story,

Mata Hari herself has written the story of her life. According to her account she was born in Java, her Dutch father a rich banker, her mother a famous Javanese beauty. The daughter at the age of fourteen, says the fiction, was placed in a temple of mystic cult in India to be trained as a dancing priestess dedicated to a life of chastity. For her beauty the priests named her Mata Hari, “Eye of the Morning.” When she was sixteen a Scotch nobleman, Sir Campbell McLeod, high in British military service in India, saw her dance, fell in love and stole her from the temple. They lived lavishly In India, where she., gave birth to a son and a daughter. A native gardener poisoned her son, so Mata Hari killed him with her husband’s revolver. She, her husband and her little daughter had to fly to Europe. Here her marital romance died. The child was placed in a convent. Mata Hari got a divorce. And she looked about for a career.

“I decided finally,” she says, “by means of a dance, to interpret the soul of the Orient lo the rest of the world.”

Then cne day in Berlin she was asked by a personage high in the Imperial Government to entertain, both as hostess and dancer, a Russian Ambassador who would be passing through Berlin. A lavishly furnished mansion in Dorotheen Strasse was placed at, her disposal. She was to call herself Countess von Linden, and was to use the mansion as her home. She did so, and according lo her story, thereby found herself entangled in the Imperial German secret service system.

Mata Hari wrote this journal on the eve of her execution at a time when presumably nothing but the truth might be expected. But she was the born hireling? spy; and such a spy is a liar by birth, circumstance, habit and choice. Mata Hari’s journal, as even casual investigation proves, is a lot of rather rubbishy romancing, but is the basis of the Mata llari legend. About her beauty there is of course no Action; it was there. Sinuous, round-limbed and almost six feet tall, her body had the lure an Occidental imagines in a siren of the Orient. From some far ancestor she inherited a dusky amber skin. She had large, languourous eyes of luminous brown, which with the expression on her full lips gave her an ambiguous smile; it might mean love or cruelty or both. A Commonplaoe Character. As a matter of fact it meant neiLher. She had no heart, but neither was she | cruel. Her character was as commonplace as her mind, and that was commonplace indeed. There have been professional mistresses in history who had high intelligence. Mata Hari knew only one thing—how to cater to men’s lust. But this, particularly in lime of war, can effect a lot of mischief; and behind Mala Hari the commonplace stood her director, the Secret Service of Imperial Germany, whose intelligence was anything but commonplace. She was born nol in Java, but in Holland. Her Dutch parents were small shopkeepers. Her name was Marguerite Zelle. Her schooling was not in a temple in India, but in a small convent near The Hague. The man she married was not a nobleman either by birth, title or character. What attracted the convent girl to him was his uniform as captain in the British Army.

He got it. And his enthusiasm when he came to the house of luxury promised well for the evening. He insisted on being shown through the mansion, and was told where he could buy duplicates of some of its furnishings. Mala Hari showed him as much of her “home” as was discreet. Then she piled him with hospitalities unhampered either by discretion or convention.

Abbas Nuri, too, fell asleep from apparently 100 much festivity. But this was not, as in tlie ease of the Russian, particularly (he design of Mata Hari’s chief. No melodrama was contemplated that evening. Mata Hari’s instructions were simply to become an influence with Abbas N'uri and to get herself invited to accompany him on liis mission to Turkey. If therefore lie fell asleep in the Dorotheen Strasse house it was his own doing. When lie woke he too found himself in the guest room alone. His watch told him it was J in tlie morning. He -rose unsteadily to his feet and took stock of himself in the mirror. He did not seem to recognise his surroundings, and groggily he set out to explore the house. Eventually the “butler” found him stubbornly trying to get into a room in the basement whose door refused to yieid. Tactfully the butler led the guest back to the guest room and persuaded him to make himself at home there for the night. The “Guest” Rocalled. Apparently nothing melodramatic did Happen that night. In the morning Abbas Nuri, considerably sobered, breakfasted with his charming hostess. And two days later she was about to leave with him l'or Constantinople as his invited guest when an unexpected telegram changed all ids plans. He was called back to Paris. it was the famous “Second Division" of the French Secret service that called him back, though its signature did not appear in tlie telegram. Nor was there any indication m the text that Abbas Nuri was in reality a French Secret Service man wiio had been assigned to explore the Dorotheen Stress mansion. For the exploit of the Russian courier, Lyov-Mehkof, had made it clear that Mala Ilari’s hospitality was not paid .lor by herself. Clear," that is, to the Secret Service of Russia and France.

He took her to India to live, where the climate helped to rot the man’s already degenerate character. Drink, debauchery and cruelty put a quick end to whatever there may have been of romance in the marriage. Matters got so that McLeod used to send his wife to his officer friends to “borrow” money on any terms they pleased. And his wife learned to execute these commissions without showing too much repugnance. While in India she took up the Oriental dance, not in the service of a religious cult, hut as a possible money-maker in Europe.- The name Mata Hari she gave to herself. The McLeods returned to Europe with a little daughter. The child was placed in a Dutch convent. Then the parents divorced. Mata Hari toured the capitals of Europe with her dance. The dance attracted attention only because of its nudity. But the woman herself acquired a distinguished clientele; in her native country, Holland, the head of tlie Cabinet; in Berlin, the Grown Prince, and after him members of the nobility; in France, a Minister of War; and lesser suitors in every metropolis in Europe. Engagement 'Ey Eocret Service. Mala Hari was asked by a “personage high in the imperial Government” to entertain as hostess in the lavish 1 y furnished mansion in Dorotheen Strasse a Russian ambassador, investigation reveals that the “personage” was one of the chiefs of the German secret service, and that the entertainment she was engaged to furnish called more for the female in her than the artist. The Russian “ambassador” was really a courier carrying a diplomatic pouch from Russia to the Russian ambassador in France. Mata Hari has been given the following report from the flies of the German secret service:—

Rut the Imperial German Secret Service had a clear vision of its own in quarters . unsuspected in . Russia and France. Une day the manison in Dorotheen Strass was suddenly dismantled. Thereafter Mata llari was sent on travelling missions only. (To be Continued.)

"Lyov-Melikof; age thirty-two; Caucasian Tartar; religion orthodox; former captain of the Imperial Guards; speaks French, German, English, Italian, Spanish and a little Burmese; has brother in Burma; hates Germans; Anglophile; superstitious, almost fanatic, impulsive, fond of women and gallant, courageous; incorruptible.”

It was Mata I lari's assignment to board ids train at Posen, and in the role of a pampered noblewoman get into an “altercation” presumably with the conductor of the train; actually it was a secret service man. In the scene that followed the “conductor” was so rude to the lovely aristocrat' that the gallant Russian came to her rescue.

NO. 7.—THE SPY WHO DANCED TO DEATH.

She proved so grateful, so appreciative of the service that her invitation to dine at her home in Berlin aroused

little suspicion in the Russian's mind, especially as she spoke of a “husband” who would also want “personally to express his thanks.” When he came there he found his hostess almost in tears because her husband had been called away to a dying relative in Stuttgart. She showed the telegram. But she tried to make up for his absence by her cordiality at dinner. With her cordiality went much wine and vodka. The former captain of the Guards was famous for his capacity for holding much liquor and at the same time holding on to his wits. The butler who was serving the liquor finally decided that quantity alone would not put the Rusisan under the table. So Mata Hari caught a look from him that made her careful as to which of them drank from the next bottle of vodka the butler brought

Half an hour later the Russian was asleep in the “guest room” while experts were going through his pockets and the portfolio which he carried with him wherever he went. One specialist picked without injuring it the patent lock on the portfolio. The papers were taken to a room in the basement of the house and photographed; then they were returned lo the portfolio.

Another, expert on hiding places for reports became interested in the Russian's fountain pen, which was of exceptional thickness, lie opened it, and in what was supposed to be the ink barrel found a tightly rolled document on rice paper. This, too, was photographed, then put hack in its place.

Later, a restorative was given the Russian, and the butler tactfully explained to him that he had fallen asleep at the dinner table. The courier in consternation after a quick survey of his belongings, took his departure at once. What suspicions may have entered his mind somewhat abated when he found his papers intact. He even apologised by way of the butler —bis hostess was asleep at the time he left-—for his discourtesy in falling asleep at the table. Then he went on to Paris. But not long after that he lost his prestige with his employers, and for a lime his liberty. For a secret of importance to Hie French-Russian entente had leaked out and he was suspected, not of selling out but of carelessness. Her Next Assignment. The next assignment to Mata Hari in Dorotheen Strasse of interest to us concerned Abbas Nuri. German Secret Service in Berlin got word that an ! Egyptian Princeling and close friend to ] the Khedive ol' Egypt, was on his way | from Paris to Constantinople, and wo/ild stop in Berlin l'or several days. The information was that he was influential with a Turkish Commission which was selecting 150 young Turks to send abroad for study. Abbas Nuri, in the interests of France and England, would use his influence to have the young Turks sent to colleges in those two countries; for within a decade those youths would help decide in which direction Turkish alliance would tend. And Germany felt that German Kultur was best for them.

Hence Mata Hari's extreme cordiality to Abbas Nuri when he 'arrived in Berlin. She was introduced to him as a Eurasian of much wealth to whom the Oriental dance was a career in art. The woman of Oriental allure found little difficulty In completely captivating the impressionable young Princeling of Egypt. If anything, it was he who angled for an invitation to the lady’s home.