WAR SPY MYSTERY

Hokitika Guardian, 18 October 1933, Page 2

WAR SPY MYSTERY

BOY WHO HELPED BRITAIN INFORMATION TO ALLIES One of the most remarkable mysteries of the war has been solved, says the Sunday Chronicle. It is the case of Alexander Szek. hero of the war’s greatest spy adventure. Szek, a youth in his teens, provided the Allies with secret information of momentous value—and then vanished. He disappeared in England. For 16 years lie has been neither seen nor heard of. Now however, it can he revealed that Alexander Szek is still a live. He is staying-somewhere in Britain. Recently the mystery of Szek’s fate was deepened by a famous German book on wartime espionage, which said: “It is only logical, that the young man had to disappear. If he remained alive he might have given away his secret-. The death of Alexander Szelc did away with this danger.” It has been stated that -S'zek was got rid of because he knew too much, but in a- letter to- the Sunday Chronicle, Mr Joseph T. Szblf, father of the young man, states that there is no truth in the suggestion that his son disappeared for that reason. “That story requires rectification. My son was not killed in Britain,” he says. The secret of Szek was the secret of how- the Allies wore warned of the beginning of unrestricted submarine warfare, and how President Wilson wnturned against- Germany to the support of the Allies, bringing America into the war.

Szek’s father wns a wealthy Austrian married to an English woman. The family lived in Brussels, where Alexan der, while still in his early teens, had several ingenious radio inventions to his credit. The Szeks stayed on :n Irissels when in 1914, the Germans swept in. German staff officers were billeted on them. But young Alexander pursued his radio studies, though with some difficulty. -

When Alexander’s secret experiments were discovered, lie was at first suspected, but later the Germans took advantage of his great knowledge and utilised him in their important military radio station in Brussels as an operator. After some time he was even put in charge of it, and the young half-Eng-lishman acted as the vital link between Berlin and the German front.

But unknown to S/sek, the very efficient British secret service in Brussels was tapping his messages and conveying them to England. Baffled by the way in which plans leaked out, the Germans inverted a code for their Brussels station that completely defied the British secret service code experts. The only way to solve this puzzle was to get a British spy into Brussels. This was done, and then ocurred one of the greatest pieces' of luck in the war. The British agent got into touch, by chance, with young Alexander Szek, the half-Englisli' radio ' operator, the only man who knew the new cede. The man from Britain won Szek over -to the Allied cause. From then on, every secret message from Berlin was deciphered and relayed to the Allies. One day, Szek was banded a messagethat made him gasp, so important to the Allies was it. ' It announced the opening of the great, world-wide U-boat campaign, and an offer to Mexico of alliance with Germany against the United States. So stagger, ed was Szelc at the full realisation of what this meant-, that he decided to take the message personally to London. Helped by his secret service friend, Alexander was smuggled out of Belgium and into Britain. He delivered his message to high officials in London. Everybody was full of gratitude to him. For two days he stayed in London. Then he disappeared.

Alexander Szek has never been seen or heard of since. But it is stated that he is still alive.