MASTER SPY TRAPPED.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 February 1920, Page 9

MASTER SPY TRAPPED.

Pew Scotland Yard, men have had more thrilling experiences than Mr. E. T. Buckley, of the Special Service branch, who recently retired. Mr. Buckley was associated with the Intelligence Departments of the War Office, and the Admiralty, and thus came into contact with many of the most famous of Continental spies. His greatest achievement was the tracking and capture of von Knpferle, who lias been described n.s the prince of the German Secret Service. The Daily Express is able to give the facts concerning one of the most dramatic arrests ever carried out. Captain von Kunforle was a soldier who had a distincv.ished record on tlie fighting fronts. Therein lie differed from most spies. His appearance was also most "unspylikc." He was a man in the early thirties, of soldierly bearing, and he had a further drawback from an espionage point of view—he had a slightly deformed nose- Knpferle made up in brains and cunning for any slight defects of this kind, and he \vas chosen by the German Espionage Department for most difficult and dangerous tasks. Kupferle's first mission was to Washington, where he was closely connected with von Papen, and the not less notorious Bernstorff;. but there was bigger game in view. Germany was anxious to know the disposition of the British Fleet, and the mission was entrusted to Knpferle. Accordingly the prince of spies sailed for England. The British authorities knew of his mission, and he was watched from the montfent of his landing. The spy's first move when he reached London was to find a suitable hotel. He found one in North London, and registered as a neutral. The day «fter his arrival he caught the Holyhead express train. Ho arrived in Ireland that evening, and the following day paid a visit to Kings/town harbor. Knpferle bad 110 hours to waste, and as quickly he.made his way to another town. 011 the Irish coast,<off which were some British battleships. Ho looked, observed, jotted down a, few notes in a diary, and hastened back to' Dublin. That evening he returned to London, and made his way tn an hotel near Victoria. Kupferle was doubtless congratulating himself on the success of his mission, little thinking that the net of the British Secret, Service was now tightening round him. A crowd of men and women sat in the griil of a West End restaurant. In the midst was the prince of the German Secret Service, laughing up his sleeve at the stupidity of the British. Presently hi-* smiles were turned to tears. The spy was trapped. lie rose from a. good dinnsr, puffing a cigar, and asked a porter to call him a, cab. A matter-of-fact man with a pleasantly detached air walked to him and spoke one word which fairly staggered the German. The word was "Kupferle." The pleasant-manner Tr.an was ►»Tr. Buckley. The spy pulled himself together with an effort, but in that Instant he knew that he was a dead man. Half an hour later lie was facing a barrage before Sir Basil Thomson at Scotland Yard.

Kupferle was a true, gambler with fate. Ho committed suicide in Brixton Gael during liis,-trial, rather than face a firing squad at the Tower.

KUPFERLE'S CAPTOR.