PRICE ON HEAD

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 48, Issue 82, 17 January 1928, Page 8

PRICE ON HEAD

SECRET SERVICE AGENT. CAPT. EVEPJTT’S ADVENTURES AUCKLAND, January 16. On board the Niagara this niormn arrived a man on whose head the Gei mans put a price during the war— jCapasked about his exploits “Oh ves ” he said, “I was rainy busy during the war, but there has been a lot of nonsense written about me. Pnritain Everitt wanted To be a> war correspondent, but his father insisted thatThcT should study law. He eventuallv became the sporting lawyer of Eng land Since he was seventeen years old Sain Everitt has written, for newsSpers He has several books_ to Ins SSt, the most famous of winch. was •<‘Ti- e British Foreign Secret Sen ice During the War.” This hook created .considerable discussion and Lol 'f B “ ikenhead threatened to take diastic action about it. Long before 19i3 Copt. Everitt had been round the world with ■a fishing rod, and through the Sun Yat Sen revolution in China His life h«s 'been one of many travels and wondei>ful adventures, about which he is naturally reticent. “Yes. I was roped in for secret service during the war,” he remarked this morning. “1 had charge of the lmes between Pebrograd and Archangel, and we kept the northern route open tor two years, and then, as he says himself, he “got knocked out.” He was concernedl in manv daring adventures, ana gathered most valuable information tor the British Foreign Service. “Naturally Germans knew oui men and we knew theirs/’ he said, “and when either side effected a coup the other fellow was made to get it. As recently as 1925 Captain Everitt met Raisuli near Morocco, and in lJld he “came into collision with tne Chinese bandit known as “White Wolf. India is the only country which he has not visited, and that will be done sooner 01 This 61 morning Captain Everitt told the following story of the work oi the British Foreign Secret Service during the war, and one felt that he was one of the fishermen concerned m it. At one critical period of the war the Bu•tish Admiralty was trying to put a barrage of defence across the btrait oi Dover, because of the damage from German submarines operating from the Belgian coast. They were playing havoc with British shipping in the Channel. Admiral Hall, of the Foreign Secret Service, devised a very ingenious plot bv which a barrage was completed. ~A map, a secret code and part of a log book, whch was made to look as though it belonged to the Black Prince, a British cruiser which bad been sunk, were devised and sent out to a British secret service officer in Denmark. This officer made the papers look as though they had been partly damaged by fire and oil and water, put them in a locked cupboard and fastened them to a piece of wreckage. Eventually the wreckage was vrashed ashore in Denmark and found by a fisherman, who (of course) was m sympathy with Britain. His companion was in sympathy with Germany. According to plan the papers were taken to the German vice-consul and Berlin was communicated with. After some bargaining the secret code book e.nd part of the log book were sold to Germany. The map was kept by the Danish (?) fishermen. With the aid of the code the German fleet was able to pull off some small stunts. Satisfied with their suocess the Germans negotiated for the purchase of the map from the Danish (?) fishermen, and it was eventually sold for £IOOO in gold. When the Germans got the map they found that it gave full particulars of the defences of the Strait of Dover, and that it would be impossiole for German submarines to get through the chain of nets and other devices. This so frightened the German naval authorities that they gave orders that no submarines were to go through the strait, and that they were-to take the route round the north of Ireland. By this ruse the British defences in the Channel were completed successfully, .and tl e British Government; obtained £IOOO in German gold. ® Captain Everitt leaves for Russell to-morrow to try his luck with big fish.