Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22, 1938. IMMUNITIES OF SPIES

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 145, 22 June 1938, Page 10

Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22, 1938. IMMUNITIES OF SPIES

There is 1 one kind of warfare that is carried on in peace-time as well as ; in war-time, and which knows no close season, no truce, no armistice. A time comes when the soldier piles ( his arms, but the spy carries on; and, , for him, the end of one war is but , the preliminary to the next one. Es- , pionage is, therefore, like the poor, , ever-present; and people have become so used to its occasional "sensations" that they have ceased to study : certain remarkable aspects of the spy J phenomena, including the silences that are even more eloqupnt than the "sensations." And yet, the degree of toleration accorded to espionage by [ an "enlightened" civilisation is extraordinary, and can be accounted for ] only on the supposition that "every> body is doing it." What do the public ordinarily think of a crime- j punishment system that visits the , tool with any sentence up to the [ death sentence, but which protects, or at least ignores, "the master ' mind"? The ordinary reaction of ' public opinion is to demand of the system of justice that those in high ; places, as well as in low, should be indicted; but this is just what does not happen in espionage charges, or what did not happen .until an American Fedefal Grand Jury,, undeterred by theories of "diplomatic immunity" either in America or in Germany, included in its espionage indictment some official "master minds" in Germany, establishing a precedent that may powerfully affect the international balance of the moment, as well as the whole future of the espionage industry. There is nothing,new in the flight of the Nazi spies back to their home country, but the indictment of the master spies in Germany by the American Grand Jury is jtf moral and political element of profound importj ance. This is an element which [seems to have been lacking even in the espionage, trials of Moscow, so far as their details have been reported. Moscow trials, like other trials, have been full of unnamed foreign Powers, but the American Grand Jury has named both the Power and its spy-masters, and has belled the cat just as surely as Herr Hitler did in Austria when he decreed the arrest of Archduke Otto Habsburg ■ in absentia. Not since the von i Papen espionage of 1914-15 has < America had. such a breach with < Germany, and not even then did the : affair exercise such a profound influence on American sentiment. Von i Papen's expulsion from the United : States for espionages that were in breach of the terms of his ambassadorial immunity was, at an antic of a country already at war with several other countries; but the present American spy-hunt is a peace revelation reminding Americans violently of that continuity-of-espionage that the world forgets, but which in its essence ever points to war. By their very astuteness, the Germans have convicted themselves at the bar of American public opinion. The escapes of the Nazis from America may have been "cute," but point irresistibly to guilt. Had they remained in America, official Berlin might have denied all connection' with the espionage. Berlin can do so no longer, for the chickens have flown home to roost. The Germans in 1914 found an America unwilling to fight. Through the espionage of their attaches at Washington, von Papen and Captain Boy-ed, and through their submarine campaign, they converted a neutral America into a belligerent. Again in 1937-38 they find an, America full of isolationist propaganda; and once more they have adopted methods—Nazi "penetration" plus espionage—admirably calculated to open the eyes of all Americans to the world-danger presented" by Nazi Germany. Though civilisation's toleration of espionage is extraordinary—even countries which are in close alliance use, it regularly against each other, accofrding to the "Encyclopaedia Britannica»— a n indifferent public is capable of being awakened by a shock; and the Nazis in America, by their misdeeds and by their flight, have administered that shock. It only remained for a courageous Grand Jury'to do the rest. The case is not overstated when it is described as "a moral indictment of the German nation."

If mutual espionage is consistenl

with the friendship of allies, spymasters may perhaps be excused for thinking lightly of it, but it is to be noted that perhaps the most lighthearted spy of all time is a German —none less than the above-mentioned

von Papen, whose American exploits did not prevent him from becoming Chancellor of Germany before Hitler. According to John Gunther (in "Inside Europe"), von Papen in 1914-15 allowed the key to the German code to be left lying about, and the American Secret Service found it-in the desk of .one of

his secretaries, and from that time onward read Berlin's secret messages to him, including a suggestion for a German-Mexican alliance. After his expulsion, von Papen called at Falmouth en route to Germany and the British authorities found that he; had. retained cheque-book evidence; by which his American dynamiters, saboteurs, and agents became known through payments received. Returning to Germany, von Papen became a liaison officer to the Turkish army. When the British captured Jerusalem, von Papen fled— leaving his trunks behind! Here was discovered another treasury of documents, including more papers incriminating agents in America, which von Papen still had not destroyed.

Against such a background, German espionage may be in part explained; explained but not excused. The American exposure will probably find a place in history as a very' necessary piece of world-education,; imparted at such a moment as to bei of the utmost significance.