U.S. SECRET SERVICE

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1783, 31 January 1918, Page 1

U.S. SECRET SERVICE

SILENT AND SURE,

HOW A PACIFIST WAS CAUGHT

A German agent, arrested in the United States, who found that every movement he hud made for several weeks was known to the Secret Ser-,

vice, exclaimed, bitterly, “This is worse than Russia.”

He was right —from his point of view, writes Hamilton Fyfe, in the Daily Mail, Our point of view is different. For the allies the American Secret Service is better than that of Russia—the “Oehrana,” beloved by sensational novelists—ever was. It is far more energetic. It is more intelligent. And it cannot be bribed; The head of it—Mr Biolaski, a Pole by origin—was asked one day how it had discovered so much about German plotting both before and after the United States was at war. Not a week passes without some fresh revelation. Mr Biehtski said drily, “We work without a brass band.” This Secret Service is secret. Its agents are everywhere. Not a pleasant feeling, even if you have nothing to conceal, that eyes may be watching you, that your goings out and comings in may all be noted down. For those who are plotting and spying a very uncomfortable feeling, indeed! Here is an example of the method of working “without a brass band.” A pacifist was arrested. He had been talking in a train. When he got out a man followed him and took him info custody. “But. why?” the pacifist inquired, putting a bold face on it. “You have just been making, a speech in the car,” the Secret Service man replied, quietly. “Well, what of it?” his prey blustered.

“You have been making that speech a number of limes. You made it in the train from B to M last Thursday; you made' it again the next day between P and F . Twice this week I have heard it before to-day.”

“But I don’t remember your face,” the pacifist faltered, unable to deny.

NETWORK OF .SURVEILLANCE.

Once a suspect comes under the notice of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation he is surrounded by an ingenious and imperceptible network of surveillance. Mr Bielaski’s agents are about his path and about his bed. They spy out all his ways. “Shadowing” is an art which has been raised to a very high degree of nicety in the United States.

Bielaski is an interesting character. Ho is not in the least like the detective chiefs of fiction. He is known as “crank on exercise.” He works in his garden before breakfast, or takes a long walk in the pleasant country round Washington, lie has been a devotee of hard physical training for many years. Now, at thirty-live, he is a model of fitness.

One day a visitor with a grievance began to talk loudly about what he would do to Bielaski if he were not in his office. Bielaski stood up. “Don’t let that worry you,” he said, politely. The angry one looked at ids broad shoulders and taut figure —and bade him good-day. “Übique” (Everywhere might be the motto of the United States Secret Service, as it is of the Royal Artillery. And its übiquity is so unobtrusive. The local detectives usually have their calling stamped all over them. The Federal Force is never noticeable. 1 know men belonging to it who pass in all companies without remark. Their clothes are well cut, their manners well bred. As soon as a detective becomes known, through carelessness or boasting, Bielaski has no further use for him. That is why the American Secret Service has found out so much.