THE SPY MENACE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 12 July 1924, Page 16

THE SPY MENACE.

A WRITER’S WARNINGS. (By William Le Queux, in “Ideas.”) The •• gradual disbandment of the Special Branch at Scotland Yard, or the Secret Service is to he regarded with much apprehension. • The public are apt to believe that on the declaration of peace the sx>y peril in Britain ceased to exist. Such is far from the fact. As readers of Ideas mgy know, 1 have for many years studied the question of espionage. I have mixed with spies of all nationalities, and I have myself acted as a spy for Great Britain abroad. Hence I may claim to know something of the spy peril.

The horde of spies sent to England in 1910 by Dr. Steinhaur, -chief'of the German Secret Service, no longer exists. At the time I. with Lord • Roberts, Lord Charles Beresford, and others, was able to place facts before the War Office, which were at hrst pooh-poohed, but soon afterwards were considered seriously, especially following the staff ride of German officers which actually took place over the hills south of Tunbridge Wells.

Our crass ignorance of our enemy’s ingenuity and double dealing almost cost us our national existence. Are we repeating the same policy of fatal unsuspicion? I much fear that we are.

During the past two year s there has been, a remarkable recrudescence of spying, and while our attention is being diverted by hot-air at Westminster, inflammatory speeches of politicians in and outside the House, and constantly recurring strikes, our enemies are silently and most cleverly forking with one sole object—to destroy ns. ~ Now the national indignation of 1916—which a section of the press termed “spy-mania,” though those very journals quickly altered their policy when several dangerous spies were shot in thej Tower of London —may well again srise.

In every department of our national life the foreign spy, both Eastern and Western, as well as European, is active among us. T will give you a personal example. As some may know, I have been for many years an experimenter in wireless, and was the first person in Great Britain to broadcast regularly speech and music. I was, in fact, the forerunner of the British Broadcasting Company, one of whose directors was mv fellow-experimenter. ■Within the last three months I have been interested in radio-television—or seeing by wireless—and have conducted with the inventor, Mr J. L. Baird, many experiments. These experiments were made in secret, but somehow news of them leaked out. We had actually seen images by wireless upon a cheap and simple system which had not been imagined by any other experimenters. Yet, within three weeks of our partial success we received a very ingenious letter from a man who offered to sell us a photo-electric cell which is the secret product of a German scientist, and which we knew to be far in advance of the selenium cells which we were using. The electric cell in question, I mav say, is calculated to respond to the light of a candle at a distance of about two and a half miles, hence its great sensibility to light may be easily imagined. Though we were very eager to obtain one (we eventually did) we saw through the ruse. Our German correspondent wished to s ee our apparatus, which, by the way, had been seen only by the experts of the Mar Office, and to take back to Germany a. diagram of the efficient, if crude, apparatus we had set up.

Let any newly-devised aeroplane, any new petrol engine, any improvement in machinery or in methods of communication by" telegraphy o r wireless be exhibited anywhere in any city to-day, and there will be some secret agent of a foreign Government present in order to note and report upon the Englishman’s invention. Quite recently an incident which is a striking example of the methods of espionage came to my notice. About eighteen months ago a Glasgow firm manufacturing goods by a secret process engaged a smart young man as clerk.

He was of exemplary character and within a few months was promoted, with , a substantial addition to his salary. Diligent and persevering, he Teanairued at the factory to finish his work after the others had left.

His employers thought very highly of him until one day he mysteriously disappeared. The firm grew alarmed, and inquiries were instituted. But a week later the head of the firm received from Chemnitz, in Saxony, a letter in which the late employee thanked his employer for having been so generous to him, and announcing that he had carried, back to the Fatherland the whole secret of the firm’s process! j There had been nothing suspicious about him, and no trace of foreign birth, for as was afterwards discovered, be was the son of German parents, and had been born in England! Just as the secrets of our last Budget were actually published in Berlin a. day before they were known in the House of Commons, so also have some of the secrets of our new explosives and our aeronautical progress leaked out toother countries in a manner which shows that spies are active among us, and that the work of our contra-espionage department should not be curtailed

The Powers of the world have their eyes upon Great Britain, for they know that in chemistry, science, and invention we are making great progress and hold certain secrets which will give us the greatest advantage over our enemies in the next war. We are told that Germany and France possess as many, but we are not told that other countries. thanks to the activities of their secret agents, have already learned things which we are not desirous they should know.

Not so long ago, at the launch of one of our new warships, the greatest precaution was taken not to allow anvone but the authorities to he present, and even journa lists were excluded, for there weie certain secrets of it,s construction which could not at the time be camouflaged. Yet notwithstanding all these precautions, a German spy secured a photograph which a week "later appeared in a. Gecman newspaper! The ingenuity and courage of the trained spy of both sexes are marvellous, while then impudence is now being increased by their knowledge of the inertia of the very department which should trace and arrest them

anSag aqj, qa 03. paajga as nap b Convention actually assists enemy agents, for it was there clearly laid down that an act of espionage can take place only “within the war zone.” In such circumstances it would seem that ir we stuck to the exact letter of the aw. these inquisitive foreigners would be immune from arrest in oeace time. \Ye should still recollect that it was a Dutch woman -who learnt the secret of our tanks and gave it to the Gormans, thus enabling them to resist what ve fondly believed was to he a surprise attack; and again, that it was by the cleverness of another woman that thp secret of General Nivelle’s proposed

offensive on the Aisne in 1917 was known to the German General Staff. Plans were subsequently formed for a counter-attack, and the unfortunate result of the woman’s espionage was that the French lost 34,000 killed and 99,000 wounded.

Secret and systematic espionage means almost as much in peace time as in war. Every means of destroying human life and property i s still being studied by Powers; hence in the next war, when that colossal event corner, victory will certainly be with the nation that holds its own secrets and launches upon its enemies some most deadly and entirely unexpected mode of exterminating its opponents. We know that the dissemination of a certain fatal disease can be accomplished at the will of man, and that this discovery by German scientists has been fully investigated aud a serum found which renders invulnerable those who receive injections. On our part we have other secret war plans, all of which have excited the curiosity of foreign Powers.

Some have, alas! been disclosed. Others may, if the authorities are astute and alert, still remain with us, But shall we be able to keep our secrets in face of this international plot against us?

Enemy agents are in London to-day, living at the' best hotels, donning their dinner-jackets, and dancing at the night-clubs without any restrictions on their movements. So the great game goes on, and at Wemblev Exhibition a, hundred enemy eye s will be open to note or draw diagrams of any British' invention there.

Our diplomatic secrets, too, have a curious habit of leaking out to the Chancelleries of Europe in a- way which utterly mystifies Downing Street. The Bolsheviki have, of late, been extremely well-informed of our policy towards Russia when such policy has been known only by a few people in our own country.

It is sorely for our Secret Service to. trace, the source of the foreigners’ information, as well as to put an en<J to the activities of these aliens who, masquerading as Britons, are daily learning what we, in our pathetic ignorance, believe to be confidential. Therefore the cessation of the activities of the contra-espionage section is not only a matter of regret, but also a source of great national peril.