PROFESSIONAL EVESDROPPERS OF FRANCE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 50, 27 August 1938, Page 27

PROFESSIONAL EVESDROPPERS OF FRANCE

• Sometimes in the course of a telephone conversation, you hear a sort of click and a noise on the line. At tihies you have the impression that someone is listening to you in a mysterious way, writes Andre Ulmann in "Vendredi," Paris. And usually you are right, for if you have had any experience of French public " life, x°u would know that "listening tables" are not a legend, and that the click is a sure indication that somebody is listening to you from one -of those mysterious centres, where telephone lines have ears. But even if you know that your conversations are being overheard, you probably don't know how. We shall try to tell you. -First of all, a brief history. The institution of "listening tables" is quite recent, and has only been in existence since the war. Originally its work was done by specialised soldiers placed in the field to intercept communications between enemy posts. Then the police, particularly the political police, began to use the system, which has many points in common with espionage and counter-espionage. Before dial phones were in use, a person would probably often be connected with two parties at once, without wanting to be. But suppose this were not a mistake, and that it was the deliberate connection of a third person on the line— then you get an exact picture of the functioning of a table. More precisely, it is linked up by a single wire, which permits the person in question to hear, but not to be heard. In France up to about 1927, the use of the "listening table" was rather limited. The Department of Postal Service, Telegraphs, and Telephones had installed a few permanent branch lines, and any eavesdropping was done by inspectors of the general detective service at the Surete Generate. Following the Sacco and Vanzetti affair, when M. Chiappe became Prefect of Police, he demanded a "listening table" in order to be able to watch over the "extremists" of Paris better. Accordingly he secured one for his

own use from the Ministry of Postal Service, Telegraphs, and Telephones. Thereafter the method was improved. Every morning the branch lines were renewed. The inspectors had a Jist of lines to listen in upon during the day, and every morning these lines were "sent" to their table. Then (and such is progress!) they could even change the eavesdropper's hiding place during the course of the day. Naturally this service is not confined to gathering general information; it is equally useful in prying into private affairs. And every evening the inspectors write out their justly famous "red files," by which the Prefect learns that Mr. O. is certainly Mrs. M.'s lover and other fascinating facts. To be sure, no one is more surprised than Mr. O. when M- Chiappe refers to his good fortune. But M. Chiappe was a mere amateur compared with M. Mandel, who wanted to have his own eavesdropping service, and secured it on appeal to the Ministry of Postal Service, Telegraphs, and Telephones, who control this exclusive device. Ironically enough, M. Mandel entrusted this service which requires the utmost tact and discretion, to the Director of the Telephone Service himself. The latter undertook to "detour" subscribers' calls, which are supposed to be private, through a listening table. Before long the director could not do all the work himself, and M. Mandel appointed' three others td help him. The scope of the service came to include listening in on the conversations of Ambassadors, political men, journalists, associations, and even of Ministers, or abandoning them, according to the interest of the moment. At, the same time, the Sttrete Generale and the Prefecture de Police were carrying on similar work. An examination of one of the listening tables in action is an amusing experience. In front of a "standard" and some tables are seen several inspectors wearing earphones, as do American switchboard operators, so that their hands are free to take notes on what they hear.