GUN BELIEVED TO HAVE GONE TO GERMANY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 796, 20 April 1910, Page 5

GUN BELIEVED TO HAVE GONE TO GERMANY.

GERMANS RETORT. ;'On August 27 'an -improved machine gtih, a combination' of tho : Maxim ! and Pilteaux.:types, known as the improved St;}'Etienne model,'was 'stolen: front' theChanzy barracks,.. Chalons-sur-Marne. It was; generallyjbelieved in. France that,tho gun-lai found' its way :over the German border. I ..Although.the sighting:apparatus appears, to have been overlooked and left behind by the .thief, the theft of the breech and barrel involved the disclosure of,the secret of improved mechanism for, cooling .the barrel. ; :, X'.The weight, of the. stolen gun .is: 40 kilogrammes, and uere. current to;;'the. effect -that a suspicious looking motor-car was-seen, in the neighbourhood of-the barracks on the night of the theft The authorities were at a loss to .ex- . plain: by what/means the gun was conveyed unobserved across the barrack yard; The ..barracks were occupied by the}: 106 th French Infantry Regiment. The 6uspected thief was a corporal who disappeared, and presumably the man now arrested is believed to be he. Five ar/ests'were made last' September, includingthe alleged mistress of. tho suspect.The'. Paris paper "Matin" published . a series of articles on thu alleged: methods ofltho German spy agencies. The names of the principal agents are given, and their, alleged practices, make edifying reading. .According ,to ; this account, :Frenchmen 'in straitened, circumstances' or in conflict with the law are lured into the/toils of these agents by being informed that a legacy hai been left to them in Germany, and they are invited ' to; come to Luxemburg, in.order, to fulfil certain/formalities in- connection ' .with 'thp/be'tmest. Sums of money, 'are... advanced to tho .unsuspecting victims, and finally the prospect of. earning a compe. tenceis held out .to them if they consent to'provide information on military questions: - If the. victim tries to shake off the yoke .ho is warned that. he . will be denounced to tho French police as a spy. .The' German frontier police, moreover,are said to be on the look out for deserters from the French Army with a view, to securing their services.: Sonie of tie' German spy agencies are described as; regular academies for the purpose of training these new recruits. , ~ , It was the "Matin" that published a statement by General Leon Durand, Commander-in-Chief of the Sixth Army Corps at Chalons, who stated that in his district; German spies swarmed everywhere; some of them'disguised as farm labourers, others as: trade assistants, and others'again as traihp3. German women wero . continually going backwards and forwards .between Metz or Strassburg and Nancy or Chalons, f: Whenever he went en'a tour of inspection to Verdun or elsewhere ho generally , found ..that his motor-car was.being followed by German officers in another motor-car. This: form of espionage was. irritating, but he know his men and was not afraid of anything. .In a contemptuous telegram from Berlin, the "Cologne Gazette" retorted that France seemed to be suffering from a fresh attack of "spy fever," such as prevailed in France about twenty years ago, and such as had taken possession of England, though "happily only for a short time." With regard: especially to the published statements of General Durand, the journal considered that he must either have.been incorrectly reported or have spoken "in comprehensible anger" at thn theft of. the French gun. It was remarked that "espionage" of the wholesale and obtrusive kind of which General Durand accuses the Germans would bo . not'only clumsiness but madness. The "Cologne Gazette" . even suggested that disguised German officers who pursue a general on his tours of inspection might be arrested. ■■ .'