MODERN WAR SPIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 112, 14 May 1925, Page 14

MODERN WAR SPIES.

GREAT NATIONS ACTIVE, j IN PRYING INTO SECRETS, j The revival of competition in naval ; and aircraft armament among the ; groat nations of tlie world is coincident j With marked activity on the part of j international spies. They have profited . by the practical experience in espionage that was pained between 11114 and I 1918, and are now more active and ! more dangerous than they were before | the war. A case occurred recently, involving national secrets of vital importance, j which would virtually rock two continenta if the facts were ever dis- j closed. This is only one of a scries of ', espionage cases in the last two years. . It happened that in this case the per- | petrntor was detected. In the others i all that the Government departments j concerned have known is that there has been a leakage. | Three subjects especially occupying : the attention of the spy to-day arc: I Aviation, poison gas. naval designs.

Seek Aircraft Secrets. \ All tile nations of the world are j making rapid strides in the develop- ! merit of certain types of aircraft. There are important secrets in connection with these types that each country is trying to discover. The "pilotless plane,'' steered and controlled by : wireless, is one such type, and the helicopter is another. Aircraft carriers are | other closely-guarded secrets in which | spies are particularly interested.

Considerable sensation was occasioned recently when an American naval ottieer stated publicly that an American naval man had been on board certain British men-of-war during secret gunnery trials and had made a report ou the subject to his fellow-countrymen.

The incident is not admitted officially to be accurately described, but it is typical. The post-war spy is an expert in the subject on which he is spying.

Chemical Warfare Spies. This is particularly the ease in regard to poison gas. Although a Washington treaty specifically binds five of the Great I'owers not to use poison gas in warfare, there are plenty of other nations .that are not so bound. "Chemical warfare" is the polite name for the horror, and the men who are prying into the secrets of each nation are practical and skilled chemists.

The secrets of the world's navies, too. are being probed by men with wide experience of naval warfare. The recent case in the British courts, when two dockyard men were sentenced for betraying secrets, let in a flood of light on the methods of the modern spy-