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DEATH AS SPY LAY IN WAIT
MM DAUGHTER OF MATA HARI
IN Batavia, Java, one November day in 1917, a 1 7-years-
old Scottish-Eurasian girl read a letter the French Consul-
General had brought her. It was written from the con-
demned cell in the prison of St.
Lazarre, France, by the inter
national woman spy, Mata Hari,
a few hours before she was executed by a French firing
squad. The girl was Banda Zelle-MacLeod— Mata Hari's
daughter.- Her mother's death-cell letter brought no tears,
only a deep feeling of shame and shock. Yet
its effect, from that moment, led the girl irres
istibly into a life that ended 33 years later just
as tragically. She, too, died as a spy in front
of a firing squad.
F a tropical world "of passion,
Intrigue and fierce national
ism, Banda's espionage 'achieve
ments In World War II, and after,
probably far exceeded those of her
mother in Europe in World War I,
Forced to work for the Japanese
in 1942. she became one of the -
Allies' best spies in the Pacific.
She was shot by a North Korean
firing squad while courageously
operating as an American agent
behind the Iron Curtain in Asia.
Banda was born in the East In
dies spice isle of Bali in 1900— a
small, beautiful, slant-eyed child
bearing traces of her mother's
Eurasian blood.
Her father was a Scotsman,
Campbell MacLeod, a hard-
drinking adventurer and mercen
ary who held the rank of captain
in the Dutch Colonial Army.
Her mother's maiden name had
been Margarida Gertrud Zelle.
She married MacLeod at The
Hague when he was 40 and she 18.
Not long afterwards they arriv
ed in the East Indies, where Mac
Leod had been posted to com
mand colonial army reserves.
Two children were born to them
—Banda and a boy. Tragedy, dis
cord and unhappiness wrecked
tne ,-mily. The boy died.
MacLeod degenerated into a gin
ana whisky-sodden roue. He
found his pleasures in the arms
of Balinese girls, and returned
home only to ill-use and beat his
wife.
Unable to stand it longer, Mar
garida ran away from him. She
left Banda with an aunt in
Batavia and sailed for Europe — to
become the world's most glamor
ous spy under the name of Mata
Hari (Malay for "The Sun" or
"Eye of the Day");
Banda, then only a baby, spent
a happy childhood with her aunt
in tne pleasant, colonial Dutch
atmosphere of
Batavia. Letters
came frequently
from her
mother, now
captivating the
Continent as a
"great Hindu
dancer."
In November, 1917, Banda re
ceived the letter Mata Hari wrote
in the prison cell a few hours be
fore facing the firing squad on
Vincennes rifle range.
Banda's reaction was to pack
her bags and leaye home. She
' went straight to the arms of an
elderly Dutch "protector," high in
the Dutch civil service in Java.
He became at once her father,
lover and educator.
The Dutchman was 57 when
she became his mistress — almost
old enough to be her grand
father—yet they lived happily to
gether.
Banda begged him to marry
her, but he refused, saying he
wanted her to feel free to leave
him whenever she wished. .
Meanwhile, the story of Mata
Hari's espionage activities « and
execution became one of the best-
known spy. stories of World War
Banda felt no pride in what her
mother had done. She worked
-quietly in Batavia and -other
parts of Java as a teacher,' al
ways fearful of being exposed as
the child of the notorious Mata
Hari.
When her aunt, and then her
elderly "protectory died, she felt
that her secret was at last safe.
With the fortune the Dutchman
had left her she became one of
the leading hostesses of Batavia.
Women liked her brilliant wit
and keen intellect. Her dark
beauty, small lithe figure, and
easy grace attracted men.
Her dinner parties and "tiffins"
were attended by people of many
nationalities from Batavia's
foreign community. If there were
lovers, Banda gave her favors
with discretion.
She was still lovely at 39 — the
year World War H began. For
a while Java was unaffected, but
when the Nazis overran Holland
it became one of the most im
portant centres of the Dutch Em
pire.
Her parties were now frequent
ed by diplomats, journalists, Gov
ernment officials and foreign spies
— all listening for unguarded talk
and information that might be
useful to their Governments.
Whether Mata Hari's daughter
could help it or not, she was be
ing slowly enmeshed in inter- .
national political intrigue.
Suddenly, on 'December 7, 1941,
war flared in the Pacific. The
Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor,
invaded Malaya and the Philip
pines, and began their great
southward march.
cor i w o
months Java
— richest jewel
of South - east
Asia — stood at
bay, the refuge
of fleeing whites
from all over
the conquered Far East. It was
a spy's eldorado. -
When the invasion came, the
defences quickly crumpled. Native
leaders collaborated with the Jap
anese, and the Dutch went into
prison camps.
Banda, along with tens of
thousands of other scared
Eurasians, was allowed her free
dom. She abandoned the gay life
and went quietly back, to teach
ing. . .
Then, one day early in 1942, a
Japanese Navy staff car pulled up
outside her small school. She
watched a white man dressed in
Japanese uniform step from the
car and walk towards her.
Recognition dawned. The man
was a long-forgotten uncle who
bad lived in Japan for years, and
was now a Dutch adviser to the
Japanese Navy. He was one of
the few living who knew she was
Mata Hari's daughter.
The uncle, who had heard- of
th«f high standing his niece had
held in Batavian society, bluntly
told her that she, too, must col
laborate with the Japanese.
She must resume her parties
and teas and invite along the
neutral diplomats, the Japanese,
-the Indonesian leaders and people
she knew who might be helpful
to the new rulers.
If she refused he would reveal
her secret to the Japanese. There
was little doubt what the fate of
an anti-Japanese daughter of the
world's most famous spy would be.
So Banda, although of Dutch
sympathies, felt she had no alter
native but to agree. Soon her
home was once more the centre
of Batavia's social and cultural
life.
The Japanese were pleased with
the way she co-operated. They
used her home to pump foreign
diplomats. She was a gracious
hostess to Indonesians, whose
friendship the Japanese needed to
impose their rule.
Then Banda met the man who
changed the whole course of her
life. He was a young captain in
the . newly-formed Indonesian
"home guard" — a military unit
formed to help control Java's 47
million natives.
She fell desperately in love with
the Indonesian, who was nearly
10 years .younger. They met
often, and /she became his mis
tress.
The Japanese regarded the In-
! donesian as a loyal collaborator.
: In reality he was an ardent
; nationialist, a leader of the grow
ing underground movement pledg
ed to sabotage and defeat the
invaders.
The underground, operating
mainly in the jungles, needed a
clever spy among the Japanese
in the city. Banda Zelle Mac
Leod, on social terms with the
enemy generals and civilian lead
ers, was ideally placed for the
dangerous task.
One night he confided his plans
to her and asked her to join the
underground. The picture of her
mother bravely facing the firing
squad must have flashed across
her mind.
Nevertheless she made the same
decision her mother had made 28
years earlier. She agreed to spy
on the Japanese.
From that moment she became
the Mata Hari of the Far East —
a far more accomplished espion
age agent than Mata Hari had
ever been.
She was surprised to learn how
efficiently the underground work
ed. Regular channels existed for
getting out information to the
Dutch, American and British al
lies.
Banda was in the unique posi
tion of working for both sides at
once. The information she gave
to the Japanese was mostly harm
less.
The information she gave to the
Allies contained some of Japan's
top secrets.
She supplied them with Jap
anese battle plans for Guadal
canal, and made possible a suc
cessful American landing. A
stream of information about troop
movements, air strengths and
shipping — all picked up at her
social evenings — reached the Al
lies.
As the full weight of Japanese
oppression and tyranny fell on
Java, the strength of the under
ground grew by tens of thous
ands.
The Japanese had softened
them for invasion with the
slogan, "Java for the Javanese."
It was now clear that the plan
was "Java for the Japanese."
By every means at the disposal
of a beautiful woman, Banda ex
tracted news, favors and conces
sions from the enemy. Through
her knowledge, nationalist agents
and organisers were smuggled to
other islands of the East Indies
to recruit more and more natives
for the undercover army.
Banda had started hei spying
career believing that what she did
would help the liberating Allied
Army when it eventually came to
the East Indies.
But as the war years dragged
on she became as ardently na-
tionalitic as her Indonesian lover.
The result was that when the
war ended, in 1945, and the British
and Dutch returned to Java, she
found herself working against
them on the side of the Indo
nesian Republican movement.
Again she played the cunning
Mata Hari. This time her duty
was to gather information for the
rebels resisting the return of the
Dutch.
Her main source of information
was a Korean, brought to Java
by the Japanese, but now work
ing as a servant in the home of
a high Dutch official.
Another was an "adviser" to
the Dutch, who, not suspecting
her link with the Indonesian
nationalists, visited her home and
talked openly of Dutch plans.
The result was that she was
able to give the Indonesians most
of the details of the Dutch plan
of attack when, on December 19,
1948, full-scale war broke out be
tween the Dutch and Indonesian
armies in central Java.
Banda, now nearing 50, then
suffered the greatest emotional
upset of her life. Her Indonesian
lover cast her aside and married
a young woman he had met in
the underground movement.
Broken-hearted, she gave up
her home and went to America
on a lecture tour to win support
for the Indonesian cause. She
gave Press interviews and radio
talks. None guessed that she was
the daughter of Mata Hari.
While in America she negotiated
the purchase of second-hand
planes which smuggled 750,000
dollars worth of gold from Java
to pay for arms for Indonesian
nationals.
Banda returned to Batavia, now
known again by its historic Jav
anese name of Djakarta. She
wanted only to resume her teach
ing career.
Meanwhile the United States
State Department had found out
about her activities in America. A
closer check, showed that she was
well-known to the U.S. Intelli
gence Service. Wartime files re
vealed the good work she had
done for the Allies. Her infor
mation had always been accurate.
Probing deeper, the Americans
discovered the well-kept secret of
her parentage.
As a result, Banda had a caller
at her home one day in 1949. He
was an emissary from Washing
ton, a specialist in Far Eastern
affairs.
Banda vanished mysteriously
from .Java. No one knew where
she had gone — except the U.S.
Intelligence services.
Her final mission was in China,
where Chiang Kai-shek was fight
ing a losing struggle against the
Communists.
She gained the confidence of
the Red leaders and established
herself in the camp of Communist
dictator Mao Tse Tung, where
she reported on Russian supplies
reaching China.
As usual, her information was
accurate and valuable.
When tension increased be
tween North and South Koreans,
Banda was ordered to go to Py-r ;
ongyang, the North Korean capi
tal, where Soviet influence was
strong. She early reported North
Korean plans for an attack on the
South.
Not long afterwards Banda was
walking in the streets of Pyong
yang when a young Korean re
cognised her. In the teeming
millions of Asia she had run into
the one man who had spied for
her in Batavia.
The Korean, repatriated home,
was now a high-ranking Commis
sar with the Red troops. Imme
diately suspicious, he ordered her
arrest.
Questioned by the Communists,
Banda was unable to give satis
factory answers, and was thrown
into prison. One morning at
dawn she was hauled before a
firing squad in the prison court
yard and shot.
She died as bravety as her
mother had done 33 yean earlier.
[?]
[?]
! ; The beautiful city j 1 of Batavia, where <! Banda MacLeod, ! ! daughter of Mata ! Hari, the glamor- |;ous spy of World ; War I, and a dissolute Scotsman,!! <! first followed her mother in the ! ; ! ! dangerous game of secret agent. J ; ! ; In Hie end she was unmasked inj! ' Korea and. shot by the Communists. ! j Help
! ; The beautiful city
j 1 of Batavia, where
<! Banda MacLeod,
! ! daughter of Mata
! Hari, the glamor-
|;ous spy of World
; War I, and a dissolute Scotsman,!!
<! first followed her mother in the ! ;
! ! dangerous game of secret agent. J ;
! ; In Hie end she was unmasked inj!
' Korea and. shot by the Communists. ! j
Below: Mata ' Hari, from whom, !! Banda MacLeod inherited both her! ! ! beauty and shrewdness. - Both were | !|ace spies and both died before a < ' ' firing squad. Help
Below: Mata ' Hari, from whom,
!! Banda MacLeod inherited both her!
! ! beauty and shrewdness. - Both were |
!|ace spies and both died before a <
' ' firing squad.
$