ARRESTED AS "SPY"

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 18, 22 January 1924, Page 3

ARRESTED AS "SPY"

A FRENCH STAFF OFFICER

TO BE TRIED AT LEIPZIG.

<f The Berlin correspondent of the "Chicago Tribune," in a dispatch, states that Captain d'Armont, member of the French General Staff, will be placed on trial before the Supreme Court at Leipzig in the first week of January on a charge, brought by the Germans, of military espionage. His arrest, ten yards within- the , Swiss-German frontier, on 10th November, has been kept a complete secret, and it is only now that the German Government, after a bitter exchange' of Notes with the Quai d'Orsay,' in which the Swiss Government intervened to confirm that Captain d'Armont had been arrested on German territory, decided to ignore French threats of reprisals, and have him tried at Leipzig for espionage. . - ' '

It is the first time since the war that a French -. officer "will have been tried by a German Court on such a serious charge. The French military authorities arrested last night Herr Lenz, president of: the Dusseldorf Cour.t,. as hostage for Captain d'Armont, and, they threaten other reprisals.

The formal charge against Captain d'Armont by the Germans alleged that he.was under orders of the French General Staff to establish an extended system of military, espionage in Germany, and particularly to learn' the secret orders given to the Reichswehr commanders, the formula of the new. German gunpowder and other secrets. The German Government alleges that the Versailles Treaty does not give the Allies the slightest authorisation to spy into German formulae, construction of. guns, or'the likei Captain d'Armont, who is now in prison at Stuttgart, was attached to the French Consulate-General at Basle, Switzerland, upon the German frontier. It is alleged that he made several trips into unoccupied Germany and appointed a number of German agents, including members of the Reichswehr. Several commanders of the Reichswehr received news of Captain d'Armont's activities, and consequently set a. careful watch on the Swiss froiitier when they heard he was planning another trip into Germany. Finally, it is alleged, they intercepted a letter from him to one of his agents, saying he would meet the latter just inside the German frontier at Singen, Switzerland, on 10th November.

Three German detectives were sent to this quiet spot along the frontier, and worked in the fields as peasants until they saw Captain d'Armont coming up the road to meet his agent. It was 11 a.m., and as Captain d'Armont talked with his German agent the detectives edged closer and closer, until, it is alleged, the French officer took fright and started to run for the frontier, which was fifty yards away. The German Government alleges that the arrest took place ten yards on the German side of the frontier, but the French Government, in a note of protest several days later, claims that the arrest took place on the Swiss side. The Swiss Government has informed both the French and the German Governments that their Customs guards saw Captain d'Armont arrested on the German side of the frontier. The German Government claims that they found a list of nine German agents of Captain d'Armont sewn inside his coat when he was arrested. News of the officer's arrest was kept secret to allow the German authorities to make a complete search for these agents; two have been arrested, one at Frankfurt, the other in Baden, but the others have taken flight.

The Quai d'Orsay immediately protested on the ground that Captain d'Armont was arrested on Swiss soil, but the Swiss Government confirmed the German! claim. When the Wilhelmstrasso refused to release Captain d'Armont, the Quai d'Orsay protested, and threatened to take hostages in the occupied territory—they have, in fact, arrested Dr. Lenz at Dusseldorf. The German Government is sending another Note to Paris to-day saying it has decided to put Captain d'Armont on trial before the Leipzig Court in the first week in January.