HOW SPIES ARE TRAINED.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 16, 26 February 1915, Page 1 (Supplement)

HOW SPIES ARE TRAINED.

MUST BE ERAVE AND ALERT,

The man who stakes life and liberty to procure valuable information by steal'th in return for cash is a spy, bub only in the broad sense of the word. The really dangerous spy, he who is a dread menace to the country 211 which he operates, is something far beyond this. Wars are frequently won by intellinee secured bv craft far from battle-fronts, and it is absolutely essential that every nation of note should have highly-trained secret agents, who must be men—and sometimes women—of great natural and acquired attainments. The spy if caught must worn out his own salvation. H's masters dare not help him once his craft, or lack of same, lands him in the clutch of some other Power. Nothing then can avail, except the clemency of hw captors, who though employing spies or their own seldom show much for others. There is but one hope for tho condemned spv. and that is the frail on* of his employers being able at the right moment to lav 'by the heels a spy of the country which holds him. MUST BE BRAVE MEN.

Every nation of standing required a secret service, and a secret service w helpless without accomplished myrmidons, not clever and daring merely, but men superlatively trained in the art of spvdoin. The somewhat populai idea that" a spy is necessarily a sneak and a coward is entirely erroneous; unless he is an exceedingly brav e man lie will never be a spy of any consequence. But there are other essential qualities besides courage. It is of paramount importance that the spy should have ft retentive memory, for the good reason that everv line of instruction or information he reduces to writing wdl, if be is caught, the more surely bring him within the dread vengeance- of the country he is harrowing. Thus, before he can be trusted with an important mission, he has to undergo a thorough course in memory training. Scores ot undoubted spies, -whom even our authorities know to be most dangerous men, have been arrested in England only to be released in tho absence Oi anv documentary evidence on which to even formulate an indictment, ie., every trusted spy is in possession of tho S&S W* wrice.taV.n- tnmto as that cede may be, and o fai-reach-ing consequence, possibly, ifa &ng letter is wrongly rendered, it is contained in no more material shape than that of a highly trained memory_ A secret code found on a spy ™y make all the difference between death and freedom, for its very presence will throw a sinister light on the documents which otherwise would appear innocuous.

FROM WHOM ORDERS COME. After the spy has committedhisecKlo to memory with an alphabe f-hke fami liarity, he hae next to grind some other technicalities of h-s dang - otis falling—what lie maynn t do and what he may do, and how he. shall do it That 'be is a Gorernmentj spy, or rather one in the employ of a cial of th 0 Government—for the la"er undertake no spy dealings direct-may be known to less than half a dozen officials. He is warned, therefore, to hold no converse or communication with any Government servants other than tho*" who ar e empowered to give lam instructions. He is practically certain to bo warned to make no lady friends, for a Pretty face and a pair ot laughing eyes havci too often lured a secret servwo man to his doom when human sleughhounds have ignomimously failed to track him down. It is now a wellknown fact that a certain danc-ng nymph was not merely an spy wrecker, but a most accomplished „p> herself into the bargain. The spy. too, must not offend the unwritten laws of tho service, not the least of which is never to expro-s the least curiosity regarding his Ructions, and to answer all question!, without asking any. Ho may think what he likes and welcome. His name must never be adhibited to his report.-- only a number which the service has allotted to him. He must on no account ask or give particulars over tho telephony and. indeed, ho is even instructed to avoid telegraphing and cabling as much possible. Important discoveries he must, if humanly possible, commit to memory and deliver verbally to i-..s chief. "If he has to resort to memoranda—a practice always pregnant wiMi danger—then it must be reduced to cipher at the firet opportunity. , A GOOD LINGUIST.

No person can be a really top-notch *r>v who is not a proficient linguist, a man of readv resource, and, perhaps above all, a skilled delineator of his fellow-men. He mu-t bo ready at a moment's notice to assume a P a !*t n play it as if his very life denended upon it—as it well may. Th"s role may have been suggested to him beforehand, but once he has received his instruct: kitis from headqua rte rs-always deln creel verballv —he is out on his own toi better or i'or worse. In short, lus employers are the strategists and hp the tactician. Strategv cannot possibly succeed without- tactics, but it is the tactician who bears the brunt of any haid knocks going. A spy may thus for a spell be a punctilious waiter at a nign,.la«s cafe. or. aided b v service money, wlreh wiil never fail him when required. lie may assume the role ot a pseiKlo millionaire doing the s'ghts.* Ihero is no limit to his disgui -'s. . As 111av be L'ucss.'d, the strain entailj ed at times 'is well-night intolerable. Suppose, for instance, that a w-rtn'n ! counti v requires for her own eat tv to I obtain a knowhdge of 1, w guns which j a rival rower, on tho W! «« I with hj; r is :\a' ;, 'g Mm «;>y pot "n ! of'the most dangerous enterprises j that, can be assigned to hint. . o*i. lierrin uitb.be must have a r ady know- | i(. ( pro of ballistics before he can be ol ! I M >nt to a countt \ u.th . ! nr<> strained to I li"!) of warsiiips. l>._.oie 1 < • | tins deadly commit on. . e.f the diilcrmt. ''li'os no 11 1 . , or rather from silhou- tte... .a : a»d : ivf" I'ini some day from a , imi'vent plaeo of vantage to toll h .v 1 manv Dreadnoughts. pre-Dreadiio'edits '•rniscrs. or destroyers ar~ apportioned ' to a certain base, mer'ly by the.r form arrainst the eky I. no.

HOW THE SPY IS PAID. As may be understood, the spy does not risk liis life out of pure love of ftflventure or yet from dictates of patrio* tiiiin. Indeed, lie is not always a native of the country in whose service he is, and, frequently, his chances of securing valuable results are enhanced ir he is not. How he is paid depends largely upon the importance of his mission and the wealth of the nation employing him. But nearly every country follows certain well-defined rules relating to spy emolument. The regular man has a proportion of his salary —usually onethird—paid into a suspense account, which he is only permitted to draw on at long periods. This, in a measure, secures not only his loyalty, but, in the not very unlikely event of hie being shot or going mysteriously out of ken, his dependents will have something to receive. The annual retainer ofa spy may be anything between £2-3 and £250, in addition to which he receives expenses on a liberal scale, a regular wage, and a bonus on results. In ono way or another a successful spy cannot" cost his country less than £10<">0 annually, but what he occasionally •saves bis country is almost impossible to estimate.