A NEW ZEALAND CASE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1756, 6 September 1917, Page 3

A NEW ZEALAND CASE.

ESPIONAGE IN WAR OFFICE, In the current number of thq.Lone Hand magazine, a remarkable story is told of an aero-gun invented in Christchurch, which became the property of the enemy by methods typically German. The. narrative comes from Messrs Izard and Loughnan, writing on behalf of a client, Mr Hugh M’Gloin. In the June (1915) number of the Lone Hand appeared a paragraph headed “Specail Zeppelin Aerogun,” describing the gun as consisting of two guns fired in directly opposite directions, one discharging the projectile, the other water, clay, etc., thus neutralising the recoil and adapting the gun for firing from any unstable gun platform, such as an aeroplane. The paragraph staled (hat this gun was used by the Germans on Zeppelins. It now appears that Mr Hugh M’Gloin actually invented this very gun many years ago, and, going to London, offered it to the British War Office for £20,000. The offer was_declined. Mr M’Gloin improved the weapon, and in March, 1915, again offered it for sale to the British War Office. The model remained at the War Office until November, 1915, find was then politely declined, being shipped back to New Zealand on November 2Gth. Now, Mr M’Gloin naturally wants to know how the enemy became possessed of the gun which the War Office in its wisdom didn’t use. The conclusion, the Christchurch Star points out, is clear: Treachery somewhere in the War Office. The foe has his agents everywhere, and these agents have ways and means of circumventing British officialdom. The gulling fact is equally clear (hat officialdom, somewhci’e Jacked sufficient sense to recognise a useful invention when it saw it. But that was over the way of the British War Office until the grim lessons of war compelled its reorganisation.