THE GERMAN SPIES

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 208, 22 May 1918, Page 9

THE GERMAN SPIES

HIS MOVEMENTS AND METHODS

MORE GERARD STORIES

In a chapter of his new book on Germany, Air. J. W. Gerard, formerly Amorican Ambassador in Berlin, gives his experiences of the methods of German spies. He says:

German spies who looked like "movie" detectives hung about and followed us on the journey from Berlin to Switzerland, .France, and Spain. There were oven suspicious characters among the Americans with German accent who Mime in our siwcial train from Germany to Switzerland. This neutral country, burderiii;? Un Germany, Franco, Italy, and Austria, is the happy huntingground and outfitting point tor uiymus of spies employed by the nations at war. I'he Germans, however, use more spies than all the other nations toKoCher. Spy spies on spy—autocracy produces bureaucracy whtre men rise and fall not by the votes ol their fcllow-oitizens, but by back-stirs intrigue. The German office-holder feare the spies of his rivals. 1 often said to Germans holding high ofiico during-the war. "This strain i 3 breaking you down—all day in your offico. Take an afternoon off and como shooting with me." • The invariable answer was, "1 cannot; tho others would learn it from their spies and would spread tho report that 1 neglect busiaessl"

While in Spain I met tho then Premier, Count Komanones, a man of great talent and impressive personality. He told me of the finding of a quantity of high txplosivcs marked by a littlo buoy, in one of the secluded bays of the roast. And that dav n German had been arrested who had mysteriously appeared at a Spanish port dressed as a workman. The workman took a first-class passage (o Madrid, went to th-i best hotel, and bought a complete outfit of fine clothes. Undoubtedly the high' explosives as well as tho mysterious German had been landed from a German submarine. A Super-Cipher.

My cables to and from the State DeDartinent passed through our Legation at Copenhagen, and, of course, if the Hermans knew our cipher llieae niees- : flsos were- read by them. On specml : occasions I made use of a super-cipher, they key to which I kept in a sate in my bedrorn, and which only one secretary could use. The flies of richer cables sent and received were kept in a larce safe m the Embaswv. But before leaving Germany, knowing the Germans as I did, and particularly what they had done in other countries and to other diplomatists, knowing how easy it would bo for them to burglarise tho safe after wo left, when the Spaniards and Dutch wore out of the building at night, I tossed all these dispatches, as well as the code books, into a big furnace fire. Of course, copies of all tho cables aro in tiie Stale Department. German spies aro adepts at opening bags, steaming letters—all tho old tricks. The easiest way to baffle them is to writo nothing that cannot be published to (ho world. For a long time after tfie beginning of war I was too busy to write the weekly report of official gossip usually sent homo by diplomatists. 1 suppose the Germans searched our courier bags fur such a report vainly, Anyway, its absence finally got on the nerves of Ziroluermann so much that ono day lie blurted out, "Don't you ever write reports to your Government?" A clever spy can open a sealed letter, read the contents, iind seal it again. This is done by cutting through the seals with a hot razor—the divided seals are then united by pressing the hot razor against each side of the cut, and then pressing the two parts of the cut seal together. > This is, however, n very delicate operation, and doe6n't always work.

Violation of Diplomatic Bags. From the outbreak of war we sent and received our official mail through England, and couriers carried it between Berlin ,tnd London, . through Holland, via Mushing and Tilbury. On account of the great volume of correspondence between Ambassador I'age and myself on tho affaire of German prisoners in England and English prisoners in Germany, there were many pouches every week. These were leather mailbags opened only by duplicate keys kept in London and Berlin, and, for the Aniencim mail, in Berliu and Washington. Our couriers did their best to keep tho numerous bags in their sight during the long journey, but on many occasions uur couriers were separated, 1 anl "sure, uith malicious purptfee, from their bags by t.ie. German railway mithontits, and on some occasions the bass were not recovered fov <laV6.

Undoubtedly nt this time the Germans opened niid looked over the contents of the bags. Later in the war our courier, while on a Dutch mailboat running behven I'lushing and bngland. wit's twice captured with the boat by a German warship and taken into Jieebruggc. (uidoubtediy hero, too, tlio bags were secretly opened and our uncoded dispatches and letleia rend.

(aei-inan spies were moet annoying in Havana, and one of them, a large dark man, followed m& aboui at a distance o! only six feet, with his eyes glued on I the piinall hag whicn I carried from a I thick strap hanging around my should--01. J. brou;'lit it Irom Germany in that ! ivnj v I never'let it out of my hands or sight. •What was in that bag? Among other tilings were the original telegrams written by the Kaiser in his own handwriting, facsimilies of which appear in the back of this book, and the treaty whicb the Germans tried to get me to sign while they held me us a prisoner. Under the terms tliey proposed the German ships interned in Aniericu were to have the right, in case of war, u> sail for Germany under si safe con duct to be obtained from the Allies by the -United States. Somewilat of n treaty! And quite a new, bright, and original thought by someonu in tho loreign Office or German Admiralty. There wore* also in this mysterious liag many other matters of interest that may some day see tho light. Propaganda Devices. Poisonous propaganda and spying are thr> twin offspring of Kaiserism. There ii in Mexico, for instance, one force tbat never sleeps—the German propaganda. It is the. same method as that used bv the Teutons in every country, the purchase or rental of newspaper pioperties. bribing public men and officers of tiio Army, and th« insidious use of Germans who are engaged m touimerct. Tins propaganda is backed by enormous sums of money appropriated by the Gernmn Government, which directs how all iU officers and agents, high and low, shall participate in tho campaign. The blows of war must be. struck quickly. Delays are /dangerous, and the temporary paralysis of one country by .propaganda may mean the loss of tho war. . The United States has been at a great disadvantage uecause our officials have not bad tho authority, the means, or the money to fight the German propaganda with elfectivo educational campaigns, Tjoth offensive ajid defensive. BernstorlY in this country dig. posed of enormous sums for tho purpose of moulding American public opinion. I, in Berlin, was without one qgiil. with which to place America's eldo before the Gorman people. It is Tt condiet of two systems. In Berlin I did not oven hnve monev to pny private detectives, and on tne vara occasions when I used them, as, for instance, to find out who was connected with Ihe no-called American organisation, tho League of Truth, which was engaged in a violent propaganda against America inside Germany, I was obliged Iα biwr tlii expense personally. Son Hi of the liio Grande the German': nrc working against' us, doing their best to prejudice (ho. Mexicans ngainst The United States, playing upon old hatred?, and creating new ones, mid. in the meantime, by their purchase of properties and of mines creating a situation that will constitute'for us in tho fulurn a most difficult and dangerous problem.