Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 January 1917 — SWITZERLAND HAS MYRIAD OF SPIES [ARTICLE]

SWITZERLAND HAS MYRIAD OF SPIES

Arrests Are Made Almost Daily and Some Diplomats Are Expelled. POLICE ARE KEPT ON THE GO Of 425 Espionage Caras in Last Six Months 350 Were Austro-German —Government Is Very Strict. Berne, Switzerland. —According to Swiss laxy in generalan'd a special ordinance of tiie federal council dated August 4, 1914, in particular, espionage is prohibited. No foreigner is allowed to organize, favor or carry out espionage on behalf of any belligerent power since the outbrenk of the war and quite recently counter espionage has also been forbidden. Spies, male and female, generally Germans, are arrested almost every day in Switzerland, and most of them lure, tried and convicted. In some cases, however, no trial follows the arrest of . a spy, and this happens whenever the : spy can prove by I’.oAnnentary evidence that he is a diplomat, generally a consular officer <ir commercial agent, a ■ duly accredited military attache or an army officer. In such cases the Swiss police’ invariably accompany the spy to the frontier and there let him loose, and after his repatriation an official annova+ee — intent is made to the_effect that he has : been-.reealled home by his government. - Ordinary "Spies"are Instead tried ami sentenced to a term of imprisonment I and a heavy fine. They are moreover, ; expelled from Switzerland, after serving their sentence, of course, ami threatened witii immediate arrest If j they come back. Espionage Flourishes. As a rule spies of Swiss nationality ate more severely punished than "foreigners. us.. .Swltzeriimd. is deteriuipe<l on .absolute neutrality, but all the same espionage flourishes everywhere to such a great extent that practically all the foreigners in Switzerland, neutrals or belligerents, are spies or dabble in espionage or counter espionage. Comparisons are odious, but it is a fact that out of 425 cases of espionage brought before the Swiss courts during the last six months 350 dealt With Aus-tro-German -spies or with people who were working for the central empires, ami the charges in these latter cases were not of espionage, pure and simple, namely, the securing of information about the enemy, but of a criminal nature, such as attempts against life and property, arson', Blowing up of Tallroads and factories and such intel AustroGerman spies are, after all, nothing else but ordinary criminals. It must be admitted that the Swiss police have a very difficult task In catching Austro-German spies who, aS a rule, are very clever and invariably have good accomplices. For instance, who would have suspected that a most respectable German lady, the widow-of

I’rofessor Mayer, a resident for more than thirty years in the small village Of Oberkirch, near Lucerne, was the accomplice of a famous spy? This old lady, who hated war, loudly proclaimed that she was ashamed of being a German because Germany was responsible for the war, and led a quiet life of solitude and seclusion, living now just the same as she had been living for the last thirty years, was implicated in a famous case of espionage as the principal accomplice of her son and also the notorious German secret service spy, Adolf Walker. The ladj’ and her son were tried and sentenced to ’three months’ imprisonment and expelled from Switzerland. Old Lady Returns. Four months after the trial the old lady was again in Switzerland, on the sly, of course, and this time she escaped, but it was ascertained that she had-accompanied Walker bn a flying visit to Lyons, in France, Alfred Olsen, formerly a sergeant in the German army, has been arrested at Zurich, tried and sentenced to five months imprisonment antF a fine of $1 IM) because the police found out that he was finding situations for Swiss ■ nnrMs-f n - Fmnee and Ttaly and -eneeuraging them to write him long letters. Of course, as the maids were beingpaid,by both their employers and by Olgenr -the number he ” plaeed ’ ’ was considerable. The latest espionage case now going on in Switzerland relates to Heinz Sommer, correspondent of the Wolff lnri , eTTTi.,nr~l’ , rench deserter named An? dre I’onz,’ a young lady of Laqsanne, Rose Schertenleib, and a notorious spy who served both France and Germany by the name of Henry Grimm.