WORMING OUT SECRETS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3148, 18 February 1911, Page 10

WORMING OUT SECRETS.

DOG EAT DOG. There lias: been a curious display of indignation in this country (writes a Berlin correspondent) over “British espionage/’ in connection with the trial of Captain Trench and Lieutenant Brandon. The uninitiated might gather from this attitude the impression that Germany herself employs no spies and abhors all secret methods of procuring information about the naval and military matters of other Powers. But it would be a false impression, because German spies on her neighbors- and they spy on her, and so on through all the military Powers of Europe. From a well-inform-ed source I have received the following particulars of the methods of espionage employed by Continental Powers. Espionage is the natural sequence of the work clone by the Intelligence Department, which is entrusted with the task of collecting generally accessible information about the military affairs of other countries. It must be remembered that very many details about the army and navy of each country are published in the press of that country, and can thus be obtained without anv difficulty by collecting the newspaper cuttings qr Parliamentary papers in question

Every Continental Intelligence Department maintains a staff of newspaper readers, who have to peruse all publications on naval and military subjects in all the civilised countries of the world. In this way all the particulars of naval and military estimates and many details of new battleships or fortifications or other preparations for war are gathered and classified under their respective heads. It frequently happens that information of this kind, which is generally accessible to any vigilant watcher, suggests the need of more complete knowledge on some particular subject, and the espionage begins to supplement the operations of the Intelligence Department. Supposing, for instance, that some newspaper report contains the information that new fortifications are to. be constructed at some new strategic point, one or more secret service agents are instructed to obtain sir 'dementary details concerning the plan of the new works, with the armament with which they will be sunnlied. Similar efforts are made in the case of new battleships and other military preparations. All sorts of men are employed in operations of espionage- they, include broken-down noblemen, bankrupt business men, nrofessional workers, who have lost their means of sustenance, retired Civil Service officials, and so forth. Women, too, are employed in very maincases where it is thought that they can ferret out information which would be less accessible to male snies.

The work of professional spies is supplemented by special missions undertaken by military and naval officers, who obtain leave of absence for the purpose of getting important information on some subject of particular interest to their own Govrcnment. The employment of officers for such duties is often desirablo owing to the utter unreliability of professional spies, many, of whont are entirely devoid of technical knowledge, and are thus badly equipped for the task of collecting useful information, while those of them who have hold commissions in some army or naw frequently utilise their own knowledge of military and naval subjects to invent stories which arc quite untrue, but which serve to justify their existence. Owing to the uncommon or deliberate unreliability of professional spies it has frequently been necessary . for Intelligence Departments to employ one set of secret service agents to watch those who are actually engaged in the work of espionage, a verv costly method of procedure. Cases are also on record where spies, while serving their own Govenmentj have at the same time betrayed their own country by simultaneously supplying secret information to another Power. Some years ago it was found that the director of an Austrian railway had been betaying military secrets to the Russian Glovemnent, and his contributions to the knowledge collected in St. Petesburg: regarding Austrian military affairs was considered so valuable that he went in and out of the Russian War Office as freely as if it were his own home. While doing so he exploited his opportunities to obtain information about Russian military plans which lie then sold to Austria. He carried on this double treachery for nearly five years before his operations were discovered, and ho is new living, luxuriously on the profits of his espionage in a third country. . , ‘ By way of verifying the work of professional spies three of four different secret service agents are sometimes entrusted with the same task, while one or two more are ordered to watch them and check their results. It is a great ■ mistake to suppose that a military Power only practises espionage to obtain information about countries with which it expects to become involved in hostilities. Quite the contrary is the case, liecause every Intelligence Department collects information about the allies of its own country without considering the political situation of the possibility of war, so that the fact of the spies' of one country operating in the territory of another ' bv no means indicates any unfriendly intentions. It is merely the dutv of every Intelligence Department to be accurately informed regarding the naval and military resources pi everv possible future enemy, even if the ’possibility be very remote.