SPY ADVENTURESS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2777, 23 May 1916, Page 7

SPY ADVENTURESS

TRAITOR AND GERMAN WIPE COURT-MARTIALLBD.

After a late sitting a French court-mar-tial found Frieda Lipmann and Maurico Tribout guilty of espionage and sentenced them both to two years' imprisonment and a fino of £40. The story of tW marriage and intrigues (says the Daily Mail") forms a curious chapter in the workings of the German spy system in France. Frieda Lipmann had apparently for years led the, life of ah adventuress in various parts of France. Bom in Hamburg, 35 years ago, although not strikingly beautiful, she has flashing, dark eyes, which she useswith telling ef. feet, and her manners are insinuating and; oaressing. The French. polioe had long I had their eye on her, knowing that her l many admirers included several important -French functionaries and military ofEcera. They had also found that, she counted among her protectors Baxon von Schoen, ' the . ex-German Ambassador n Paris, and hi 6 son. ' _ . Wter the war broke out Frieda transferred her operations to Bordeaux and the environs, where sho was known by the name of Kitty, and pretended .to be an Englishwoman. There she made a conquest of a well-to-do Frenchman named Maurice Tribout, and on February U last vear married him. It was a curious sort of union. Th« husband was fully cognisant of his wife's past, and ; admits that before, the knot .was tied he signed a document worded as follows:—'"I recognise that my marriage with Frieda Lipmann has no other end in view -than to save her from, annoyance and that she will be free to do what ane likes alter the war." , ■' Subsequently the conduct of Mme.lnbout and her relations w/ith the officers of the garrison at Libowne, where her husband was attached 1p a Territorial regiment, aroused the suspicions of the commanding officer. Her trunks were searched, and letters in German of a compromising nature were seized, iney revealed her German origin and that sfie had a domicile at Berlin and was in constant correspondence - tvith the German Secret Service Department.' . . ■ Her object of going through a form or marriage with Tribout *was now clear. iSot only did she enjoy in France the status of a Frenchwoman, bnt through her husband she was also -o-ble tu furnish nor employers with valuable information obtained by him tvhrte he. acte<l first as chauffeur to an artillery officer at Vinconnes ■ and later in various capacities which kept h\m in touch with important technical services iii the Army.