GERMAN LEMALE SPY.

Hokitika Guardian, 10 December 1917, Page 4

GERMAN LEMALE SPY.

WORK IN AUSTRALIA. • Sydney, Nov 21 ft is known on the authority of certain of the Federal Ministers that a Prussian lady, the Countess von Schaumberg, who caused quite a flutter in Australian society not very .long before the war, was a spy of. the very first water aud that she was instrumental in placing in German hands the monopoly of Australian metal products which was so vigorously smashed, not so long ago, by Mr W. M. Hughes. This Countess came to Australia with a bag-full of credentials, -put up at. the Hotel Australia, and was worshipped in a somewhat adulatory fashion by. a section of onr nouveaux riches.

The Countess had written out, apparently for her own personal enjoyment, the story of her wanderings in this part of the world. She had hidden nothing. She gloried in the good work she was doing for, her Kaiser, and her espionage triumphsin Australia. Some time since the outbreak of war she was passing through Switzerland, and these interesting writings were taken from her bag, and-found their way into British hands. Extracts from them have been published recently in,American papers. Australian Ministers, thereupon interrogated, admitted that the Countess had been a very successful spy in Australia ; but they have not yet allowed the newspapers to publish the .true story of her Australian activities. Some of the papers have published the extracts from the American journals. The Countess says that' she Avas selected by the Kaiser to proceed to Australia and get the metals concessions ; that she injet on the steamer a Sir Percy Plainer, who was going out, on behalf of English interests, to get the concessions ; lliat she was beautiful, and got into Sir Percy’s good graces; that he told her that lie was going to inquire into a new smelting prbeess which would greatly cheapen the handling of the ores and enable the English easily to outbid the Germans for the mei ul concessions. The Countes9 says that when she arrived in Australia she consulted with certain Germ ah experts, who were in despair; they knew that the new pro- . cess was a§uccess, and that they could not. hope to,bid against the English interests, so they 'concocted a plot. The Countess used her friends and her influence to he admitted to the demonstration, and she contrived to introduce a chemical which made the official test a failure. “ Sir Percy berated the crestfallen inventor as a humbug, and the inventor left in high temper. Soon German interests had signed up for the output of the entire mines. I had not failed my Kaiser.”

There are those who are not inclined to believe this account of the manner in which the Germans obtained their amazing hold on the Australian metal industry. But the fact remains that the Germans did get this monopoly, ,and that the German Countess on the admission of Federal Ministers, was one of the most successful aud dangerous German spies who visited Australia in pre-war days.