SINISTER CONSPIRACY

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 270, 4 February 1928, Page 9

SINISTER CONSPIRACY

FORGED DOCUMENTS FOR FOREIGN POWERS GERMAN SPY TRIAL ENDS By Cable.—Press Association. —- Copyright. BERLIN, Feb. 3. At the trial of Johann Schreck, Koch and Schultz, on charges of betraying military secrets to a foreign Power the accused were found guilty, Schreck was sentenced to imprisonment for two years and six months, Koch to imprisonment for one year and 10 months, and Schultz to imprisonment for four and a-half months. The court, in passing judgment on Schreck, described his' activities as coming within a hair’s breadth of creating most serious international complications. The charge was that of selling forged military documents to a foreign Power. These suggested a military conspiracy in Germany to defeat the disarmament provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. The Polish General Staff had accepted the documents as genuine, while the submission of photographs of them to other Powers is believed to have hampered the negotiations at Locarno, and also Germany’s entry into the League of Nations: The trial proved that Schreck was the instrument of sinister forces, whose purpose was to prevent European reconciliation. The Public Prosecutor said he did not believe the conspiracy was of German origin. But who used Schreck as a puppet? That would probably never be revealed. — A. and N.Z. DESTROYED ZEPPELINS SOURCE OF SUSPECT’S WEALTH By Cable. —Press Association. — Copyright. BERLIN, Friday. The Public Prosecutor of the State of Oldenburg says there is no evidence that would justify the prosecution of the former sergeant-major of the German Imperial Air Force, in connection with the disaster in December, 1917, when five Zeppelins were destroyed by fire in the Aklhorn hangars at Oldenburg. The man is now a large landowner. His estates were acquired in the inflation period. The authorities, in spite of the local gossip, do not believe that his wealth originated in British payment for treachery. The paper “Deutsche Zeitung” says the suspect carried on business in Ahlhorn as a dealer in provisions and spirits in which immense fortunes were made after the war.—A. and N.Z.