BALKAN COUNTRIES IN THROES OF SPY MANIA

Shannon News, 6 December 1929, Page 3

BALKAN COUNTRIES IN THROES OF SPY MANIA

Everyday Feature

TRAGIC FATE OF INNOCENT MAN

A wave of spy mania has boon sweeping over the Balkans, says the Vienna correspondent of the New York Times. None of the States 'which compose this uneasy corner of the world is free from it, but it has engulfed Czecho-Slovakia. "When Premier Francis Uzdral was succeeded as Minister of War by M. Visokvsky recently, the Hungarian and German newspapers sardonically expressed hope that the new Minister would free his country from the espionage complex which had made it appear “as though all the secret war plans of Europe were in the safe of the Czechoslovak War Department. ”

Spies are nothing in the Balkans. Everybody expects to be spied on in some way' or another. In Austria let ters bearing an}' evidence relating to money matters are read by income tax officials in the fond hope of thereby unearthing some secret source of income the author has concealed from the authorities. Journalists telephoning to London or Paris news of the affray at St. Lorcnzcn, which started the recent state of tension between the Socialists and the Ilcimwehr, were consistently made aware of the presence' on the line of “ listeners-in ’ ’ who wished to know what the outside world was being told about the affair. All Eight for Home Polks That sort of domestic espionage, almost a part of daily life in the Balkans, creates no special comment. It may be seen at its most acute pitch just now in Jugo-Slavia. There the honest citizen sits in cafes and sups his coffee and talks of anything and every thing but the dictatorship, because he is not sure.that the man with whom he is conversing, although a friend yesterday, may have become a spy to-day. Failing, that, the waiter who serves him may overhear an incautious word, the usual sequel being a denunciation, not as a foe of dictatorship, but as a Communist, the evidence completed, if necessary, with “planted” Communis*, documents.

Even this sort of espionage, although annoying, is st-il Itlie home article and as such is accepted more or less phlegmatically by the public. It 'is when your Balkan citizen suspects he is being spied‘on, not by his own fellow-nationals, but by the subjects of a neighbour eountiy, that he loses his sense of proportion. There is the case of the Czecho-Slovak officer, Captain Falout, who left a suitcase in the Ber-lin-Praguc airplane. The bag was delivered to the police, opened by mistake, and the contents revealed a captain of the General Staff as a spy. Now his defending attorney, Dr. Mellan, is to be tried for acting contrary to the regulations for the safety oi the State. Offer to Pay for Defence It seems that sojne days after Captain lfalout’s arrest a German couple appeared at Dr. Median’s office and offered him £4OO for Captain Falout’s defence. Dr. Mellon refused the offer, but did not immediately inform the police of it, -with the result that they were unable to arrest the pair, whom they suspect of having been Geruan accomplices of the accused. So Dr. Mellan, too, must stand his trial, cheered by the recollection of the 10 year sentence imposed on his former client, with its special provisions for solitary confinement during the first and sixth 4 months of each year, a monthly fast day and confinement in a dark'cell every 28th. day of September.

Far more tragic was the arrest of a young Austrian holidaying pair, Norbelt Boehm, of Graz, ami his fiancee. Gretc Steindl. While in the Czechoslovak city of Maoriseh-Neusntz they committed the heinous offence of photographing its railway station. When they were arrested they were found to have no passports —a '“damning’' proof of guilt sufficient to keep them in prison for six months. After that time their innocence had been clearly demonstrated and an order made for their release.

On the very eve of being released Boehm was killed by a fellow prisoner in a quarrel over a cigarette. The slayer defended himself on the ground that lie had only killed a foe of the Czecho-Slovak people. Girl Attempts Suicide When Grete Stcindl learned of her lover’s death she tried to liang herself in prison, but was saved. She assured her captors, however, that on her release she would make a more successful attempt, urging as a reason that spy mania had left her nothing to live for.

No one knows how many more innocent persons are at this moment pacing their cells in the prisons of Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Jugo-Slavia while the police seek evidence on which to convict them of espionage. The very air breathes of suspicion, and rumours of- plots and secret armaments arc on all men's mouths. It was only two months ago that the arrest of a Czech railway official at the Hungarian frontier station of Hidasncmti- on a charge of spying dislocated international railway traffic and led to an exchange of diplomatic notes between the govern-

meats concerned. A court-martial sen fenced the official, M. Peclm, to live years’ imprisonment. Czeeho-Slova-kia’s reply was to pass a similar sen tcnce recently on a Hungarian subject, Peter Ekmesz, for. espionage, and a seven-year sentence upon another Hungarian, Joseph Paa, for stealing the plans of the fortress Theresicnstadt and selling them to Hungary. Hungary then went one better by arresting five men, whoso names were not made known, on a charge of trying to break into the municipal building in Satoralja-Ujhely and stealing documents of military value. Czecho-Slovakia will no doubt retort in kind. It is a merry game for the police, but not amusing for the minor itics who have to live, breathe, have their being and keep out of gaol in the countries which play it.