COST OF SPYING

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 148, 26 June 1933, Page 9

COST OF SPYING

FOUR EXPERTS SPEAK

Disclosures of espionage by secret agenis of Germany, Great Britain, Trance, and Soviet Russia are inado in a book, "Pour Spies Speak," by Heinz Ecke, says the London "Daily Telegraph." The four contributors are anonymous, but the compiler vouches for the truth of what- they write. Germany, it appears, revived her intelligence service in 1920. Ono of its first exploits -was to plant a spy at French H.CJ.' during the occupation of the Ruhr. v "During the war (it is stated) the expenditure on espionage naturally rose heavily. The last two years oi' war were the worst. In 1917-18 the German intelligence costs were about 25,000,000 marks a month. England,'] which paid better than Germany, probably spent from £1,500,000 to £1,800,000 a month while France's expenditure can hardly have been less. Today the above-mentioned countries manage with about a fifth of their war expenditure per month. "The photographs and details of the latest type of British tank will find the best market in Prance, where they will fetch something like £ 150. As Germany has far less interest in tanks, she'will only pay between £25 and i&'iO. Italy's price may. be calculated at something between those offered by the other two, but in certain circumstances Russia will pay as high a sum as France. The "United States will pay even more, but there the spy must share his gains with a middleman." IMPBOVING GUNS. | According to.the French contributor,, important developments in artillery arc now in progress: . "It will not be long before all nelU artillery is likely to be adapted to us© against aircraft; it will also bo possible to fire various types of shells from one gun. At present America is experimenting with a quick-firing gun, worked by electricity, which will be able to discharge 1460 rounds a minute. "France has a finished model of a--10mm. calibre 'gun worked by motor power, which will emit 1400 rounds a minute. This weapon is mounted on an armoured ear, which has room to carry the enormous supplies of munitions needed by such a weapon. "This invention, which possesses the maximum mobility, -should be a good rival to the slower tanks. The machine gun is worked by a dynamo taking its power from the car's engine; the same power works a radiator that keeps the gun's barrel at a normal temperature." Among other sensational statements in the book is one to the effect that all secret military codes prepared for use in "the next war" have found their way to enemy archives. "It is a general custom to inspect such safes once a year to ascertain whether the mobilisation papers have been tampered with, and the last .few years the British authorities invariably discovered signs that their future Avar codes had been in the hands of photographers. "The.codes were changed ill consequence, but as such discoveries are never trumpeted abroad the employers of the photographers may experience some sad disillusionments when the next war breaks out."