SPIES IN BRITAIN

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 57, 8 March 1913, Page 10

SPIES IN BRITAIN

A BELGIAN BASE OF OPERATIONS. Writing on 23rd January, the Brussels correspondent of the London Chronicle says:-— At the request' of the British Government, the Belgian police are keeping a keen eye on a group of Germans who established at Ostend an.afeency whose object is the carrying on of espionage. The members of this group arcX extremely active, and their operations extend to . all the principal naval and military centres in the United Kingdom. . i This spy agency is most energetic during the Ostend "seasons," when many foreign officers and political personages of many countries are in the habit of visiting the popular resort. As is so often 'the case, this agency has in its employment numerous. young, clever, good-looking women, by means of whose wiles it is hoped to obtain from visitors with whom they may become acquainted facts concerning the naval and military strength of their countries, and any special information they may possess. . Moreover, in the summer "months Ostertd is frequented by such large numbers of strangers that the danger of detection is greatly reduced, and the surveillance of suspected persons becomes a matter of extreme difficulty. It is this circumstance that has enabled the members of the group to carry on their lucrative hidden work for many years past. , •