SPYING ON SPIES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 165, 13 July 1940, Page 2 (Supplement)

SPYING ON SPIES

This in the sirth of a series 0/ art tries drilling with spies, how thin operate, and what measure* are taken to eounteran them. The author, ,\fa)or Thomas ('niilsnii, fur many liears trni a member of the British Intrllii/t lire scrrirr. Hr was ilmirateil with the Order tit the llrttish l.mpirr lie is <u,w Irrt niee and no .11 hi r nl the ,1,, a „t the tnmnus franklin Institute 0/ I'liilmleliihln.

By---Major Thomas Coulson

QBTAINING information is the least difficult part of the spy's task, especially during war scares. At this time so many people are thrust into positions of responsibility who have never known it in their civilian life that they are bursting with self-importance and fearful that anyone should overlook the influential position they occupy. These people seek an audience to hear what they have to tell. Anything with two ears is an audience to them. Naturally they simplify a spy's work. Concealing the information h<? has stolen is a. harder task for the spy when he is concerned with confidential documents. This constitutes a real difficulty and require* that he be fully prepared to make a copy of the document at the moment he has access to it. Otherwise he may lose the chance of seeing it again. But, having got his information and concealed his success, the spy must now gird himself for the hardest part of his task. Ho him to smuggle the material out of the country. In peace time this may he difficult, but in time of war it is achieved only after a perpetual battle of wits between keen opponents. Recalling that a spy cannot be convicted of wrongdoing unless concrete evidence of being in possession of confidential documents or of communicating with a foreign Power can be traced to him, we can readily see why the counterspies concentrate their efforts upon intercepting correspondence. Invisible Ink mi Code In espionage romance the two popular methods of transmitting materia] is through the agency of an invisible ink or by code. In actual practice the scrutiny of the censors make* the use of either of these in modern times little short of writing one's own death warrant. It would, of course, be an exaggeration to say that synthetic inks and codes are never used, but it is safe to say that more spies are detected through their use than by any other means. Later on we shall see how resourcefulness has taught the better type of spy to employ much subtler methods to escape detection. For the moment let us examine the case of invisible inks. I can recall the time when men engaged Upon delicate secret missions wrote their messages sometimes in onion juice, lemon juice or even urine. Twentyfive years ago such "secret inks" were

actually in use. But they did not stand for long under any genuine trial. Credit must be given the (ierman secret suvvices for being the lirst to introduce more modern methods. They were the fuvt to introduce reliable invisible inks. Kroni that time on a sharp battle Was fought out, not between spy and eoiniter-r-pv but. between chemist and chemist. Xi>t. only had the chemists of different countries to furni.-li their own services ui;h Mutable writing thuds, but they iil*o bad to provide their men with the means of detecting any use of invisible ink by their adversaries. Detecting Secret Inks How are secret inks detected? There are several ways, and if Mich information is placed in the hands of unauthorised persons it might be put to dangerous uses. Therefore, Ido not propose to tell how to make a safe invisible ink nor how to manufacture reagents which make invisible inks legible. The public must be satisfied to know that with a few cheap and simple chemical substance* which can easily be smearel over the blank spaces of writing and printed matter the censors can readily discern when a message has been written on the paper. Much the larger proportion of captured spies are detected through faulty means of transmitting correspondence. The majority of these are detected by the postal censorship department looking for the use of codes and invisible inks. In this work the censor is much effective than the active counter-spy restricted to other methods. I have known many cases —indeed. I have been baffled more than once myself—where the baggage of a known spy has to be searched in order to find the chemical from wnich his secret ink has been made. The difficulties are tantalising. For example, a certain mouthwash with an unblemished reputation when on the dressing table, is an excellent basis for a secret ink. A very popular eye-wash even resisted chemical tests but eventually succumbed when submitted to ultra-violet radiation. The presence of bottles of these fluids in travelling bags cannot form a substantial basis for suspicion. Later on in the battle between the scientists, the spies had such splej.did inks that they virtually defied exposure in their crude form. Only when correspondence was submitted to clnmical test could the use of these inks be detected and when their nature was known it still remained a problem tc find where the basic supply was hidden. An innocent looking lipstick was a solidified form of one ink common to one group of spies. Delicate lace edged pocket handkerchiefs were saturated in solutions of chemicals and allowed to dry. The owner merely had to,soak a corner of the article in water to have enough ink to write a novel. Men's shirts, ties, even soiled socks, were used to carry supplies of ink in crystallised form. The chemist made life miserable for the counter-spy. At one time only did the latter overtake the chemist and rout him with all his works. Whenever anyone came to us with a suggestion by which wa might conceal our own messages we always gave our adversaries credit for having thought of it first. Before putting it

No. 6 — Invisible Inks Are Dangerous

into practice we made sure that the other fellow was not using it, which would have made it useless to us. Having been completely baffled for (■oiiio little time by secret inks that defied detection during the search of bagfiage, our examiners applied a new technique ami achieved a triumph. Several potential spies were recognised the moment they set foot in the country. Instead of looking for invisible inks that were literally invisible, the searchers looked in suspects' travelling bags for ball-pointed pens. That policy proved » successful that they feared it was too good to last. But k did, for years on end! Here is the secret. Push :i sharp steel jKiint loaded with fluid —any fluid —across paper, and you will inevitably pull some of the microscopic: fibres oil the surface of the paper with it. A powerful microscope will not reveal the writing but it will betray the displacement of the surface fibres. A technical paper expert cautioned our men agsAst using steel-pointed |>ens and recommended the use of ball-pointed pens. Consequently, in searching baggage' the examiners at landing places along the coast simply sought these teil-tale articles. The procedure led to much embarrassment for people who had been accustomed to the use of these pens for years, and had never had any intention of writing with secret inks. But it served to trap many others whose intentions were not so innocent. I have often wondered whether the sales statistics of these pens reflects the abandonment of secret inks by spies.

Here and now, I want to pay tribute to one opponent who fooled the watchers. This man immersed his paper in water and maltreated it generally before allowing it to dry. He changed all the surface fibres in the paper instead of only a few, for he continued to use a conventional pen. This. I always thought, wn.s taking unfair advantage of technical knowledge. He was a |>;i [KM-pulji salesman! How Watchers Were Fooled Invisible ink whs not always applied ti> paper. During a lime of almost perfect peace a lady was intercepted at' the French frontier who was smuggling out <>f the country beautiful drawings of the French To* mm. field gnu. They were drawn in invisible ink upon the 'folds of a white underskirt. I offer no suggestion to the modern woman spy who might lind difficulty in finding space for the working drawings of a. pistol upon contemporary feminine underwear. Another curious instance of an article of costume being employed for the conveyance of secret messages related to a perfectly genuine nun. The lady belonged to that Order whose members wear those large butterfly head-cover-ings of Know whiteness. "'Hie message was written on her headdress. Perhaps in justice to the lady 1 ought to add that she was entirely innocent of the purpose to which her headgear was being applied. However, the message did not get through that day. My some, curious mischance the nun encountered a police official witli rooted religious prejudices. It was against his principles to extend any privilege or even common courtesy to meml>ers of the Roman Catholic faith. In spite of the nun's papers she was not allowed to proceed.

By far the most exasperating people to deal with in espionage are the Russians. At a time when steady streams of couriers were carrying secret messages out of Bolshevik Russia, those men who were responsible for transmitting the information were almost driven insane by the reckless carelessness of the couriers. Not that their courage or their unselfish devotion was ever in question. But they developed prejudices that no amount of persuasion could dislodge from their minds. Casualties were very heavy anion" 1 these poor Russians. This was due to the elementary fact that when they were outside their own country they insisted upon blending with their exiled fellow countrymen. This exjßised them to the continual menace of the Russian counter-spy, of whom there were battalions. For some reason the couriers developed the conviction that nothing would serve their purpose but secret inks. And secret inks they had to have. Then the Russian secret police cultivated a most uncanny knack of running their hands over a person and making hidden paper crackle. All the couriers seemed to be carrying their messages written on thin paper sewn into their clothing. Casualties increased. Then the messages were typed with a synthetic ink on strips of linen and sewn into clothing with much better success. Then what must these couriers do but develop a passion for swimming over rivers in their clothes to reach a friendly country, thus rendering the messages indecipherable. Altogether, secret inks were not successful with most Russian couriers, although in common fairness it has to be said that others made intelligent use of them. On Passport Photographs! Ingenuity occasionally ran riot with secret inks. For quite a long time messages were written in invisible ink on the surface of passport photographs. Counterspies must have had scores of these terrible documents thrust under their noses. Then, with dramatic suddenness, the practice ceased. The enemy were found to be employing it. Still another-curious method of transmitting secret messages which proved disconcerting was adopted by a German agent in Switzerland for conveying instructions to a fellow agent in France. The messages were written in a secret ink on the shells of eggs, which were included in an ordinary commercial crate load. Every egg in the crate had to be steeped in a bowl of chemical reagent to find those which bore messages. Although the receiver of the eggs, was under observation for months, "it took all that time to solve the method of correspondence. When the owner of the eggs was finally of no further use to the French Secret Service, who had been learning much of their adversary's troubles from this source, she died—of twelve gunshot wounds. To-day the spy has probably the finest chemists in his country readv and able to produce for his use a rich assortment of secret inks. If he is wise he will eschew them all. He is a brave man who would venture to say that no infallible secret fluid can be provided. It is possible that one exists. But this I can say from conviction after seeing so many failures, that if I were a spy nothing would induce me to risk my liberty and my life upon the contents of an ink bottle. I have seen the interiors of police laboratories, and there was a handwriting on the wall of each. There are other methods available, some better, some worse. There is, for example, the question of codes. The trouble with codes is that they are a shade worse than invisible inks for exposing the spy to detection. What is a good spy code? The story of a vaudeville artist's song and prodigious feat of memory performed by a woman spy are revealed in the next instalment of "Spying on Spies."