ABOUT SPIES.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1223, 4 September 1911, Page 5

ABOUT SPIES.

PRECAUTIONS AT SOUTHAMPTON, THE CASE OF SCHULTZ. By Tolejraph—Press Association— Copyright London, September 1. Owing to the spy scare extra precautions to guard the Government magazine at Southampton havo been taken. Soveral suspected foreign spies at Barrow aro being watched. Urgent steps are being taken in Southampton to seenro tho trial of Schultz, a Briton, arrested in March last at Hamburg. An examining magistrate visits him daily. Tho accused is prepared to call many British witnesses to- pro.ve his innocence. AN OFFICER'S WAGER. (Rec. ! Sept ember 3, 5.5 p.m.) London, September 2. The Portsmouth "News" states that the strengthening of tho guard at the ■Southampton magazine was tho outcome of an English officer's wager that he would entor the magazino in tho vicinity of Chatham, and remain long enough to arrange foT an explosion. He succeeded in his purpose after .gauging the sentry. SPIES AND THE LAW. As recently ago as July last an amendment to the Official Secrets. Act, of 1889, passed its second reading in tho British House of Lords and presumably is now law. The purpose of the Bill (as explained by Lord llaldanc), was to strengthen the law for dealing with the violation of obligations with regard to official secrets and with espionage generally. It applied to our own countrymen as well as to strangers, and its purposo was not to cnact any large body of new law, but to make more effective the law as it was intended to be made by the Act of 1889. Under that Act the assent of the Attor-ney-General was necessary for a prosecution, but that provision had been construed to mean tnal an arrest could not take place without tho warrant of tho Attorney-General. The result was _ that many of the individuals with whom it was desired to interfere were' a long way off before any warrant couUI be got. Therefore there was a provision authorising arrest on the warrant of a magistrate, or, in a great eme. gency, on the written order of a superintendent of police. Again, the places which were barred from public access were too few. For instance, it might be just as important that persons should not go into a private dockyard where a Government ship was building as it was that they should not go into a Government dockyard, and thero were many other places which had grown in importance in tho last 20 years which wore not covered by tho limited description of the- original Act. It was proposed to widen the definition of these places and to give tho Secretary of State, power, to be exercised in times of emergency, to prescribe other places. The main. change which the Bill made was a change of procedure. In order to convict any ono under the Official Secrets Act it was necessary to prove a purpose of wrongfully obtaining information, if a man was found in 'fortifications. That was often very difficult to prove. The Bill therefore adopted a method for which there was a precedent which was much more effective. If a person was found in such a place in uuspicious circumstances and did not ex- ' plain • himself, and was found running .away, he had to satisfy a jury that his purpose was a right one. Under tho Bill what would have to be shown was that there was a purpose prejudicial to the eafety or interests of tho State, and it was enacted that a. person's motive might be inferred if from tho circumstances of the case or his own conduot or his known oharacter ho might be taken to have besn there for no good purposo. .