GERMAN SPY TRICKED.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 January 1917, Page 8

GERMAN SPY TRICKED.

BY ASTI/TK BRITISHER. > Interesting details have just been disclosed in San Francisco showing how a German spy was neatly tricked by a group oi astute Britishers residing in the California)! metropolis, with the result that the British War Office has profited by the transaction and has introduced a new bomb into use oil the battle front with surprisingly striking effect. It transpires that a former German soldier, who had acted as. a spy ill South Africa on the side of the Boers during the war against : Paul Kruger, came to San Francisco soon after the outbreak of the present hostilities in Europe mid secured employment in a San Francisco factory where several British subjects were also laboring. One day the German was beard to admit that he had b£en engaged Uy the German Government up to three years ago to manufacture a special class of bomb of which he alone, held the secret. A month befoie the war broke out he left Berlin and came to America, for what sinister purpose is not known. One of the Britishers at t'he San Francisco factory cultivated the acquaintance of the German, to the surprise of his fellow Britishers. He also had studied chemistry, lie did not reveal his nationality to the man from Berlin, and frequently discussed his pet subject of chemistry with the German, who, unthinkingly, one day gave himself away, and the Britisher lost no time in excusing 'himself and jotting down the much-sought formula of the Gel-man's secret bomb. Subsequently one of the leading officials oi an Anglo-Californian society was told of the incident, and he communicated with London, enclosing the formula in a letter addressed to a friend of his, who happened to be a member of Lord Kitchener's staff living in the West End of London, who managed to get the secret direct to Lor<( Kitchener himself. The War Cffiee has experimented with the formula, and thc_ new bomb is said to be already in use with deadly effect., for an acknowledgment has been received by the sender "of the formula in a cryptic message, apparently to evade the censor or outsiders. The London message. was on this line:—"We thank you for- your promptitude. The machinery has arrived, and it lias given entire satisfaction; in fact, the results are most satisfactory." The recipient of the message quickly detected its meaning, and now prides himself that he broke down the barriers of officialdom and enabled the British soldiers in France to profit by tile German chemist's admission.