NEAR FRENCH FORTS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 57, Issue 254, 7 August 1937, Page 8

NEAR FRENCH FORTS.

DISCOVERY OF SPIES. 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 ha,ve extensive contacts along sections of France’s eastern frontier, including the Maginot Line of fortifications. Secret service operatives first learned of the spying through the arrest in France of a Belgian, Corporal Simon, of the Third Artillery Regiment, stationed at Liege. He was charged with desertion, theft of 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 German Consul in Belgium. Some of these documents, it i“. alleged, linked Sellier with German agents at Metz, Dijon, Strassbourg, and Chamonix. Other searchers at Marseilles revealed evidence of a heavy traffic in smuggled arms. In the homo of Phillipe Buccini the police found revolvers, machineguns and rifles.