THE SECRET SERVICE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20316, 26 January 1928, Page 11

THE SECRET SERVICE.

OFFICER VISITS DOMINION. MAN WHOM GERMANS SOUGHT. A member of the British Secret Service during the European War, Captaa. Nicholas Everitt, for the capture of whom the German Government would have paid a large sum, arrived at Auckland on Monday by the Niagara from Sydney. An enthusiastic angler, Captain Everitt nas come to New Zealand to do some deep sea fishing at the Bay of Islands. He resides in England, and during his present tour has visited Ceylon, China, and Australia. Many of the hardships suffered by the men in the British foreign secret service, to which Captain Everitt was attached, are recounted in his book, “ British Foreign Secret Service During The Great War. ’ He was the officer responsible for the 2000 miles of coast between Petrograd and Archangel, one of the most dangerous areas. CHASED BY THE ENEMY. Among the visitor’s most famons exploits was the obtaining of details of the destructive German gun, “ Big Bertha,” and of the Zeppelins. Information he gained of the German warships that entered and left Kiel Harbour about the time of the Battle of Heligoland Bight proved invaluable to the British Admiralty. Captain Everitt dressed himself as a German fisherman and had concealed about his body silhouettes of every ship in the German navy. In this way he was able to identify the German warships, and warn the British authorities of the strength of the enemy ships in harbour and out of it. The visitor recalled one interesting incident that occurred at Amsterdam during the second year of the war. A German secret agent handed in to the post office a telegram for New York, the wording being “ Father deceased.” “ The telegraph operator was a clever fellow and he altered the word deceased to dead,” said Captain Everitt. “ Presently a reply came from New York asking," Ts father dead or deceased ?’ He was using a code, of course, and we knew all about it.” WATCHING GERMAN FLEET. Of the many personal dangers which Captain Everitt underwent, he considers that among the greatest was a voyage down the Scandinavian coast in a trawler loaded to a height of 6ft above the deck with live mines. If the slightest mish# had occurred not a speck of the ship would have remained. On another occasion he was recognised at a Zeppelin works and chased. Gaining a lead on his pursuers he managed to secure time to disguise himself as a peasant and subsequently help to “ search for himself.” Official figures in the hands of the visitor show that during the first 18 months of the war, Germany spent over £70,000,000 in propaganda work in neutral countries. She won over Turkey and Bulgaria at a cost of approximately £19,000,000, and lost Italy at a cost of £10,000.000. In private life Captain Everitt is a lawyer dealing solely with sporting cases. Ho is interested in all manner ox sport, and for the past 30 years has been honorary secretary of the Field Sports and Games Guild, one of the most prominent c’-yamsationa of its kind in the United Kingdom. He is the author of a large number of books on various kinds of sport. He has hunted big game in Africa, moose in Northern Europe, and has fished for both trout and salmon and deep-sea fish in almost every country of the world. Ibis is his first visit to New Zealand, and he is looking forward to the fishing here.