Catoctin clarion., 1917-02-08
SWITZERLAND HAS
MYRIAD OF SPIES
Arrests Are Made Almost Daily
and Some Diplomats Are
Expelled.
POLICE ARE kept ON THE GO
OF '425 Espionage Cases in Last Six
Months $50 Were Austro. German
Government Is Very
Strict.

Berne, Switzerland.-Acco to
Swiss law in ge:icral and special or
dinance of The federal council dated
August 1, 1914, in particular, espionage
is prohibited. No foreigner is allowed
to organize, favor OF carry out espion.
age Oh behalf of any belligerent power
since the outbreak of the war and quite
recently counter espionage has also
been forbidden.
Germ0ns. are arrested almost every
day IN switzerland, and most of them
are tried and convicted. In some cases,
however, no trial follows the arrest of
Il SPY, aud this happens whenever the
spy can prove by documentary evidence
that he is Il diplomat, generally con-
sular officer or commercial agent,
duly accredited military attache or an
army officer.
In such cases the Swiss police in
variably accompany the spy to the from
tier and there let him loose, and after
his repatriation an official announce.
ment is madN 20 the effect that he has
been recalled home by his government.
Ordinary spies are instead tried and
sentenced To term of imprisonment
and Il heavy tine. They are moreover,
expelled from Switzerland, after Serv.
ing their sentence, of course, and
threatened with immediate arrest II
they come back.
Espionage FIourishes.
As rule spies of Swiss nationality
are more severely punished than for,
eigners, as Switzerland is determined
on absolute neutrality, but all the same
espionage tlourishes everywhere to
such II great extent that practically all
the foreigners in Switzerland, neutrals
or brlligerentS, are spies or dabDle in
espionage or counter espionage.
Comparisons are odious, but it is
fact that out of 425 cases of espionage
brought before the Swiss courts during
the last six months $50 dealt with Aus.
trO-German spies or with people who
We're working for the central empires,
and the charges in these latter cases
We're not of espionage, pure and simple,
about the enemy, but of a criminal ma
ture, such rs attempts against life and
property, arson, blowing UP of railroads
and factories and such like. Austro.
German spies are, after all, nothing
else but ordinary criminals.
1t must he admitted that the Swiss
police have very difficult task IN
catching Austro-German spies who, as
rule, are very clever and invariably
have good accomplices. For instance.
who would have suspected that a most
respectable German lady, the widow Of
Professor Mayer, a resident for more
than thirty years in the small village
of Oberkirch, near Lucerne, was the
accomplice of Il famous spy?
This old lady, who hated war, loudly
proclaimed that she was ashamed OF
being German because Germany was
responsible for the war, and led q
quiet life of solitude and seclusion, liv'
ing now just the same as She had been
living for the last thirty years, was im'
plicated in famous case of espionage
as the principal accomplce of her son
and also the notorious German secret
service spy, Adolf Walker.
The lady and her son were tried and
sentenced to three months imprison.
mcnt 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 es-
capped, but it was ascertained that she
had accompanied Walker on a flying
visit to Lyons, in France.
Alfred Olsen formerly sergeant In
the German army has been arrested at
Zurich, tried and sentenced to five
months Imprisonment and fine OF
500 because the police found out that
he was finding situations for Swiss
maids in France and Italy and encour-
aging them to write him long letters.
OF course, as the maids We're being
paid by both their employers and by
Olsen, the number he "placed' was
considerable.
The latest espionage case now going
on in Switzerland relates to Heinz
Sommer, correspondent of the Wolff
bureau, French deserter named An
Dire POM, young lady Of Lausanne,
Rose Schertcnleib, and q notorious spy
who served both France and Germany