NAZI SPIES ABROAD.

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 106, 31 October 1936, Page 6

NAZI SPIES ABROAD.

A SPECIAL SERVICE

IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA

The Nazis have a special secret service in France, Austria, the Scandinavian countries,' and Czechoslovakia that exists independently of Uie secret service working for the German Ministry of War and the Gestapo (German secret police); it is independent even of the branches of the ■■ Nazi Parly abroad, which carry out propaganda and espionage all over the world, says a writer in the "Manchester Guardian."

This special service is the foreign sub-department of the "Referat El," which carries out a general internal espionage on German soil among the German Civil Service and in the Nazi Party itself. The nominal head of the foreign sub-department, or special service, is a member of the old German nobility, whose name (which is in the possession of your correspondent) and connections make it easier to establish useful contacts with influential persons, clubs, societies, and so on, thus providing a cover for espionage. The activities of the Czechoslovak branch of the special service are of particular interest, for Czechoslovakia lies, within the orbit of German expansionist policy. This branch is a part of the manifold but well-co-ordinated system by which Germany hopes the Czechoslovak State is to be undermined so as to>be the more easily absorbed or partitioned.

The chief of this branch is a former lieutenant of the Reichswehr. The branch has two main sections. The first'is concerned with the Boehmwer Wald region, including Eger and Asch, and has its headquarters in Munich. The second is concerned with the Bodenbach arid Riesen Gebirge regions as far as Prague itself. Even Germans who have considerable inside knowledge of their own secret services believe that the headquarters. of this section are in the offices of the Gestapo in Dresden. They are, however, mistaken, for the headquarters are in Leipzig, at 21 Philipp-Rpsenthaler-strasse.

The special service also includes several centres that have been established in Czechoslovakia itself. But they are not, as might be supposed, in the German-speaking regions, but on the Hungarian frontier. There is, in fact, close co-operation between the Hungarian Secret Service' and the "Referat El."

The special service avoids direct contact with the "Henlein Party," because that party is compelled for political reasons to show a constitutional exterior. The special service is in close touch.with a sub-organisation of that party, the "Deutsche Turnverband."

During the last few months members of this "Turnverband" who have shown themselves to be reliable Nazis have been transferred to Germany, where they are now being trained. One of their main tasks is to establish contacts with all political parties in Czechoslovakia and to win over persons who are predisposed in favour of Germany or of "Fascism," especially in the garrisons in the Sudetic regions, with a view to creating disaffection in the event of war. Persons who are "anti-Fascist" are marked down for observation. Upon every agent who is enlisted in the special service is impressed the idea of the future National Socialist hegemony in Europe. ' •'.,.■