STORIES OF WAR SPIES

Feilding Star, Volume 8, Issue 2497, 10 March 1930, Page 7

STORIES OF WAR SPIES

ABOUND WITH THRILLS ACTION AND ADVENTURE Mystery, intrigue and adventure abound in the. true stories, now told for the first time übout the exploits of world war spies. Until very recently these tales—many of them utmost beyond belief—bave been kept under lock and key in the Government’s secret files at Washington (writes James N. Jliller in the Popular Mechanics Magazine.)

WOMAN SUSPECT One ot the cleverest spies operating In America was a woman in tlie employ of th e German Government. Sli e had been suspected for a time, but no direct evidence could be lodged against her. Finally she was arrested by army intelligence officers and searched. An unusually large number of i>ins was discovered in her garments. A cipher expert examined them and found curious marks scratched on tb e heads of the pins. The little mark s proved to be a code which was finally deciphered. Th e " Oman had been carrying important messages in this way for some weeks.

MESSAGES IN CODE. Another story concerns radio messages in code which were sent from .German wurships and recorded on a lihonograph disk by the British Admiralty The men assigned to decode th e communications were baffled. All they could hear when the records wer e played was an unintelligible gibberish that defied translation. Then a lucky accident led to to the solution. A tired agent let his phonograph run down oue day. Suddenly h e jumped to his feet. The message was beiug spoken in plain German! Th c slowing down of the instrument had made the talk understandable. The Germans had made records of their messages and sent them through tli e ether at terrific speed, but the slow ifiionograph had betrayed them.

IN MINIATURE In another case a woman spy devised a 3000 word report in such a manner that she could past e it on th 0 lens of her spectacles. Also, a dancer dining in a Paris cafe waved her fan in a certain message that led :o th e sinking of a French transport off the coast of America. A GERMAN’S FEAT A German spy jumjjed from an airplane, landed in a British camp in British uniform and immediately ordered other officers to collect information for a i>rojected British attack. Another German spy was so active that the British wer e compelled to send several warships and several thousand troops to stop his plans and capture him. MYSTIC MESSAGES

Invisible inks of various compositions were used widely in writing messages on sundry articles of clothing. Even bandages and tbe insides of trunks were utlilised for this purpose. The famous “petticoat case” is known to intelligence officers of practically all nations enguged in the late war. It seems that a famous opera singer hud just completed a concert tour of France and was returning to Switzerland. ller presence did not create particular excitement, until one of th c Customs officials noticed that she wore a thickly starched petticoat that was absurdly out of style. Ilis suspicions aroused, tlie official ordered one of his woman aides to hav e the petticoat examined. Whereupon the garment was given tlie “acid” test and a message revealed. USE OF LEMON JUICE Strangely enough, perhaps, tbe most common chemical used by spies in writing invisible reports is ordinary lemon juice. It dries readily and later on, when beat is applied, tbe writing stands out bold and black. The kind of paper preferred is onion skin, since it is very thin and strong and is readily compressed within a surprisingly small space. RARER PURVEYOR Wrapping paper was also used to a considerable extent as a message purveyor, for the reasou that it did not tend to arouse suspicion if tlie paper was tied round au innocent article like bread, or perhaps a book. Books themselves were employed, especially those with wide spaces between tbe printed lines. Newspapers with broad margins wer e also used. Various acids, which possessed the virtue of revealing maps or messages

only when water was appled, were tried without success A SMILE IN THIS A case in point is the well-known “balh-tub affair,” which caused many a smile to secret service officials. A rather stupid looking fellow, claiming <0 be a neutral was trying lo get through France to Germany. Held for observation with a group of other men, lie was asked to take a bath. He refused point blank, even though he admitted that water had not hailied him for a week Wiily-nillv, he was showered liberally with water, with the result that 011 his back was found un Important message for th e enemy!

A STRANGE DEVICE Still another invisible writing method was made possible by the micro-pantograph, a device ac' ually abl e to write a complete message on tiny pieces of glass and metal. Even the head of a pin or needle, eyeglass or tip of fountain pen was utilised. Needless to say it was impossible for th e human eye to detect tlie ruse, the only mean s of discovery being a high powered microscope.