GERMAN TRICKERY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 172, 29 December 1914, Page 6

GERMAN TRICKERY.

a:: amazing story. HOLE IN BEDROOM WALL. STIREING UP NEUTRAL NATIONS. (The following articlo is supplied to the Unify Chronicle by a person whose name is well known. Since the war began it has been evident that the Germans had a wonderfully organised plan in operation for trying to stir up the neutral nations against Britain, and the article contains some startling revelations as to the by which the enemy is working. Tiie headquarters of this campaign of mendacity appears to be Copenhagen. There the secret agents meet, and the. article shows how they were overheard arranging to send twenty men to stir up rebellion in Egypt.

I was wandering aimlessly down Regent street. The sudden insane feeling took hold of me that everything 'was as usual—that the few men in khaki uniforms that I saw meeting were merely accidental, and that the war that I had heard spoken and thought of for many weekg to the exclusion of all else was nothing but a ghastly nightmare. A newsboy came along with a flap, ping placard. I saw one word, "Spies." From sheer habit, I drew a coin from my pocket and hailed the boy. , Someone jostled me, and I turned.

"Good heavens! where do you spring from?",

He gripped my hand. "Copenhagen," he said. "Just arrived. Want to know where I'm going ?,Scrvia. Anything else?"

"Heaps," I said. "Come on." We j turned ito a tea shop. . j "What on earth have you been doinp: in Copenhagen?, You were spending uu- I told wealth in feed in.p your valuable , horse in Uskub wlu n I heard of you ! last." "The beast is dead—or I shouldn't be j going back," he added. "As to Copenhagen—l've been looking on. Fine place that. I.ots of fun going." j His eyes fell on the headline of the paper, and he leant back and laughed. *'Spies!" he said. Toor brutes. ! wonder what they do here? Yon should go to Copenhagen. Every other man is an 'agent'—mostly German. Tin wily Ten- . tons thought I was one." "Let's hear your story, for I know you have got one." GERMAN LIE CAMPAIGN*. "To begin with, then, let me tell roil this—all the Scandinavian countries are | absolutely full of German agents. The I German Government is spending no end of money on the business and its agents are doing their work well. Their energy is almost entirely directed against England, and they do not leave a stone unturned. T'll just tell you what they are doing at Copenhagen—and I'll vouch for cyery word I say. I went to some trouble to find out what was being done, and by chance found more than what I had intended to. | "Of e;tr.;..j the pivss receives their ! chief attention. Articles and short para- , gratis r.re specially prepared at the I German Embassy, and these are (lisI tributed to the various newspapers. The | Ambassador himself goes round to the j newspaper editors insisting 011 their . printing liisftull'. -A certain big Socialist paper refused to do this, and i!ie tone of remonstrance used by the Embassy was not only insolent—it was threat,ni:i.2. "The l'olitiken, which prints all (he German news on the front page, prints the, Russian oflicial communiques on the last pnge in small print. The news of the victory at Lemberg appeared ,24 hour* late. "Some of the, papers put up this clever telegram in their offices while I was there. It was from Berlin and a3 follows: — '"THE GERMANS WILT, '"NE AT PARIS ON KEPTE.fI'2.' "But all this is child's play compared with the campaign against England. The false news which the German agents are spreading so pcrsistenly is undoubtedly having its effect, although the people are, or. the whole, very friendly towards England. "These German agents are also ad vocating a war union of Norway, Denmark and Sweden, and tliey are enj deavouring in every possible way to pevj suade people that England is not only j encouraging Russia to seize Narvik but herself wishes to—and will eventually —seize a Norwegian port. "One of the 'proefs of England'*, treachery—this story was quoted to nit twenty times by people of the most different layers of society—is that tlw English Ambassador in Berlin did not trouble to replace his cook who was dismissed a fortnight before the actual declaration of war. "Such credence has been gained by the rumours of an English violation of ' Danish neutrality that several English and Russian families living in Copenhagen asked me to telephone to them, at no matter what hour, should this occur, so that they could make immediate preparations to leave Denmark. "The Austrian* are also doing their share. The Ambassador himself was caught some time ago near fortilieaj tions where no one is allowed, and was I detained for several hours at -police j station. Ife demanded an apology from the very highest quarters, but was soon satisfied with one from a less exalted j s personage. HEADQUARTERS OF Till-: SPIES. "I had really an amming adventure with a man who is, I believe, the chief German agent in Copenhagen. This man- a certain Professor . Holmens—had rooms in the Hotel Bristol, next to mine. I knew when I went to this hotel what to expect, as 1 had been told warned about it and its German proprietor by a friend of mine—a diplomat. 'When I got to tin l hotel, T found a , waiter there, whom I have known for many years, and with whom I am 011 the best of terms. He told me several things of interest. The professor, he said, received piles of telegrams daily —'as high as twenty plates.' And he pays well—too well,' said the waiter in a whisper. ""Many people came to see the professor, and these people had frequent meetings in one or the other of the small salons. "Whenever I attempted to play the piano, I was asked to stop. I demanded an explanation. "A Gessellsehaft meeting," I was told. AN "ACCIDENTAL" INTRUSION. "At 5 o'clock in the morning, a oeuple of days after my arrival, I was aroused from my sleep by a man bursting into my room. I swore at him, while ho apologised volubly in German and retreated. Then I heard voices in the next room. The, professor and the intruder were talking loudly about some packet which had not arrived, and about some journey which someone was to undertak: a! "nee. Finally I banged < ■■ (!.'. otheir voices were low-

"That same afternoon my matutinal visitor against burst into my room, and 'began .talking to me in German. 1 answered only in a few broken sentences. The .man cast a quick glance around the joo:n and then retired. Just as I opened my door I heard him say reassuringly to the professor, as he entered liis room: "Das ist niehts.' "I T.qturned to my room, and as it was growing dark, I let down the blind and drew the heavy curtains. {The room was pitcH dark. I groped my way to the writing-table, and fumbled ,at the switch .of the reading lamp. Something had gone wrong with it, and I could not turn on the light. HOLE TIIKOL'GII THE WALL, "I turned to go towards the door, iind noticed a narrow shaft of light coming from the middle of the Wank wall opposite me, I stared in amazement. "Ob examination, the shaft of light proved to come, from a hole which bad been bored through what was apparently the wall, but ill reality a door which had been papered over. "The room beyond was the professor's room. I applied my eye to the hole, and saw him standing by a large map on the opposite wall. He held a telegram in his hand, and was marking some position with great care. "I stuffed up the hole. Late that evening I heard a number of people go along the .passage and enter the professor's room. A meeting was evidently in progress. "I removed the paper from the spyhole and listened.

"It's all right," I hear: 1 someone say, "he doesn't understand a word." '"Then I looked into the room. Amongst others, I noticed a man whom I had frequently met in Russia. He wai already suspected by many to be a German agent; now the suspici!|ps wer«i proved. I began to feel very grateful to the professor for that hole.

"As you know, my knowledge of German is not very great, so I rushed down stairs to the smoking-room and seized X ■ (my friend named an exAttache of a friendly Government), and brought him up. When we got into my room, the professor and his friends •were talking about England. "They seemed pleased with various reports which they had received from this country.

ORGANISING AN EGYPTIAN REBELLION,

''Then they broached the subject which they had already met to discuss. It was the sending of twenty of their emissaries to Egypt. Th'eso men were going there to fulfil the task of stirring up discontent and eventually rebellion. "The professor insisted on the importance of sending these twenty men in small groups at considerable intervals and by different routes.

"Having arrived in Egypt, they were to report themselves to certain ftgents already there, and were then to be distributed into various districts—where they would proceed on their noble work.

"They will have a good time, those men," said my friend, smiling reflectively.

"And I agreed that Copenhagen wa: worth visiting."