NETWORK OF SPIES

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 58, 9 March 1923, Page 3

NETWORK OF SPIES

EUROPE IN TORMENT

A FRENCH DETECTIVE STORY

"Spies? Europe is full of them, and there is not a Chancellery on the Continent that doesn't receive some new proof daily that political intrigue is just as amazingly perfected by the nations of Europe as in the days before the war, when Berne was the centru of the world's espionage."

This analysis of the espionage problem as it exists to-day wns given to me recently (writes Edmund Brown in the "New York Herald") by one of the French Government's spy detccLoro, an agent who for more than twenty yeaVu haG spent most of his time in the company of France's enemies, and in scores of cases has succeeded in obtaining evidence which has resulted in the arrest and conviction of notorious adepts of that most reprehensible profession —espionage. He has worked in Berne daring toe social exploits of the notorious "Lady" Beckley, who wao not a "lady" at all, ■ but an erstwhile waitress whose beauty tho Austrian Government found advantageous as a lure 'or unsuspecting diplomats. The series of documentary thefts by the former German officer known as "Karl the First," long suspected to be the working chief of Germany's spy system, were unravelled by my informant, and "Karl the First" only escaped capture in a foot race over the FrancoSwiss frontier.

"Yes, there are thousands and thousands of spies working in Europe today, bus their personality and their methods are not of tb.9 same finesse ■as in the oid days," continued my informant. ."The military spy, as developed by Germany, has no place in the new system. He wa3 always a swashbuckling sort of individual, apparently trying to. conceal his profession by a flashy, goose-stepping demeanour, and after a little experience our agents were able to pick out his ilk nine times out of ten. To-day any military spying that is done is on the inside, and while, every European army has a certain number of recruits from other lands who are pledged to keep their own country informed as to new discoveries, this phase 'of espionage no longer worries iis. It is virtually impossible to keep knowledge of _ new inventions even from the • ordinary public. "The bigger problem is to keep our political secrets safe. A SPY WHO WAS A COOK. " Even the household employees of various . delegates must be watched continually," continued the French spy chaser. " Less than three months ago the maitre d'hotel in the home of one of the permanent . officials of ■ the League at Geneva was caught in the act of spying • upon an important conference. He had hidden himself behind a thick curtain, and was .busy writing shorthand notes with the aid of a pencil fitted with a small electric bulb attachment when another employee gave the alarm.^ His notes, as well as his clothing, are now in the hands of the Geneva^ police; the culprit himself suueeeded in crossing the Italian frontier, and in less than a fortnight was reporting his failure to a group of fellow-spies in the . rear room of a third-class Vienna cafe.

"Female spies, fashionably dressed and ready to charm any diplomatic victim who- may lay himself open to .thedr luring, are no longer in vogue. When the League first appeared in Geneva the hotel dining-rooms,' various ballrooms, and fashionable gathering places suddenly experienced . an unprecedented feminine clientele. Among these were recognised some of the old habitues of the Berne spy centre; they .had come from Vienna, from Eome, from A.thens, and all other international headquarters to ply their old trade —looking for stray bits of information which might be sold to interested Governments. But the grizzled diplomats of the League' were put on their guard, and the word went out that great discretion must be used in meeting the women of Geneva; clerks were told that their positions were at stake if they talked too much to their fair charmers from abroad, and iD less than a year the feminine invasion had moved back to more susceptible diplomatic bases than Geneva, with its horde of well-informed, but unimpressionable, embryonic statesmen." MURDER LEAGUE STILL EXISTS. The notorious League of Serbian officers,^ which has long been one of the brilliant factors in Balkan uprisings, is still existent. It was responsible for' the murder of King Alexander and Queen Draga, and later added the Archduke Francois Ferdinand to its list of victims. During the war it even planned to do away with the present ruler of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, as well as M. Patchich, Serbia's leading statesman. To-day it is looking for new victims, ' according to detectives who know the Vienna situation, although its almost nightly meetings in the Cafe Museum opposite the Naschmarakt seem to the outsider to be merely beer drinkIng bouts, with, an occasional political argument. Just as dangerous to Europe's future is the meeting-place of the so-called Committee of Albanian Patriots—a dingy, smelly cafe just off the Josef - staedter-strasse, in Vienna. It was here that Essad Pasha was condemned to death, and the young Albanian student given funds with which to come to Paris, first to ransack the desk of the Albanian official and then to slay him in front of the Hotel Continental. But every member of this group is a spy, with the secrets of Jugo-Slavia as bis particular objective, and as the committee's attitude has become openly hostile during recent months Belgrade has had to counter its influence by instituting a spy group of its own in another Viennese bierhaus; THE "TERRIBLE IVAN." The Serbian Government has considered the situation so serious that it has placed its Vienna outpost under the control of the famous Irfan Balleff, known in his own country as the "Terrible Ivan." His job is a multiple one, for _no sooner had he started to spy upon "the action of the Albanians than the Montenegrin element and the Mohammedans of Jugo-Slavia each became militant, with the result that to-day Vienna is seething with dangerous intrigue which may at any time devejop the basis for a new Balkan conflagration. One effect of the "Terrible Ivan's" presence, however, has been the removal of .the headquarters of the National Croatian Club to Budapest, where, in common with Austrian monarchists, it is working for the- collapse 'of the Central Em-opsan system devised by President Wilson in the Treaty of Versailles. It still maintains a few trained cgenls v/ho meet in the Cafo Imperial in Vienna, which h also the headquarters of the Montenegrin revoHifcionaner. Two other factions, 'but cash with farreaching espionage services, have developed alarmingly in ■Vienna during the .lasi. year. The first of these is the Bolshevik Russian group, tnd a'nio&t any night in the Cafe. FudiK, the Cafe Herreiiliof, or the Piccola one can find the

'Moscow agents receiving reports from their spies returning from the big capitals of Europe. They are closely watched by both the agents of other nations and the representatives of the Russian Emigrants' Committee, headed by the •Prince Gregoire Troubetskoi. In addition, the Turks are becoming very active in Vienna, and, with the Egyptians and Bulgarians, have let it be known that the Cafe Atlantis will always find a willing ear to hear grievances against and to conspire against the safety of England and her possessions. "Is it any wonder," commented the spy chaser, "that Europe is always in v state of torment? Diplomats never know whether their plans are secret or already defeated by a counter scheme devised around the beer-stained tables of a Vienna cafe."