THE SPIES CAST THEIR NETS

Evening Star, Issue 22248, 28 January 1936, Page 6

THE SPIES CAST THEIR NETS

The spy organisations of Europe) especially those under the direct control ,of the big Powers, are working under great pressure trying to unravel the plots and counter-plots which are developing around the’ Italo-Ethiopian War, writes llichard M'Millan, in, the ‘ San Francisco Chronicle.’ At no time since the World War, when the capitals of both the fighting and neutral nations were overrun with men and women operators for the intelligence services, has espionage activity been in such full blast or in such deadly earnest. The beautiful blondes and brunettes, the post-war imitators of the glamorous Mata Hari, who died at the shooting post at Vincennes fortress before a French firing squad, no longer are the central figures in the international spyring, because, the work to be done today is for the master minds alone, who themselves have the political and diplomatic ‘game at their finger-tips and know the significance of every move. The women spies employed by the European Governments are usually seductive “ femmes fatales ” who were charged with enticing young officers into their coils to extract secrets about defence, about new war weapons, or new military tactics.

To-day it is the intelligence service itself which is at work trying to pierce through the veil which has been hung around the diplomatic and secret negotiations between the Chancellories as each Power tries to jockey itself into tbe most favourable position either on the side of the Italian bloc or the antiItalian bloc led by Britain and halfheartedly supported by France. Theit task is too grimly serious and technical for female agents.

The full force of the espionage effort is, naturally, centred in Italy. Mysterious travellers pass from Rome across the frontiers to convey their messages to their Governments, or send what appears to be simple business messages through the normal telegraphic or cable channels.

In this planner the Foreign Offices of the important Powers are assured that their ears are close to the sources of inner information, wherefore they will not be taken by surprise by any care-fulfy-planned, sensational development. The capitals of the former AustroHungarian Empire, Vienna and Budapest, are favoured centres for foreign spies, because so much that is,vital to the future of Europe may occur in these cities. Mussolini wishes to know what is going on underground, what the Governments along the Danube Valley are thinking and planning; Hitler, too, keeps his hand on the pulse of the German-speaking neighbours of the Nazi State, while France and Britain obviously do not wish to be kept in the dark about happenings here. They have more to convey than ever before, as all the nations are now arming and secretly perfecting war inventions . At present it is believed that the famous French “ Deuxieme Bureau —or Second Bureau —which is charged with informing the French Government on foreign military activity, is the best informed on the development of war inventions in Germany. The German agents are mainly concerned, as they have been for years, in spying out the definite plans of the French system of forts along the Rhine frontier. The British intelligence service, working from the Foreign Office, is now bringing into play its naval spies, because Britain’s preoccupations now are increasingly directed towards naval power.