SPIES IN WARFARE

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2257, 17 September 1914, Page 7

SPIES IN WARFARE

HONORABLE OR TRAITOROUS? v SEVERE PENALTIES The extremo penalty for spying is death by hanging, not by shooting, tho . former being regarded as more dishonourable. When Louis XI first adopted tho practice of appointing dors, he considered that ho had a spy in the camp of every potential enemy. Nowadays a spy must act "clandestinely and under false pretences." If soldiers wearing their uniforms penetrate into the lines of the enemy they cannot be regarded as spies, and if caught must merely be held as'prisoners of war. The former .may be-hanged after trial by court-martini, the latter may be detained only till peace be restored. But it by no means follows that a spy caught in the act should be put "to death. As M. Bluntschli points out, only in the most dangerous oases should the capital punishment be enforced, for in many cases the extreme penalty is out of all proportion to the crime. _ Some writers consider that the vocation of the spy is necessarily a dishonourable one. This, however, is not so in all oases. It is generally acknowledged .that a;belligerent is quite within its rights in employing spies. If thoir services are utilised in a more or less straghtfonvard manner, as where an officer penetrates into the enemy|f lines under disguise, ■ the task is an exceedingly difficult one, and is one fitted only for.'a brave man. He takes his lifo in his own hands for Efo country's good in a" way _that .no. mere soldier does. The odds against him are frightful, the penalty, shrift ' and 1 certain if detected. Of course, there are quite other kinds of spies, who are often traitors to their own country, and who have sold themselves and the land of their birth for the enemy's, gold. Such may well be left to their fate. They are among the vilest wretches that cumber the earth,' and their removal is a benefit conferred upon humanity. Napier, in his account of the Peninsula War, .clearly recognised ' the difference between' the two classes. In describing : how Wellington was served in this particular, he says:—"He had a number of spies, among the Spaniards, who were living within the French lines; a British /officer in disguise constantly visited the French armies in the field; a Spanish State Councillor, living at the head-

quarters of. the first , corps, gave intelligence from that side, and a guitar .„ player of celebrity named Fuentes repeatedly making his way to Madrid brought back advice from thence. . With the exception of the State spy at Victoria's headquarters, who, being a double. traitor, was infamous, all th& persons thus-employed were very meritorious. The greatest number, and the cleverest also, were Spanish . . who, disdaining rewards and disregarding danger, acted from a pure spirit of patriotism, and are to be lauded .alike for their boldness, their talent, and their virtue." Of course, had these been detected, military necessity would, in all probability, have demanded that they should pay the full penalty for their hardihood, but that in no. way alters the moral character, of. the work they had in land. Classification of Spies, - . Frederick the Great of Prussia was a {last-master in spy lore. In 1860 he published .for. the information .of his . generals, military iinatrUcfcibhs,- ill;which he classed spies' - as "ordinary' epies,""double spies," > "spies-of distinction-," and .''spies'by compulsion." By "double spies!'; Hie meant 1 spies»who lalso- pretended to be'in the service of the side they betrayed,- while -"spies of distinction" were officers of- hussars whoso services ho found useful in the Austrian campaign, 'imo procedure was. this: —He used to obtain a susnension of arms, and while that lasted the officers of .Hussars were induced to conduct an epistolary correspondence with the officers on me otiiar side for his benefit. By "spies oi compulsion," he meant the forcing or.a unuidr who could be trusted to pass .into the enemy's camp and then, under cross-examination, to make the enemy believe what he waht-ed them to believe. • Lord Wolseley's Views. . In his "Soldier's Pocket Book," Lord Wolseley wrotes:—"The best way to tend out a spy is to send a peasant with a letter written on very thin paper, which may be rolled up so tightly as to he portable in a quill an . inch aud a half long, and this precious quill may be hidden in the hair or beard or in the hollow at the end of a walking stick. It is also a good plan to write secret , correspondence in lemon" juice across a newspaper or the leaves of the New Testament. It is then safe against discovery, aud will become legible when -■ held before a fire or near a red-liot iron. As a nation, we are brought up to feel it a disgrace even to succeed by falsehood. The . word 'spy' conveys something as repulsive as 'slave.' We keep hammering along with the conviction that 'honesty is the best policy,' and that truth, must always win in the long run. These sentiments do well for a copy-book, but a man who acts upon them had' better sheath his sword for ever." , Newspaper Correspondents as Spies. The question was raised in the RussoJapanese war as to whether newspaper correspondents using wireless could be' regarded as spies. The'proprietors of the "Times" had the steamer Haimun fitted up with Do Forest's wireless apparatus. This vessel cruised among the belligerents, and sent messages in code to Wei-hai-ivei, whence they were transmitted through neutral country overland to London. The vessel was several times submitted to "visit and search" on the part of both belligerents. A little later Admiral Aloxeleff sent a circular letter to the Powers, which ran in the following terms• . ,

"I am instructed by my Government, in order that there may be no misunderstanding, that the lieutenant of his Imperial Majesty in the Far East lias just made the following declaration: In case neutral Vessels, having on board correspondents who may communicate news by means of improved apparatus not yet provided ,for, by existing conventions, should bo arrested off Kwangtung or within the zone of operations of tlio Russian fleet, such correspondents shall be regarded as spies, and the vessels provided with such apparatus shall bo seized as-lawful prizes."

,Such were the fortunes of war, however, that Admiral Alexcieff had no opportunity rf putting his threat into effect. Had he dono so, it would have been • in direct contravention of The Haguo Convention, for thai; agreement defines a spy as one acting "clandestinely or. on false pretences;' or wlio obtains or seeks to obtain information in the zone of operations of a belligerent with the intention of communicating it to tho hostile party." The newspaper correspondent in this case did none of those things. He acted qui to openly, explained the working of his apparatus, then quit© novel, to the commander of tho Russian cruiser Ba.van, and did not communicate the result of his investigations to the Japanese authorities. At the same timo, the Russian Goi'ernmcnt had this much to be said in its favour, that publication of important movements in the "Tim.es" might be regarded as equivalent'to directly communicating with the enemy, as tbo Government of> tliat country would be immediately informed by their diplomatic representatives in London. In this particular case both belligerents had signed The Hague Convention deal- j

ing with this matter, and so both were bound by it. That oven the Japanese Government was quite alive to the possibilities of trouble through newspaper enterprise is evidenco by the fact that at a later date in the conflict it forbade the "Times" correspondent from going north of a,, line drawn from Cliifu to Chemulpo; Of course, if a correspondent were .ictually found conveying information to the enemy, then ho might quite lawfully be summarily dealt with.