GERMAN SPY SYSTEM

Evening Star, Issue 21037, 26 February 1932, Page 12

GERMAN SPY SYSTEM

HOW IT WAS CRIPPLED BRITISH OFFICER'S PART ORIGIN OF " LIGHTS OUT “ Wade—Antiques.” That is all there is on the sign outside the home of Major A. G. Wade, the archeologist, late of the Secret Service, on the main London road at Bentley, Surrey. Until recently, when he retired from the Amy Reserve, having reached the age limit of fifty, he himself has been as silent regarding his exploits. Major Wade helped to defeat Germany’s spy system in England, and his work brought about the “lights out” ■order early in the war. He has revealed some of his secrets to a ‘Daily Mail ’ reporter. “At the outbreak of the war,” Major Wade said, “I was organising secretary to Lord Baden-Powell, but 1 was put on special intelligence duty at Scotland Yard,. being attached ±o Sir Edward Heqry, then Commissioner of Police. In'this role I started the ‘lights out’ business. It was introduced to upset German spies in this country, “ On a certain night in the spring of 1915 the order was suddenly put into effect throughout Surrey. Cars were stopped and all lights were concealed. Six enemy spies were caught signalling by lamp. As a result the ‘ lights out ’ order was put into operation all over the country, and Germany’s system of communication was crippled. Until then it had been possible to relay messages from London to the coast by one signaller after another, and then presumably flash them to German ships. “ On the coast German submarine officers beached their craft on lonely stretches of seaboard, changed into mufti, and dined in our hotels. We caught one of them. I always worked on the principle that it was best to let them come, make them at home—and then make it impossible for them to communicate with anyone.” Major Wade wassent to Salonika in charge of embarkation work. He fought the gigantic fire at Salonika in 1917, which rendered 70,000 people homeless. “ Now,i” he said, “ I am chief officer of the Farnham Fire Brigade ... and I spend my time collecting antiques and hunting for traces of the first man in Surrey. ■