ESPIONAGE IN BRITAIN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 July 1940, Page 6

ESPIONAGE IN BRITAIN

MAN & WOMAN CONVICTED SENTENCED TO LONG TERMS IN GAOL. ANOTHER MAN FOUND NOT GUILTY. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.20 a.m.) LONDON, July 2. Mrs Louisa Ingram was found guilty of conspiring to contravene the defence regulations and committing an act with intent to assist the enemy. She was sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment. She was found not guilty on a charge of conspiring to obtain blue prints. William Swift was found guilty of conspiracy, of communicating with Mrs Ingram and inciting a Royal Tanks Corps corporal to 'join the L.D.V.S. in order to obtain arms for the protection of invaders and endeavouring to cause disaffection in the King's services. He was sentenced to fourteen years imprisonment. Archibald Watts was found not guilty on all counts. A London cable on May 31 stated: “The Germans will be in. England within three weeks. The Royal Family and the Cabinet will be publicly executed and Sir Oswald Mosley will become ruler of Britain under German control"—this statement was attributed to the German wife of a R.A.F. sergeant, Mrs Mari Louise Augusta Ingram, when, she together with William Swift and Archibald Watts, was charged at Portsmouth under the Official Secrets' Act. The prosecution said Mrs Ingram was employed as a domestic, by a senior officer on important duties for the Admiralty. Mrs Ingram urged the man to join the British Union of Fascists. She confided that her brother-in-law was a member of the stall of the German High Command, whom she was supplying with information. The police arrested the defendants on May 23. If the offences had occurred less than a week later, the defendants would have been before the Court on charges punishable by death. The defendants were committed for trial at the Old Bailey.