TREACHEROUS SPYING

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21559, 23 January 1940, Page 8

TREACHEROUS SPYING

NAZI AND SOVIET SYSTEMS The recent news that commissars accompany each Russian battalion into action in Finland and have powers even greater than the battalion commanders, draws attention to the similarity between Russian and German methods of ensuring political control in their services. The Nazis are just as careful to keep a political eye on their rank and file. On German submarines and liners, members of the Gestapo occupy positions which enable them to act, if necessary, and also to report on the conduct of the crew. “Many people ashore were shocked recently on reading that among a U-boat’s crew who became British prisoners was a Gestapo representative,” writes Lieutenant-Commander E. Keble Chatterton, R.N.V.R. “But the same sort of treacherous spying has for a long time undermined wholesome authority in the Nazi Mercantile Marine. "Months ago I learned confidentially that the captain of a certain famous German liner was only technically master of his ship; the most important person on board, with supreme authority and dangerous influence, was the Gestapo man disguised as a chef." Incidentally, the Russian commissars in Finland are reported to be comfortably housed while the soldiers bivouac in the snow. Seemingly, therefore, they do not bother to disguise their presence or to take a normal part in the life of the units to I which they are t ttached.