Evening star., 1934-02-11
AMERICAN COUPLE
FACE SPY CHARGE
Former Michigan School
Teachers Among 28 in
Finnish Case.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press
HELSINGFORS, Finland, February
10.-A young American couple who
once taught school in Michigan will
be among the % persons to be tried
Monday for espionage.
Police claim the group supplied a
foreign government with secret in
formation about Finland's military
forces. ammunition factories, and
communications
Mrs. Mary Louise Martin, identified
by officials as Canadian, was &C
cused by police of being the leader
of the alleged spy syndicate and said
Mr.. and Mrs. Arvid Jacobson, Amer
leans, helped her.
Public interest in the case has been
intense, especially since police un-
covered what they called a second
plot to poison high military officers
The two were said to have had no
connection.
The Finnish high court at Abo will
try the case secretly. The maximum
penalty for espionage is six years
imprisonment, but agitation set in
after the police disclosures four
months ago to raise the punishment
for espionage to a death sentence.
The desertion of Lieut. Vilho Pent-
kanen from the army general staff.
to which he was attached as a
photographer. and his reported cross
ing into Russia with army secrets,
photographs and plans, led to the
| flrst Investigations by police in mid
October.
Roundup Of Suspects
Subsequently authorities started a
roundup in which the % suspects
were arrested.
Elnor Vaha Of Helsingfors was said
by political police to have confessed
tnat ne was an agent Of the spy band
headed by Mrs. Martin and including
Jacobson. 29-year-old former North
vile. Mich, teacher who came here
IN January 1888, to study higher
mathematics in the University of Hell
singfors
Mr. and Mrs jacobson were ar
rested October 10. Authorities said
/ he confessed to having served as a
llalSon man between Mrs. Martin and
more than score Of secret opera
! tives
| Mrs. Martin. who is 81 and a tall
brunette, was arrested two days later.
she was said to have a Canadian
| passport. but police said she might
oe Maria Shule, native of Latvia.
She had steadfastly denied any
espionage activity, although several
OF the others in custody are said by
| police to have inplicat ted her
Authorities also claim she is an ac-
| qua1ntance of Nine. Lydia Stahl, who
Is one of more than a score held in
Paris in connection with a suspected
spy plot. Others under arrest in the
French capital on like charges are
Mr.. and Mrs. Robert Gordon Switz OF
New Jersey and New York.
Keys to Meeting Place.
| Police maintain they found in the
Jacobsons' apartment secret papers
and two keys, similar to keys found
in Mrs. Martins home. The KEYS
were said to fit a door Of an obscure
| apartment in another section OF
'Helsinefors which later is said to have
! been established as the secret meeting
| place of the alleged organization.
Jacobson confessed, police said. that
| he had communistic sympathies. He
was born in Walton, Mich. of Fin
nNh parents. and studied in the Uni
versity Of Michigan.
He told investigators that when he
accepted a scholarship at the Uni.
versity of Helsingfors he was told
: he would have to make a few re-
ports occasionally" but that when he
entered the institution he learned hi:
| assignments were to receive informa
| ton from various agents and relay
it to Mrs. Martin.
He tried to give it up. he was
quoted as saying. but was threatened
! With exposure if he refused to per-
form the tasks given him.
The second case developed upon
the death in December of Lieut.. Col
! Walter ASplund, head of a govern
ment munitions factory in Lappo. A
2O-year-old maid in his home was
said by police to have confessed she
gave him poison on instructions OF
a man identified by authorities as
a well known Soviet agent"