FOMENTING LABOUR UNREST.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 2004, 17 July 1919, Page 1

FOMENTING LABOUR UNREST.

A WOMAN AGITATOR,

Lilian Scott Troy, an American, woman well known in England, lias been deported to her native land. Behind this incident, says the Weekly Despatch, lies one of the great romances of the war. Lilian Trop was a wealthy woman of a rebellious type of mind who for some reason conceived a violent animus against England. Coming to England some 10 years ago, she became mixed up with the notorious Baron von Horst, the German who was recently deported on the strongest suspicion of being responsible for a. great deal of the industrial unrest which has occurred in England during the past few years, Mrs TroV and Baron von Hurst between them first attracted the notice of Scotland Yard by their connection with the more violent phase of (lie Suffragist movement in 1010 and 1911. There is no doubt that between them they were directly responsible for some of the outrages which so greatly disturbed the country ■'•during -those years. The next occasion when the pair came under the notice of the authorities was during the London Dock strike in 1011. It was Mrs Troy who visited the homes of the dockers’ wives and families while the men were on strike, supplying them with money and words of encouragement. For the next couple of year* neither Baron von Horst nor Mrs Troy was particularly noticeable in their activities. They were certainly responsible for many inflammatory political articles which appeared in the English Press, hut it was not until the outbreak of the Ulster trouble in 1911 that the couple began to devote their attention to Ireland. They were well known in Belfast during that episode, and, although it cannot ho definitely proved, there is little doubt that much of the trouble was propagated by Baron von Horst and his female accomplice. It was long expected in England that much of our industrial trouble, both before and during the war, was fomented by the baron, aided by Mrs Troy. A good-looking woman, with any amount of ready money at her command, she could move in circles where a German Would create nothing but suspicion. In all these activities, Mrs Troy was the tool of the clever Baron von Horst. He exploited her grievances against society in general to the full. The baron had more than a nodding acquaintance with the German spies who infested the country in 1914 and 1915, although he never took any part in their work. His mission -was a higher one —that of propagating social and industrial unrest. In his person was represented the higher intelligence of tho department of the German Secret Service that made, a study of the mentality of enemy countries. So far as -the authorities are concerned, Mrs Troy will suffer no penalties on her arrival in the States. As an. American citizen she had the right to return to her own country, and she has gone back with a fine appreciation of the abilities of the special branch at Scotland lard.