SPYING ON SPIES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 159, 6 July 1940, Page 2 (Supplement)

SPYING ON SPIES

FEW people care to boast about their victories. While modesty is an admirable quality in any one, it becomes of primary importance in a spy. So far from gloating over a triumph, the spy must stand guard at his post and work like a beaver to prevent any living soul other than his employer from learning that he has secured secret or confidential information. Securing the material is not the difficult part of a spy's work. As a matter of fact, it is the easiest. Look at it from the victim's viewpoint. No piece of secret information is left carelessly unguarded for any length of time. Sooner or later its ahxsence is noted. .Should it be a piece of valuable military information that is lost an inquiry is instantly set on foot and someone is going to get into trouble. But how does that affect the spy? No better answer can be given to this question than an actual example or two. Fraulein Doktor Most readers will be familiar with the general outline of the career of Maria Lesser (the Fraulein Doktor). In my estimate she was the gieatest woman spy who ever lived. In later years she occupied the important post of Director of the Interior Zone in the German Secret Service. Which made her responsible for espionage in France and Britain, and for general * counterespionage behind the military zones on the Western front.

When a girl of 18, Maria fell desperately in love with a Captain Wyanky, a Pole in the German cavalry. Wyanky was not a very stable character. He got himself into one scrape after another and to save himself from a scandalous dismissal from the army volunteered for employment in the secret service.

He was sent to Russia and, having completed his novitiate, he was given the almost impossible task of discovering the Russian mobilisation plan. It was known that an entirely new scheme had !»een devised which was ba*ed upon the French alliance, but the whole thing was so carefully guarded by the group of advanced strategists in the army, that not even the War Minister (in German pay!) knew where it was concealed.

In order to promote her lover's future career, Maria Lesser undertook to join in the hunt for the secret document. She visited various parts of Russia aa the accredited representative of a German newspaper, interviewing the new school of Russian generals. Naturally, the interviews were not the unaided work of this young girl, but her ghost writer made such an excellent job of expanding her background material, that officers were flattered and competed for the girl's favours. Some of the interviewa lasted for several days and took place under conditions of the greatest intimacy. During one of them she learned where the one and only complete copy of the •mobilisation plan waa preserved.

A moat elaborate scheme was devised 'or its theft and transmission to Germany. By this time Maria had ostensibly transferred her affections to the colonel of the staff to whom the mobilisation scheme had been entrusted for safe keeping. She even uaed her new fame as a military critic to have the colonel appointed to represent the Russian Army at the" French military manoeuvres. It was her intention to have the colonel perform the theft involuntarily. Hidden in Jewel Case When the colonel left St. Petersburg for Paris he carried, at Maria'* request, not one dispatch box but two. Her jewel case waa concealed in one, because, she said, jewels caused unbounded trouble at frontiers with the Custom officials. The colonel was delighted- to please the pretty lady who was accompanying him to Paris. It is unnecesaary to say that her jewel case contained the precious manuscript copy of the mobilisation scheme stolen at the last minute. As diplomatic mail carried by a diplomatic messenger it passed without Customs inspection.

This is the fifth o) a series o} ar^c '££ dealing with spies, how they and t rlmt tneaiurcs are take:i t</ countFra< t them. The author Major Jhomas Con/son Jar man y y can tens a member of the Rruish /ntelligenrc He iradm,rated vith the Order of the Rri''«h 1 ivjiitr Ur i* note leeturer and mrmher •>! the *ta? of the fam-,n- franklin Institute of Philadelphia.

8y... Major Thomas Coulson

Once on German soil Maria received possession of her jewels." She also n.ade a rem.trkable recovery from her infatuation for the deluded old colonel. Feigning sickness, as she was an expectant mother, she left the train at Berlin in order to rest and consult a physician. Naturally she delivered her prize to Wyankv and his chief.

Instead nf being thanked and rewarded for this brilliant exploit, as he had anticipated, Wyanky received a stein rebuke for his colossal blundering! Ho and Maria were commanded to return to 0 Petersburg and to replace the stolen document before its theft had been noticed. Forty-eight hours later the thick wad of typewritten sheets was back in its accustomed place. But before they were returned to the Tussians they were photographed! Russia might now mobilise her troop 9 for a campaign against Germany. The latter knew exactly what to expect and could prepare against the event with equanimity. The one great fear that haunted German minds was that tho Russians might miss their papers, prepare a new scheme, and force the Germans to begin their hunt all over again Meanwhile. German strategists must work in the dark, not knowing what new danger might pounce upon them from the East.

No.S—Good Spies Don't Steal

For weeks the German secret service listened attentively with their ears to the ground. Xot a word of suspicion, never a breath of scandal, no outburst >! Jirnin-t tlio prevalence of spying in Russia. All \\a~ serene in the i' >iini that engulfs Russia when ii'T c.-thn is unruffled. Kin* ily. it wa-> a-I :iiitted that the little Lesser girl had • 'I -i I•::i;iat:t triumph. 'i'hi' German staff knew that Russian :t;•>1 < i 1: -a ti • >11 would In? painfully slow, and that only a small Inddini.' force would be required while the western army smashed its way to Paris through Belgium. Once the French were reduced to a state of helplessness—it would require about six weeks—the vast German Army machine would be put into reverse gear, and would come thundering back upon the slow-moving Russians. Tlure was nothing in the Russian plan of organisation and attack to menace the successful accomplishment of the Vr- Schlieffcn plan.

Russia Changes Plan However, they had not bargained with Russian cunning. The mobilisation scheme had been missed immediately another officer had taken over the colonel's papers when he departed for Fiance. Xnt a word was whispered, no hint of the theft was allowed to escape. In absolute secrecy new plans were prepared. The strategy outlined in the previous scheme was entirely changed, the time-table was greatly speeded up. and, in general, a wholly unpleasant surprise was put into pickle to await the time when the Germans needed a lesson.

True, the German General Staff were completely taken aback by the swiftness of Russian mobilisation; they had to encounter a situation that had no relation to the situation they had anticipated, and panic had already seized some generals. But an unknown old German dugout called Hindenburg arrived upon the scene and made military history that had never been envisioned by the brilliant strategists of the High Command and staff.

That story should be sufficient to illustrate what happens when ;i spy is clumsy enough to ~teal secret information. If the victim uf the theft is

clever enough to take advantage of the situation the stolen material is promptly converted into misinformation. In the public mind nothing seems so devastating as the loss of diplomatic code. But let us see.

Steals Code Book L nless the recording is a bit of a genealogist I doubt whether anyone kimws the real name and origin of a pretty young woman calling herself Xatalie Petrovna. However, you may assume with conviction that she was of Serbian birth—so much is sure. Coming to Berlin at the time when that city was enjoying one of its rare interludes of gaiety and when one might display wealth ostentatiously without being suspected of being a high X'azi official, Xatalie made quite a hit in the lower diplomatic circles.

She distributed her smiles generously in all directions until a handsome voung Italian diplomat took an interest in her. After that no other male was accorded a chance. In a reasonablv short space of time Xatalie had ac]Ulied the privilege of visiting the Embassy and of assisting her lover in the laborious task of coding and decoding diplomatic messages. She enjoyed this work, which is boring and uninteresting in the extreme. Rut she liked it and achieved a certain proficiencv in it. Then one day both Xatalie and the Embassy code book left Herlin at the same time. Providentially, the theft was soon discovered and the pursuit engaged. Several Italian diplomats disappeared abruptly into the seclusion of the Island of Lipari as a result, while Xatalie Petrovna, under all kinds of aliases, started out upon the strangest Odvssev of modern times.

Still in possession of the code book, she went from one country to another. Xo sooner had she landed than the Italian fiovernment asked for and obtained an order for her expulsion. Natalie and her guardians, two strapping men from the Balkans, had to exercise the greatest care where they went. Of course they might not make for the country which

had engineered the theft—that would involve embarrassing explanations—and there was always the chance that they might land in some country where the request might not be restricted to "expulsion." This was the period of castor oil and other painful politics in Italy.

But no one ever benefited from that astounding theft. The Italians never did recover the code book. They soon lost interest in it. No sooner had its disappearance been reported than an entirely new code was brought into operation throughout the Italian service. Acquired at considerable expense (for Xatalie lived expensively in Berlin), the code book was not worth the paper it was printed

Consequently we may lay down another rule to guide the conduct of the spy—good spies never steal. They may borrow, but steal? Never!

That gravely complicates the work, for it is difficult to conceal from an opponent that you have robbed him of jealously guarded secrets. Plain theft simply advertises the loss. Wasn't there a rather famous case of the plans of an American battleship disappearing 1 And when a certain foreign Power built a ship upon those stolen plans did the ship not turn turtle when she got her heavy armament aboard? That's what happens when a spy gets caught stealing. Photography's Aid There are some extraordinary stories of photography in espionage. One, for instance, was when a "civil engineer' 1 borrowed the blueprints of the electric light system of Kiel for two minutes to see if his firm might contract for some improvements. The plans were faithfully returned at the end of the stipulated two minutes, with the comment that his firm could not enter a bid because the material was not standard. The engineer and the rashly indiscreet German clerk parted with mutual expressions of regret that tlicy could not prolong ft pleasant (and profitable partnership. But the civil engineer had bagged his bird. He had a picture in a tiny camera that was worth more than its weight in gold. He had the key to the Kiel Canal defence scheme!

How communicator. materials advanced from fruits and vegetables to scientific products and the tragedy of secret inks are told in the next instalment of "Spying on Spies."