HAUL OF SPIES.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 July 1916, Page 7

HAUL OF SPIES.

HUNS DISGUISED AS OLD WOMEN. A remarkable story showing the extraordinary versatility of the German spy is related by a British colonial officer just home on leave (says the Weekly Dispatch). "On the part of the British front where my regiment was stationed," he said, "we were puzzled to know the means by which the German Intelligence Department was able to discover certain pieces of information, not of very great importance, but still important enough to worry us. "Now, at the back of our lines the peasants were ploughing the fields with the admirable nonchalance and indifference to shells which have so won our admiration. We knew it could not be any of them, for they were all known to us—or at least we thought they all were. "This business was getting much too hot to be tolerated any longer, so an officer was ordered out. but this time he took with him half a dozen men. In the course of their search they came (o an isolated farm, through the door of which was passing an old and bent peasant woman, whose face was furrowed with the usual lines of age. "Our men were inclined to be suspicious about this woman, and promptly tftld her to hold her hands up.. Having secured her, they marched inside the farm and found three other supposed peasants there with lions in their hands who affected well-feigned surprise when we told them in turn to hold up their haniß "When all four had been marched up : into line we started giving ..heir faces a good scraping, and, as we suspected, the age linos easily washed off, revealing the unmistakable physiognomies of i Germans. Seeing that the game was up, they promptly confessed their real identity. The first one we had captured was a German' officer and the other three non-commissioned officers. ''They had cleverlj disguised themselves as peasant women, painting tho necessary lines, and, to make the deception even more complete, had actually worked in the field from morning till evening as hard as any of the genuine peasants. "The fate of our two missing officers was soon cleared up. They had gone Lo the farm to reconnoitre and been shot to prevent their mission being accomplished. It was generally admitted we had made the best haul of spies for many weeks. After that the. leakage of information ceased, and the Germans opposite our trenches were unable to post up notices saying what regiments were coming to relieve us, as they had been able to do before we locat,e.il this spynest."