GERMAN SPIES.

Timaru Herald, Volume CI, Issue 15503, 13 November 1914, Page 9

GERMAN SPIES.

THE KAISER'S SECOND AEMY. i Cf l hare one cook and a hundred spies," the great Frederick used to say. ■Since Frederick's time espionage, in ' its myriad forms —fro mfalse wh.skers to, forged papers of identity, from shy boarding-houses to faslhionable hotelshas been regarded beyond the Rhine as ',an essential part of the machinery for the defence of the monarchy. From •tile date of the Franco-German war it has been more effect.vely organised, more energetically carried on, than any other industry in Germany. In. stigated, promoted, and financed by the State, there has been no pretence about it; nor has there been the slightest difficulty in recruiting the executive personnel. Encouraged by a King, a Bismarck, a Bernhardi, a Kaiser, Germans have gone into the business of spying as readily as into that of soldiering or shoemakmg. On the eve of ..the war 30,C00 professional spies, "drawing incomes" in" tha.t capacity from Go vernment, were . resident in France, An . amount of £780,000 a year. has been spent on them. ' From this (writes Tigho Hopkins in the "Daily Chronicle") it may be inferred "tlhat espionage is conducted by Germany on the newest and most practical lines; nothing old-fashioned here! It is part of the System, part of Kaiserism, part_ of Potsdamism. As a military engine, espionage had ..been perfected at the date of the 1 FrancoGerman War. The organiser-in-chief was Stieber; Stieber whom Bismarck described as King of Sleuthliounds; Stieber who rose by infamy to be head of the Active Service Police; Stieber whose whole life (he died in 1892) was a cool and quiet crime'against society and. his fellows and the comity of nations. TH SECOND ARMY OF 1870. It. was Stieber who, when King Frederick William. was ready for his marcfii on France, had strewn with 20,000 spies the road from Paris to Berlin. This methodical organisation —brilliant in conception—embraced a host, of farmers, market gardeners, agricultural labourers, vine-growers, commercial travellers, tutors, non-commis-sioned_ officers in retirement, nice-look-ing widows at' the desks of cafes and restaurants, and several thousands of agreeable'waitresses, and chambermaids and governesses in beer-halls, hotels, and private houses. All these were, in fact, the second army of 1870. They had arrived in France one at a time, two at a time, three at a time, long before battle> was joined; and, under Stieber's ■directions, had furnished thousands of secret reports concerning every district that the German army was to traverse. In a word, the consummate ;Spy works throughout this campaign at the side of Bismarck and Molt-e, ■both of wvbom (w th the first, for certain) he is in close and continuous touch. M. Paul Lanoir, in a remarkabCe brochure, "The German Spy System in France," says: "It constituted the first example in the h'story of war of - the _ scientific and . metlhodical or- | ganisation of an espionage service placed directly and continuously at the service of the combatant army." Take, in this connection, a . passage from St'eber's own, fascinating., barefaced ..' 'Memoirs." ' 'At ; the commencement of'the campaign, when we : liad reached Falquemont, I was invited to d'.ne with the Chief, (Bismarck) and 'hiq staff of officials of tlie 'Mih : strv of Forei.<rn Affairs. We were instated in a i small "peasant's house: After "dinner, wh' : le Bismarck was pei'sonailly mak'ng coffee for the whole company, he. gave utterance to a prophecy which was dest'ned to be fulfilled six montfhs later; "It is. quite decided we shall' not j «ise Alsace or ' Lorra'ne Back •to France.'"; ' An officer of tlie Headgvar-- j tci- Staff added the remark : 'Our army ' is invincible,' whereupon I jumped up in a fury and answered: ''Say. rather, our armies.'" Stieber was right. H's armv of sneaks had done as well in its wretched way as Moltke's ariny of soldiere. ' ■ ■ SPYING IN PEACE TIME.

Turn now to the management of spy-' irig in peace time. In Germany for twenty? -years past tlris has been thoroughly up to date. A secret commission to an officer on holiday? An emissary despatched here and there at intervals to post himself with information and return with it to some bureau in. Germany ?_ Not at all ! . There would he nothing new in this', and the information thus gained cou'd amount to nothing much. A Minister of the Interior^ 1 Puttkamer, stated, openly what was to be done, "Our agents at fixed posts in France" were to establish themselves in the country in situations which should lay them open to a minimum of suspicion. Each one, said Herr von Puttkamer—and there was little more of secrecy in the instruction than in a "White Paper of our own —"Must be obliged to keep some kind of shop, whose selection may be left to him, provided it is, at least to outward appearance, thoroughly in keeping with; the commercial or. other requirements I of the country where lie has been sent \ to take up his abode." / 1 He is, it will be observed, "sent to take up his abode." as if he were a so"din - ordered on foreign service: "Whatever the nature of the establishment. whether it be a disputed claims office or a land and property agency, or whether the business is of a purely commercial character, such as a grocery establishment, a cafe", restaurarit hotel, insurance office, or the like, in al 1 cases the business must be soundlv established and nossess a substantial goodwill. It must, in fact, be ever borne in mind that it is for : o y r agents to inspire confidence in I jo rcles where they have their centre of action, and to create that confidence bv 1 toe outward • signs of an ordmaty ' existence, indeed, by we|i-, paced munificence, and . by making I themselves useful in all . kinds of •societies, associations, and communities, they must acquire such a strong social position that, as far as their locality is concerned, each may be well received everywhere and highly thought of in all quaiters, and may be thug always in a on all; points.' AT THE KEYHOLE OF EUROPE. ' drift° nf^V 1 ' Wl Ti 1)0 slow to gather the 1 ° this. Proclaims, advocates and m terms of politics-that refer us to the sixteenth century—ins'sts upon warfare (to he prosecuted in reasons of. peace and trust) with which no civilised era has hitherto been acquainted. We have had tales of German spies and have laughed at fLn, buitexoptemptupusly: have.had just the same tales and have given- them- the same reception. Nobody ha&eared to nobody has chosen to.be.ieve, nobbdv has cotidesc'iidp/l +A that to torty ; Power among ?s has bben liyirig S . its eye- at _fhe keyhole of Eurone... We have all along been morallv the imt+or for our negligence of the matter a S the issue of -the- war will discover to us the practical nullity of a scheme that dSionolr'" n ®° Cial and ' in^nat36nal E ' German espionage in Fi-ance (and are we* for a moment to suppo.se that",, oui own country has been overlooked P V .BBs,mter€sted itsdf in event*,™ and To everyone at "Sis, fixett post - m the service, a service" which is | understood to embrace the* majority-of [ Germans abroad, a salary has. been paid j proportionate.to the work he has done, i The German spies. have been recruited 1 in eyery walk of life. To miss nothing i of what the service of esnionage misrht . *> e capahle o£ achieving t tlio responsible

Ministers in Germany, scarcely veiling their utterance on the subject in Parliament, have suborned men and women, high and low 3 from one end of Europe to the other, who were open to bribes, that have ranged from a pound a week to sinecures which hardly anyone at present knows anything about. This is a proper mode of warfare, or it is not. It is a policy that has been peculiar to Germany. " It succeeded once; it has now exploded; and for judgment on it there will by-and-by be ample opportunity.