SPIES AT WORK.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 15939, 28 June 1917, Page 9

SPIES AT WORK.

LEAKAGE IN AMERICA. GERMANY LEARNS OF "WARSHIPS' DEPARTURE. (FROM OUIt OffX COKBKSPONDKNT.) SAN FRANCISCO.. Slay 28. The United States Government lwsi boon astounded at a most sensational leakage, causing two rigid investigations to bo started into tho activities of ;(Joriuan epics, which enabled word of tho sailing and tho port of destination of tho American B °nt to Europo, to reach Berlin four days in> advance of tho arrival of tho ships ai tho port of Quecnstown, Ireland. Ono investigation is being made -by tho United States Navy Department, tho othor by tho Department of Justice, which until now has bad entire chargo of German cspionago activities in t&> United States. . Imperilling. as it did I tho entire dostroyer squadron by enabling mine-planting submarines to sow With mines thd waters around tho baso toward which tho American ships wore heading, tho< Administration moved quickly and decisively ,to uproot tho spy system in America. ' Tho vital question in the whole series of investigations proceeding is: How did Germany learn tho British port the American warships woro hcadinjj for? And. how was the information transmitted to Berlin? ' Mr Daniels, Secretary of tho Navy, said on May 2Gth, concerning tho mys- > tcry:—"l was sure that no word coald have c6caped of tho sailing or tho destination of the destroyers. The American newspapers printed nothing, and. there was no talk elsewhere. Admiral Sims's message of yesterday was a shock. It contained only tho bare statement that Germany know of the. sailing four days beforo tho destroyers reached England, and that tho harbour had been mined tho day before." It. was definitely determined that no word could havo escaped from any officer or sailor of tbo warships themselves. Tho men know they were being made ready fcr soa duty, but, it mig/it havo been patrol work" and when they sailed it was under sealed orders, which wero not onened until the vessels wero far out at sea. JSven the United State* Cabinet did not know of tho naval expedition until the destroyers wero almost in Europe. Neither did tho General Board of the Navy. Secretary Daniels himself did not know tho port for which the vessels wero bound. Ho declared that ho had left all details of ' tho expedition to tbo officials in com- ! mand —tho Bureau of Operations, of which Rear-Admiral Benson is chief. Tho Secretary did not know tho names of tho officers in command of the individual ships. The expedition was recommended by Rear-Admiral Sims, who had gone to London some time previously. It was approved by President Wilson, and the 6hios woro ordered to mako ready. Only high officers of tho Bureaus of Navigation and Operations had anything to do with sending tho ships a'wav. All communications with. Rear-Admiral Sims were carried on in a special code —not tho regulation navy code, but a secret system used only on special occasions. After- the ships wero at sea they had no wireless communication with either America or England. They did not use their radio apparatus at all, so it was impossible that German stations should lucre "picked up" messages. The only suggestion _ made is that some German spy operating in America, may have learned that tho American! destroyers had departed from an Atlantic port, and havo concluded that they were bonnd for Europe, and that ho most have lurried to Merico, where the news was flashed across by the' powerful wireless said to havo recently been erected-there -to-connect with Berlin-