THE SPY.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10592, 22 October 1910, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE SPY.

The spy has been a general, if not an inevitable, militaiy institution almost since the beginning of armies and the practice of "wai. '"Joshua, it will besremembered, sent out spies into the Holy Land before the Israelites crossed -the Jordan. The Roman army always had its spies; and,* as an early instance; of the- Utility,, of spying, one may'quote the- example Of King Alficd'-the Great, who went in disguise into the enemy's lines and discovered his secrets. =■ In the middle ages spies vieie everywhere, and in the middle of > Ahe eighteenth century tho French army possessed a*'"chiel oi spies," and this post continued in existence at the Mmistrj of War until the Revolution.

In oui own tunes, practically every foreign Power has militarj spies m >ts pay. There are continual incidents on the Franco-German fiontier —the airest of spies and the consequent international lintation —and more than once since 1870 such incidents .have neaily led to the outbreak of another wai...

' Similarly, it is notonous that the Geiman armj, in tins respect, as it is in even other, wouderfulh well seived, has innumerable military agents in Gieat Britain, and that the lie of the countrj, the condition of the Toads, and the details of such fortifications as'we possess are all known quite as completely in-Berlin as they are in London. Our dcekjards, too, are invested with tireless and acute "observeis."

j _ Military spies are .naturally divided into two classes. On the one hand, there are men who are willing to betray their own. country for military payments, and who are regarded as . infinitely despicable. :.'■.. :.'.., ... : . On the. other hand, there are men who, for purely patriotic reasons, risk their lives 'and face the possibility of aii ignominious death in order to ren-der-invaluable service to their country. This second class isUiaturally regarded with admiration and esteem.

Of the patriotic spies; the most famous is John Andre, who,;\during the American revolutionary wary obtained from General Benedict Arnold' the plans for the betrayal ;of West Point to the British. 'Arnold 'was a traitor; "■ Andre was a patriot. : He was arrested and sentenced by Washington to be hanged ''There can be iio quarrel sentence, since the custom of' all (nations is that death—a shameful be the lot of the captured military spy: But Great Britain show-ed its appreciation of Andre's motives by. i the tion of a monument to. his memory in Westminster Abbey, where 'his remains are now interred. Tbe late Mr Cyrus Field, the projector of the. Atlantic cable, and a patriotic American, erected a statue to Andre at Tarrytown, w r here he was hanged. . • Generally, a. militarj' spy captured during a time of_ peace is not tried by a court-martial, 'but by the ordinary tribunals. The German law against spies was passed in July 1903, the French law in 1886, and under this French law'the penalty is comparatively light—from two to five years' imprisonment, with a fine of from £4O to £2OO.

Incidentally, one', may note that Europe was covered with Pitt's spies at the end' of the eighteenth century, and that every calamity in France, from the defeat of an army to a tenement fire, was popularly ascribed to them. -

In addition to the spy engaged- in the more or less honorable service of discovering military secrets, there is. the police spy, whose business it is to discover internal plots against the existence of Governments. Such spies have always been employed by the police of every nation, and they are most necessary and most numerous when the Government is autocratic and opposition is underground. During the unrest that followed the Reformation in England, the spy became, probably for the first time, a national institution. Burghloy had an army of spies smelling out Jesuits. The laws against the Puritans brought the inevitable squadron of traitors and informers, and spying reached its most infamous depth with the -exploits of Titus Oatos and his- associates in the reign of Charles 11. In France, Richelieu and Louvois employed spies in all stations .of life, and under Louis AIV. and Louis XV. spying was vastly extended, particularly Vhile Sartines and Berryer- : were the Lieutenants of the Paris Police. The Revolution, with its fury against aristocrats, found ample' employment for tbo spy, aud Fouche, the notorious Minister of Police to Napoleon, found a congenial task in using them to the full. . •

lii more recent times, the police spy lias been generally employed to -watch the movements of anarchists and _ revolutionists. Bismarck had a particularly well-equipped corps engaged in this work. The Russian spy is the Government's chief weapon against Nihilism, aud the many Irish conspiracies during the nineteenth century made it necessary for the English police to.rely largely on. the use of the spy. The amazing exploits of the Russian secret rjolicc have been, of course, enormously exaggerated by imaginative writers, but the service is far-reaching and complete, and the revolutionists in every foreign city arc regularly and thoroughly watched. ' v '.' In nearly every instance, the plans of the ; Irish dynamitards were foiled either by the greed of a traitor or by the ingenuity of a spy. It is not, perhaps, attractive to the normal man to gain the confidence'of conspirators, to discover their secrets, and promptly to give them away; but it cannot- be de : nied that suoh a man as Major Le Caron, who, time after time enabled Scotland-yard to checkmate the Clan-na-Gael, was a patriot in a very real sense, and an exceedingly useful public servant. Such a man carries his life in his hand, and the payment lie receives is little enough in comparison with the Hero, again, -there is a great difference between such a man as Le Caron and' the pitiful creatures who in nearly cvorv conspiracy are found willing to s='vc" their own necks by the betrayal of their ' romrades. The evil that accompanies the institution of secret police is the tendency to create conspiracies in order that they may be discovered. There is no question that the agent provocateur is regularly employed in fiussia, and is not unknown- elsewhere. "Under Bismarck, there was little secret that ho was regularlv used by the police. The policy is that it is-better to bring conspiracies-to a head and to give facilities" to • the would-be revolutionary to carrv out his dreams —and to be arrested " But the whole scheme -is -fundamentally wrong, and undoubtedly frequently leads to- the punishment o. innocent persons.