ALLEGED ESPIONAGE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 33, 3 February 1912, Page 6

ALLEGED ESPIONAGE.

BRUTISH SUBJECT CHARGED AT BERLIN. INTERESTING PROCEEDINGS. 'By Electric Telegraph.—-Copyright.) (United Press Association.) Berlin, January 31. Bertrand Stewart, who was arrested in Augusts was charged at Leipzig with attempted espionage at Bremen, Cuxhaven, Heligoland, and Wilhelmshaveri. Replying to the President of the Court, he stated his knowledge of German was about twenty words, though ho had visited Germany several times. Ho was an officer in the West Kent Yeomanry, and was a keen sportsman. He knew nothing of naval matters.

The newspapers are already publishing imaginary details representing Stewart as a gentleman spy, who was co-op,orating with many ferreting secret agents. After Stewart’s interrogation, evidence was taken in camera. Stewart pleads for publicity, in view of the falsehoods circulated about him in Germany.

In the espionage trial the prosecution alleges that Stewart inspected battleships building at Weser and Hamburg and obtained exact details of one. Four dockyard servants were afterwards arrested. It was also alleged that compromising letters from highly-placed British officers were found in Stewart’s luggage. Ex-Inspector of Police Reich has been sentenced to eighteen months’ imprisonment at Essen for espionage. Schulz, the British merchant recently sentenced for espionage, was among the witnesses.

There is extraordinary interest in Stewart’s trial. The President of the Court subjected Stewart to a singular examination regarding Lis friends and means, suggesting that he was a wealthy aristocrat. Stewart denied ho was a member of the “upper ten,” though a nephew of Lady Kensington. His income was two thousand a year. When at Oxford he belonged to the volunteers and served in South Africa, where he acted as a cavalry scout, not a spy. He did not ask .his military superior’s leave to visit Germany.