HUN SPY WOMEN IN AMERICA

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3098, 31 May 1917, Page 6

HUN SPY WOMEN IN AMERICA

ELABORATE ORGANISATION BUILT UP EXCHANGES AND OFFICES INFESTED. -In every war and in every peace, for that matter; diplomats, captains of industry, army ottieera, statesmen, all those servants of their country in whom repose tho secrets of their Government, are forced to be continually ou the look- • <out for spies, not only men spies, but ■women spies. So far in the disclosures pt espionage measures undertaken bv the Germans against the United States" men :iiave taken the chief "spy" roles. Women have Jiot been arrested and hunted out publicly. But the fact remains, ac'cordihg to men who have their ears close. :tp the ground, that the women spies who ;have worked and who are now working ; .iu the United States for the Teutonic Towers are both, numerous and clever, v aind that they are not "vampires," as iwomen spies usually are, hut stenographers and "hello girls." Par deeper .and more devious than plots of the Von iPapens and Boy-Eds, far subtler than the plans attributed to Koenig, IColb, iKoob, Buenz and Bopp, the most recent sensations in,"spy" charges is the working of this'feminine wing of the German "intelligence" bureau in America, say those in touch with the situation, lii ferreting out American preparedness secrets and in learning where the vitals of American industry lay the German secret service has made a radical change in its Jong established and thorough system of .work, / "Underground" Work in America. ! Tho Teutonio "underground" workers tfound out in their American activities that the men of affairs in this country Could not be tricked as could the influ- * «ntial men of Europe. They found that the I'vampiro" type of female spy, the .'brilliant, polished adventuress who has . ibeen for centuries so successful in continental intrigues and plots, was of little »r no good in America. She could not find an avenue of attack. ' American -Business men and statesmen did not indulge much in society and in salon conversation. They had no moments of dalliance when a heautiful woman with her lures could fasten her clutches upon them. And, in a word", thev were not eusceptible.

This difference is explained psychologically by Robert H. Gault, associate professor of psychology at North-west-ern University, who says:— "When the claim is made that the men of affairs -'n America are lass susceptible to the, wiles of Che polished woman spy than are the executives of 'European business the psychologic question raised is one of acquired habit. American business men aro said to work muck more' intensively and to put in more hours a day at their work than their colleagues of Europe. Perhaps the opportunities for commercial and industrial development are greater here than In tke nations named, above. If that i 3 'the .case business pursuit in this country is all the more absorbing. It is one of the /passions of America. Taking it ell in all the consequence of all tkis is •tkat tke American business man simply does not have or does not take leisure . for salon life. When he does go to a place comparable to' the European salon it is often in order that he may meet his colleagues for discussion of business ■problems. He does not relax and he is not easily approached by the methods which, are alleged to succeed in the case of his European colleagues." Much of the fiction which has been written about tke "vampire" 6pies of Europe, the' 6e3uctive "charmers" wko have fascinated men and torn out tkeir secrets, is based upon fact. Suck women ■have koneycombed more tkan one court, and they have been a big playing card -in tke subterranean diplomatic games •of every European nation. Each "conn-.-try has relied upon tkeru to a great -extent. -They were extremely numerous in Russia before the Duma overthrew the Tsar and wiped out the German influence. London' and Paris have kad tkeir hands full upon many occasions, both before and since tke 'beginning of tke war, because of some clever woman spy. London expelled scores of them at the time wai; was declared. The Office Spy. '[ If American men kad been susceptible to -tkis method of trickery the "vampire" could have worked long and cleverly in this, field. But'when she tried it and proveu wanting the Teuton bureau began its campaign through, telephone 'operators, stenographers, private secretaries, housemaids, and bookkeepers. The .bureau concluded that tho quickest route to a complete cataloguing of American resources .was through . the offices of its captains of industry. A girl, thev decided, would be able to gain the confidence of this director of things far more ■ readily than a man. .They knew that despite_ the occasional display of sex ■ attraction between employer and stenographer tho average business man of the .'United States was rapt in his affairs •and viewed his girl helper only as suoh, -jrrtk the concession to her sex, however, that he instinotively trusted her in con- . hdential matters. Tke secretary and 'stenographer working beside tke executive, handling his personal mail, was in a position to learn all that he had which' ■would bo interesting to her superiors overseas. Many agencies have been busy during the last two and a. half years . it is claimed, working these German girls into tho offices of important personages, placing them as. telephone operators at switchboards where they could "listen in on vital conversations, and where they could secretly open files and learn tho nature, number, and placing of large •.Munition orders. It is said that they ■ nave learned tho disposition of these contracts, tkeir date of transportaion, tho skips carrying them, every detail that ...might facilitate their destruction in the making or en route. Not only have they been curious about tie materials America was inaW for the Allies but they have, it is believed discovered the vital points in AmeS commerce, discovered just where a blast of dynamite would wreck a great city's water system or gas mains, fust what bridges when destroyed would paralyse the railroad.systems in tho shortest time 3ust where inventors' laboratories were just where a fir e would ruin the most necessities-all the highly important facts and places which should be kept secret from an enemy bent on destruction The jast majority of these girl spies. are under the eye of United States secret service operatives now, it is said The great net which Uncle Sam has 'spread across the country is "spotting" tho spies, sometimes one by one, sometimes in groups. '■For the most part they are of Ger.man birth, although some who merelv claim German ancestry have been found nmong them. Pew of them are of the beautiful, ultra-attractive type. They were picked rather for their intelligence and ability to perform evpert secretarial work than for their power over nien. They have been schooled in service taught to do the stenographic, I switchboard and other office work satisfactorily so tkat their employers would put more trust in them .Many wnys are open to them for the transference of their acquired informalion to the Patherland. Prom what has already been disclosed of German secret service methods in the United States thev liavo unquestionably rclaved their discoveries to some high official in tke service in the East, probably in New York Oity, who in his turn dispatched them in some innocent code to another official in a neutral country nearer to Germanv and with readier access to the Home Office

The President's Eyes Open. Official coguisance was given the elaborate foreign, spy system by President Wilson in his war message of April 2. In that section of his address in which he referred to America's delay in action because of her love for the people of Germany he said:

"One of the things that have served to convince us that the Prussian autocracy was not and could never be our friend 13 that from the very outset of the present war it has filled our unsuspecting communities and even our offices of government with spies and set criminal intrigues everywhere afoot against our national unity of council, oil? flfiace .with-

in and without, our industries and our commerce. Even ill checking these things and trying to extirpato them wo havo sought to put the most generous interpretation possible upon them because- we know that their sourco lay not in any hostilo feeling or purpose- of tho German -people toward us (who were, no doubt, as ignorant of them as wo ourselves were), but only in tho selfish designs of a government that did what it pleased and told its people nothing. But they have played their part in sewing to convince us at last that that government entertains no real friendship for us and menus to act against our peace and security at its convenience."