PICTORIAL SUPPLEMENT
"Japp", Droat
FAMOUS MODERN SPY TRIALS
THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH. SATURDAY, JUNE 23, 1934.
PAGE THREE
THE CAFE DES SPORTS, LA BELLE SOPHIE AND "NO. 24"
WINS FRIENDSHIP.
When they bought a bar right on the town's public square it becume apparent that Sophie and Jupp were not lacking in franes. Brazenly they named the place the Cafe des Sports, and brought in a number of fetching waitresses.
BY MORRIS GILBERT. other town, they said, and had Tha'ink was scarcely dry on the come here to start another one. Treaty of Versailles before French The largo infantry barracks near- experts were bont low over maps by should provide a gay and gen- of the new German frontier, plan- erous, clientele. Especially, unid ning_fortifications which better Sophle with a heavy, wink, if the could withstand the buffeting off placo were equipped with pretty modern warfare. - And no. sooner | barmaids. had word of an extensive now.de force acheme. roached the cars of certain other powers than explon- nge organizations went into action, Those plans had to be obtained, First, though, there was a long walt while French authorities made up their own minds as to what sort of fortifications were to bo bullt. Meanwhile master spies plotted the elaborate devices tô be employed-u beautiful woman toestabilahmont had gone around the win the confidence of this or that barracks and over to nearby French officer; a simple-appearing Coume, where many men, mostly mald to find employment in a civilians, were at work on the mys- chateau where officials might be terious now fortifications. quartored; dozens of men to get
Soon the lonely male patrons of work in factories where materials the cafe were agreeing that the would be manufactured; secret hosts were certainly a precious agents to get jobs on the rail-pair, all right. A silent, imper- ronda; harmless-looking peasants turbable fellow, Jupp but how de to find labour in the fields where |lightfully tolerant of the little in- they could observe activities; discretions of his barmaida! And craftsmen, such as masons and me-Sophie, who now was known as chanics to help actually to build "La Belle Sophle" and "Fat So- the fortifientions,
phis" there was a woman with a heart of gold. Did she not make jokes that had the soldiers and the workmon practically, in stitch-
And for the town of St. Avold, near the mandated and still dis puted Suur Basin, a man and wo-
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In no time at all word of the
man would be found to start an e87 And was' she ever known to inn or cafa.
▼
BAR NEAR BARRACKS.
So Sophie Draat appeared in St.] Avold in 1928. Scanning her over- plump figure, or hearing her ready laugh and conrae humour, no one could have guessed that sho might become a "econd Mata Hurl" Certainly she had none of the exotic qualities of that glamorous, half-caste dancer who fell in de- flant silance before a firing squad- during the war.
But there was Sophie, anyway; and a man, supposed to be -ker husband, whom she called Jupp. They had sold their cafe in an-
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be impatient with a fellow who was heavily in her debt?
•
STRIKES FOR BIG PRIZE.
Jupp proved to be all too lenient with his barmaids, for in time he was waited upon by an agent who told him get out of the country, and at once. He obeyed, but Sophie Drost remained. Alone new, she sought companionship among her patrons, and seemed to find most Interesting some of the men who owed her the largest uc- counts. No one knows how many military secrets she extracted dur- ing those early years, nor how many reports she contrived to have
They saw her leave the smuggled across the border luto Germany.
Finally, though, Sophie knew. that the time had come to sirfke for the greatest prize of all-the detailed plans of a segment of the "iron ring" of forts and under- ground tunnela which were being built along the frontier. One ove- ning she revealed her wish to Al- phonae Choppe, one of the con- atruction foremen on Bloc No. 1,
cafe and meet the young soldier,
at Coume. The spy had made fair ly certain that Choppe would not
she is said to have promised him dare to expose her, but in addition
Needing money, he agreed,. 20,000 francs for his services,
DETECTIVES GO TO WORK.
After watching his chance for some weeks, Choppe is charged with having stolen two blueprints
alarming was the fact that a fairly complete set of plans of the forts had fallen into the hands of spies. These plans would show the ex- act locations of underground mu- nitions storehouses, of gas-proof rooms, of machine gun nests and emplacements for heavy artillery. So secret agents filtered into Coume and St. Avold, and soon picked up a trail that seemed to lead to the Cafe des Sports and tita Jovial proprietress. If Sophio know she was being watched, she gave no sign of foar. Instead she began to plan another coup.
"
·
La Belle Bophle
dificulty, still carrying No. 24MA short distance away ho found Sophie, She waited while ho changed Into civilian clothes; Then they dismantled the gun, hiding its parts in the interior of an automobile.
FUGITIVES CAPTURED.
They started for the frontier. Sophie well know that she would excito suspicion by selling her. cafe, so she had left it just as it' was. Anyone was welcome to it and its stock, for a great deal of money awaited hor across the bor der. It was high time for her to THEFT FROM BARRACKS.
clear out, too, for she was aware, Just as the master strategists of that French operatives were bo- France had planned now and coming curious about her. almost impregnable fortifications, Sophie didn't guess, though, bough. so had the armaments experts de- just how curious the counter vised more efficfent equipment. capionage agents were. For they: Taught bitter lessons by the World had been watching her every move. War, they were especially interest- They saw her leave the cafe, meet. ed in rapid-fire guns with power the young soldier and enter the enough to be effective against air- automobile. They were almost planes and tanks. One of their close enough to hear her sigh with now machine guns, of a type work-reller at the apparent success of ed out by trusted engineers and her scheme. They followed her constructed and tested with accre car to Sarrebruck, just across the cy, was called "No. 24." Some of line in the mandated territory, and these guns, Sophie-the-Spy know, saw her and the soldier enter a had been sent to the garrison at certain house. Coume. She determined to get
Oile.
Over many glasses of liquor in a corner of the Cafe des Sports, he finally agreed to her wishes,
One evening the soldier confided to his barracks mates that he was going A. 5. O. I, that evening. It was a matter of a girl whom he'd promised to see. The other soldiers leared and agreed that that Rene surely was a devil with
She knew at once the soldier most likely to fall in with her achome. He was a youngster from the headquarters of the en-named. It is said, Rene Plestan, Rinvera. These were delivered to. Saplle, who in turn succeeded in sending them across the border..
French authorities, of course, were perfectly well aware that their vital military secrets were gradually becoming international property, and their counter-esplo- nago service is said to have been augmented by some 300 operatives, Foreign agents were being dis- covered in factories, on railroads, and actually working in the closely guarded tunnels and steel-and- concrete forts of the iron ring" of defence. All of these people could, and probably did, give damaging bits of information to their employers. But especially
the women.
That night they saw him steal aut of the barracks. But they didn't see him slip into the supply room and take one of the new ma chine guns. Outside he eluded the guard and dashed for the fence that surrounds the soldiers' quar. tere. Over it ha scrambled, with
Next day they arrested Sophie: and Plestan. Jupp, Sophie's hua- band, was living in the house too. The agents also found the machine gun. Then they went back and arrested Choppe. He and the soldier confessed, and Sophia. Drost went to prison. The first. woman spy captured since the war, she soon was being apoken of sil over. France as a second Mata Hari.
of hor
Following her arrest last Octo ber investigations have been con ducted to learn of some other activities. And apparently she gained much additional infor mation, because a succinct report recently issued by the police said that these inquiries have proven "very fruitful," Whatever the dis- position of her case, she has no fear of facing Mata Hari's fate, for Franco does not execute apies cap.: tured in time of "pence".
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