MATA HARI

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 May 1940, Page 9

MATA HARI

NEW LIGHT ON FAMOUS SPY ACTIVITIES IN LAST WAR. SOME DRAMATIC INCIDENTS. The most famous woman spy of history wa,s undoubtedly Mata Hari. Thousands of articles and scores of books have been written about her since her execution in 1917. But in spite of this avalanche of printed matter, the “Red Dancer” is the subject of yet another story. It is told by Robert Boucard, a French naval officer, who served under Admiral Sir Reginald Hall, the greatest of Britain’s war-time intelligence chiefs, in the “Mixed Bureau” at Folkestone, which consisted of British, French and Belgian officers, says "The Star,” London. Boucard’s recently published book, “The Secret Services of Europe”' (Stanley Paul), gives interesting and dramatic details of the ■ activities of 'Mata Hari. IN FRANCE. \ In 1914 Mata Hari followed the German Army into Belgium, sailed for England in a cargo boat, and then went to France, where she lived under the name of Margaret Zelle.

But the French Secret Service had known that she was in the pay of Germany as far back as 1905, and when she appeared in Paris early in the war and communicated with Berlin through the Dutch Legation, she was closely watched.

“She may have been pretty at the height of her youth.” says Boucard, “but the woman who, in 1916, came to ask the Second Bureau for a permit to stay in Vittel, which was in the war zone, had suffered the inevitable ravages of time. ■ "Her eyes were puffy and bloodshot, her nose was rather flattened, and her mouth, with its thick lips, stretched almost from ear to ear, revealed yellow and uneven teeth. SHADOWED ALL THE TIME. She went to Vittel to be at the bedside of one of her lovers, a Russian captain, who had been seriously wounded in Champagne—(“He's the only man I have ever loved,” she said) —and to observe what was going on at a nearby aerodrome. But, at the order of the Ministry of War, she was shadowed all the time. Yet her skill was more than a match for all the traps that were set for her. She was the perfect spy. In August, 1916. French G.H.Q. decided that she could not be allowed to continue to stay in the war zone. She protested when she was ordered to return to Paris. “Why do you go on suspecting me?” she cried. “In order to prove my good faith, I suggest you should let me serve France. “Once I was the Crown Prince’s mistress—how ne adored me! It’s merely a matter of seeing him again, and I’ll be able to get inside German General Headquarters.” CODED MESSAGES. She wanted to get there via Switzerland. but the French Bureau had other ideas, and insisted that she should travel via Spain. She reached Vigo, and re-embarked in the Dutch mail boat Hollandia. British destroyers stopped the vessel on the way to Southampton and found in Mata Hari’s luggage documents which the French Bureau had given her to facilitate her task of winning over the Germans. She was interrogated by Scotland Yard, who asked Paris if she should be sent to Havre. Paris replied that she was to go to Spain, and she again found herself at Vigo. Meanwhile the enemy secret service in Spain continued to send coded radio messages which Allied experts were able to decipher. In one of them Madrid announced the return of Agent H2l, who revealed that she had succeeded in joining the French Secret Service, and demanded more money. Berlin replied advising Agent H2l to call at a bank in the Champs Elysees to receive 5000 francs. FIRING SQUAD. Mata Hari turned up at the bank, and. on the following day. February 18, 1-917. she was arrested by a police officer at the Hotel Plaza, where she was living under tire name of Margaret Zelle. Mata Hari was kept in prison for eight months. She became an old woman during this short period. When Captain Bouchardon entered her cell at 5 a.m. on October 15, 1917, she uttered a wild cry, but when she reached the place of execution she skipped across the rain-sodden ground, embraced her defending counsel and the sister and chaplain of the prison, then waved her hands as if she were taking a final call before the footlights. Only one of the bullets of the firing squad found its mark, and it pierced her heart.