THE SPY GAME IN EUROPE

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 38, 13 August 1932, Page 23

THE SPY GAME IN EUROPE

Secret Agents Meet in One Long Struggle

"Camphor ice," said the man in the Leningrad barber shop when the barber asked what he would have on his face after a shave. The customer (let us call him Customer Number One) spoke perfect Russian without a trace of accent. A man in a nearby chair (Customer dumber Two), who was waiting for his turn with the barber, rose quickly, according to William C. White in the New .York "Herald-Tribune" Magazine. "Let mo see your identificationcard," he demanded of Customer Number One. • ■ The card, produced, showed the owner to be a resident of Leningrad. How long have you lived in this city? Ten years. "Get your hat and coat and come with me," Customer Number Two commanded. The identification card was found to be forged, aiid four days later Customer Number One was shot as a spy from the Baltic countries. "And all," Mr. White concludes, he had asked for camphor :ice, a common enough facial tonic in the Baltic States, and in Bussia, too, before tho Revolution—but one which disappeared from Russia after 1918." The story is one of several told by Mr. White to illustrate the prevalence of espionage systems throughout Europe to-day. One night last June "a closed car dashed through the quiot streets of the Polish town of Tsehev. The driver swung into the road that leads to Danzig. Beside, him were another young man and a woman," Mr. White says as he launches into another anecdote: "She was .Majewska, . a dancer, known and (Sheered, iv all the night clubs of 'Warsaw... Now, on this ride, she clung to a little bag, nervously, worriedly, frequently looking behind. "Danzig—three miles away—and freedom there from the Polish police! "The frontier lights showed ahead, end the car slowed down. Instead of sleepy guards, a group of«army officers sprang from the frontier station—and Majewska and her friends had taken their last ride but one." That last ride came three days later—to a stone wall and a firing squad. "For several months the Polish Secret Service had been receiving discouraging news from Soviet Russia. One by one Polish agents there, men •who had 'worked' in Russia for long years, were^being discovered—-and shot. The Soviet-counter espionage system seemed to have_developed second sight —or had they been furnished with a list of the Polish spies in Poland? "The latter seemed more likely, and investigation showed that "four Polish officers, together with Majewska, wore selling to the Russians information that Jed to the death of Polish agents. The little black bag which Majewska was trying to:get into Danzig offered final proof. •...-....

"Thus another sot of spies trapped, another revelation of treachery where loyalty was taken, for granted—and another firing squad on a' chilly dawn. "Embassies .are obliged to exercise particular; care' lest their secrets leak out, either through guile or carelessness. Attaches figure in some sensational tales. Tor example:— • "The disappearance of the Italian code book-from the Embassy in Berlin, in 1929, made a Sensational tale. "A number of countries, particularly Yugoslavia, France) and Bussia, were keen to 'possess this code book. An attache named Garbeeeio had charge of the, bookvand kept it under lock-and key. Garbeeeio had a secretary, a middle-aged -Italian woman—faithful, hardworking, but weary of having to work so hard. She was approached by two Yugoslavian agents, and after several weeks agreed to produce the code. She waited for a Saturday, since the code probably would not be needed over the vreek-end. «

"Then she had a bright idea. Yugoslavia, a poor country, was paying her a large sum of money for the code;

why wouldn't a French, agent pay a still higher price? So she got in touch with a secretary in the French Embassy, and ho was delighted. "On a convenient Saturday, she took tho code book from the Embassy, and the Frenchman photographed it. She then went to the Yugoslavs, and thoyj too, made a copy. She alone kuew there were two customers. "Early Monday morning , she went to the Embassy to return the code book. And there, looking as if he had been working all night, sat Garbeccio, trying to decode a pile of cables before him. The code book had been missed, "The secretary was frantic, but Garbeccio said nothing to the woman that day or at any other time. He had reported tho theft to the Ambassador, but fearing punishment from Mussolini, they kept the whole matter quiet. Garbeccio's secretary burned the code book and some time afterward resigned from the Embassy. "From May until tho end of September, the French and the Yugoslavian Governments read every Italian Foreign Office cable and telegram that fell into their hands, and the Foreign Office was none tho wiser. But in the autumn, Bomo learned for the first time that tho Berlin book had been stolen. •'Developments' came fast. Mussolini dismissed the entire Embassy t staff in Berlin, from Ambassador to footmen, and sent somo of them to Lipari, cheerless island of exile. "A citizen who sells his country's secrets' to a foteign nation, and - is caught, often faces a firing squad even in peace times. In the case of Army officers, death is practically inevitable. Mr. White cites certain cases:— "Such was the procedure in July of last year ■ when Major Dembowsky of tho Polish Army was arrested as he opened the house gate of the Soviet Embassy in Warsaw. He and tho suitcase lie glutched so nervously were hustled into a car and hurried to tho Polish War Office. There the suitcase was opened, and from it poured a roll of documents—the entire mobilisation plans of the Polish Army, showing exactly what that army would do in event of war between Poland and tho Soviet Union. A few days later, after court-martial, 'Major Dembowsky was shot. . , "An incident somewhat similar to this- occurred in Prague several years ago. An officer in tlie Czechoslovakia!! Army hurried to the Prague airfield one morning, rushing to catch the Berlin 'plane. Ho was noticeably excited. He caught the 'plane, but iv his haste and excitement left a small attache case behind. Attendants at the ( field opened the case to discover its owner— I and when the officer returned by tho next 'plane to get tho case, ho walked into the aims of the police and, a little later, to a wall before a firing squad. In September last year, likewise, the Poles executed a corporal iv their army for selling secrets to the Lithuanians. "Stories of Soviet espionage .figure large among the tales which go round Europe, but very_ little is said of European espionage in Soviet Russia. In somo ways it is the most" difficult of all countries (barring, perhaps, Japan) for foreign systems to- operate in. Every European city has its group of foreigners, retired gentlemen of wealth, business representatives, students,- workmen, and even some unemployed. And a spy can settle down among them ' without exciting undue attention. The central figure of the German espionage system in England before the war was a little German tailor, living in- the poorest part of London. •

"But Soviet Russia has virtually no foreign colonies in its cities; it offers no place for private business, for agences of foreign firms, for retired gentlemen, for' any of the hundred subterfuges that espionage agents adopt in other lands. Agonts wlio would reside in Moscow must think of new excuses."