CARELESS TALK

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 177, 29 July 1942, Page 6

CARELESS TALK

WARNING ISSUED

LAST WAR SPYING RECALLED

(0.C.1 SYDNEY, July 22. "One can be a fifth-columnist either by design cfr through ignorance and carelessness," said an Army spokesman. "Unfortunately the result, so far as leakage of information goes, is the same: the information is there for the enemy agent to collect and forward to the quarters in which it will do the most harm." "One of Britain's most valuable spies in the last war," said the spokesman, "was an old Flemish peasant wofnan who daily hitched her old horse to a sulky and took a basket of eggs to town. She took her eggs always to the same grocer, pocketed her few francs silently, and went back to her farm bordering 011 the railway line, which supplied a very important sector of the Gorman front. "She scanned every train that passed to the front carefully. For every train that passed carrying troops or military supplies she dropped another egg into to-morrow's basket. From the number of eggs supplied to that grocer British Intelligence officers were able to tell with almost complete accuracy the number of German troops in that sector, what changes in strength took place, and when an offensive was being prepared. "When next you see a troop train pass through your town," said the spokesman, "cheer them on, but don't spread about the news that might condemn those very boys to death."