WOMEN SPIES

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 123, 18 February 1919, Page 6

WOMEN SPIES

WHEKE MEN COULDN'T COMPETE.

There is one field in this war where woman has won hands down—espionage. In this refined and unything but contemptible art she has made mere man look about as intelligent as—the villain in a spy play! 8010 and Lody and other men may have held the stage more, but indubitably tho most pregnant spy case of the whole war was that of Mata Hari, the Dutch-Hindu dancer, who died so bravely before a dozen poilus, her eyes unbiindaged and refusing n chair. In this young woman you see crystallised the super-spy. She was an actress. She was pretty, charming, a linguist. She was a cosmopolitan, had travelled Europe, and gained the highest friendship before the war, and had tlio entreo into the most exclusive salons, there to display her nrt—and, incidentally, keep her ears' open for the'vanity-bable of frivolous "Society" v'oiuen discussing their husbands at the fiont.

, f She was shot for being largely responsible for that terrible setback to Nivell'e on the Ais'ne in April, 1917. • She was worth an army to the Huns. There are Mata-Haris still- lying low to-day in the capitals of Europe; a dozen such, more vitally affected .the war than a dozen thousand of the kind all our scares have been about. In this, tabloid tale I may recall but one other.

■ It was at the Hotel Bristol, Warsaw, about Christmas time, four years ago. Tho same people always stayed at the Bristol: the wives and daughters of senior officers, the military attaches, and syscial correspondents, a selection of war brides and chaperoned fiancees, a dozen or so of entrancing and imperious courtesans; scions, effeminate enough at times, of the local houses of Potocki and Radziwiil, statesmen and distinguished visitors to the front, Red Cross sistras of high degree (half- nun, half Rue de la Pnix), finally an incessant flow of officers living at a hundred miles an hour for a few fleeting days before reluming to the front.

Well, in this Hotel, Bristol resided a brilliant and pretty "Polish" girl when ehe was not working in Red Gross train out at Bolimov. This girl was everybody's favourite; she had all, and more, of tho accomplishments outlined above in' Mata-Hari's case.

And what was she c'oing? Collecting information from every second officer in the hotel, in this way:

"Yes, it is true. I love you. Let me dress up and come out to the trenches with you. No? Well, you must tell me exactly where you are, whern you sleep, fight, live, so that when I ttiiiik of you 1 shall imagine.l am actually with you!" Whereupon sho wouid produce a large.ecale map and get her admirers to mark on it full particulars of their life in the lino—where they were billeted, and much more information. ShouUl sue want a few .battery positions marked in she ;would transfer\her'affections temporarilj to a gunner.

Then came her tour do force. She actually persuaded one of her adorers to give himself up to tho Germans, bearing her reports, when on night patrol in No Man's Land. Happily her victim "ratted" , at the last , moment, and pretty sister—she turned out to be iv German girl from Poson—was shot by the moujiks she had betrayed with one arm- wine tending them with the uther. The veil of official eecrecy regarding German spies in Great Britain during the war can be raised, and some of tho main features of Germany's espionage system in England disclosed. During the war twelve spies wore shot at the Tower of London; another, Kupferle, hanged himself at Brixton Prison in the concluding stages of his trial; while others have been sentenced to dentil, and afterwards reprieved or sentenced to terms of penal servitude. Carl Lody was the first spy shot at the Tower, and he was tho most valuable ono Germany employed. He was a naval officer; he spoke English perfectly, and tho accurate information he gained showed that he was a man of treincurious nerve and resource. Soon after his last success he came under the observation of the police, and from that time until his arrest by the late Chief Inspector Ward all his letters and telegrams found their, way into the Intelligence Department of the War Office. Another clever spy was u man named Bo Kysbach, of Dutch parentage, but horn in 'England. His special business was to send information to Germany of the precise locality of munition factories in London and itlie Home Counties, so that raiding airisrn could the more readily find them. He also , had a genius for finding out; 'the sailings of transports. At his first trial at the Old Bailty the jury di.iiurreed. but at the second trial he iras found guilty and sentenced to penal servitude for lii'o.

Two women spies were convicted at the Old Bailey. . One, Lizzie Weitheini, regarded as vfiry dangerous, was tried in company with a man named Rowlands. The man was shot and the woman received a- ten years' sentence. She had a powerful motor-car, and in this made frequent journeys between London and Eosyth and obtained information of tho movements of. the British Fleet—information which, by the way, never reached Germany.

Another woman spy, Eva dy Bournon■.■;lif, «■•;>: ifiiilonoed to death, but the sentence was commuted to penai servitude for life.

Before the war the German spy organi'Tihiiii' in I'his country- wa.'> brokon up and the precautions were so extensive and vigorous that the spies a-lio wept into the country fouiui it almost impossible to ij'.'i their information to Germany.— "Dailv Mail." ' .

The members of the Wellington Police Force and their friends snent their picnic day at Tifohi Bay. An interesting spovts programme was gone through, with the following results:— Young Ladies' Race—Miss Johnson, lj Miss Armstrong, 2. Married Ladies' Eace—Mrs. O'Shca, \y Mrs. Neale, 2. Police Cup, 220yds.—Sergeant O'Hara, 1 ; Constable Jones, 2. Hop, Step, and Jump—M'Phee, 1; O'Hara, 2. 2'2Ovds. Open Race-M'Pheo, 1; O'Dou. nell/2. , Three-legged Race—Mr.- Wallace and Mrs. Brognns, 1; Mr. Drumgool and Miss Hadlee,.2. ' '. I A tiig-of-wnr between the single. and i married men resulted in a win for the former. Children's races, for which prizes wore provided, were aleo held during the day.