GERMAN SPIES IN FRANCE.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 197, 4 August 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

GERMAN SPIES IN FRANCE.

THEIR METHODS OF OPERATION. SOME TYPICAL EXAMPLES. Ry GEORGES PRADE m "Tins Times." Every German is a potential spy. The servile character of the race, its profound contempt for all .self-respect, makes it consider espionage as a service to the State, honourable because it s useful. ... 1 am not familiar with the methods of German spies in England but, in the course of various investigations carried out jn r ranee, I have nad opportunities for noting the working of the German spy system in that country. I suppose their methods are the same in EnglandThe characteristic of German espionage, which before the war employed abroad more than 60,000 men, is that it utilised almost exclusively agents established in the country where they were to operate. Our native Governments were in.the habit of sending o Germany travellers of a. kind who were promptly unmasked, and whose slightest questions during their rapid passage excited suspicion. He is generally enin the country. He is generally engaged in business, which explains his presence, justifies his journeys, his absences, the money he receives, and the letters he sends. One of his most convenient professions is that of insurance agent.

In the course of an inquiry I conducted into the affairs of the German insurance company, the Viktoria zu Berlin, the most important concern of its kind in Europe, with premiums representing over £80,000,000 all over the world—of which 12 millions are in France —I discovered in its offices in the Avenue do l'Opera, Paris, a peculiar organisation known as the Special Buro. In this office the employees were all Germans, voting men between 25 and 30 years of age, officers in the Ger. man reserve, who spent five or six months in France. They received a uniform pay of £4O a month, with an allowance for travelling expenses, iliey spent their time motoring all over France. Their favourite region was the oa<>t of France and the Alps. A few days before the mobilisation in July. 19*14, they all disappeared, having crossed the frontier. One of them nas since been reported as police magistrate at Baden-Baden.

This organisation is t.vpic-n>'. Insurance companies, oven when conducted .apparently in honest fashion, constitute a veritable danger. Not only do they establish an exact estimate of the public fortunes —a useful element in assessing war taxation and indemnities —but they are able to furnish othpr valuable information. The Viktoria, for example, offei ed special terms to French otncers. It insured tuem, without extra charge. agamst/War risks, and, through the medium ot visffing agents, advanced money at very favourable terms on their policies. Tli.o Berlin office f tlie Viktoria thus secured the names f all the Fro i ll officers who owed it money. It will bo admitted that t-lii was an excellent arrangement on wheh to base an organisation for-espionage. Here is an example of German methods applied in important French industrial organisations. Take, for instance, Le Crcusot Works. It is very ufficmt and very dangerous to auen.pt to find out from day to day what they possess in material and workmen and their capacity of production in time of war. A spy passing through- tihe town is quickly remarked. Hare is a much siinp'or plan. The French companies with which Le Creusot js insured receive a visit I'rdm the representative of tho.Gennan insurance company, the Munich. Ho offers to reinsure thvm against tlie risks of tlio.i* eiTonts. His proposals arc very tempting. Tlu\v mean ausoluto seciir'.ty tor the French companies, and are accepted. Among tlie risks insured are those of Le Creiisot. The German company thus obtains from dnv to day a list m the material (insurance against fir.e) and the number of workmen (insurance aaainst accident claims). There is no need for further espionage: it- has in its possession official documents kept up to "date by th.o company itself, which never imagines that they have left Franco.

PUiCHASK OK A sPht I A I. MOTOB. When 1 was organising motor-Doat meetings at Monaco ] myself observed two or three acts of direct espionage. Here is one of the latest, which antes from April, 1(114, n. few months before the war, and which is especially interesting to England. That year a motor glider, extremely powcrfu' 1 , with a motor of 100 h.p., attained the prodigious speed of a hundred kilometres (02 miles) an hour. Boat and motor were built by 11. Dospujois, a Pans manufacturer, and the gl'dor was piloted by 11. Soriano, a. Spaniard. On the last day of the races we heard that the boat would not take part in the trials, as the motor had already been taken to pieces and sent away. On inquiring the name of the buyer who had paid ■ which 1 within y lie motor 1 tnere wellill ufacPTt- at in the ,hi< h I ad M. alfiiir. ldividI to 'ie >d fierier the npeted lead at ImpliIso uisfirm of turers, >uso 1! ired at to rendered took 1 listribmot;,r. t'lid 'if 111 part tomat-li.-inn U't/.iai, in the iclccrt. fected. been ppelm. ar-lnp. it. ••x----olfere'l it in det a ' batter f what >s) > i ■ 1.1 II th ai l s lill'l Ona method, however, dm s uot revent the other. At the present l ire a good deal h "ird ol llo'-e (>eriiian H-r'-p'an-.T. the L.V.f!., the Avial'k,

and the Fokker. All three are copies of French machines. 'Hie Dutch-made Fokker js an imitation, made before the war, of the Morane-Saulnier, built of metal. In April, 1914, the two brothers Wrobiesky constructed a similar machine at Lyons. One of the two killed himself while testing it. Some time after a German traveller arn.ved and took a room jn the house of the surviving brother. He showed great interest in the invention, and disappeared with the p'ans a tew days before tlio outbreak of war. For the last three years the L.V.G. Company has been directed by a Swiss, named Schneider, formerly foreman and friend, even confidant, of the celebrated Kdouard Nieuport, the creator of the c tirely cov-ered-in apparatus. A few weeks after the death of Nieu. port, Schneider crossed ih? fiontier into Switzerland, and sho' ly after arrived in Berlin. I visited !i!; worK.s m 1913, and recognised a'-(ut thro..fourths of the workmen I li.nl known in Paris. In 1914 thev we,--! :i i dismissed and replaced by German.;. The Av atik factory " .is >i.o directed by a Frcpcli engineer. M Descamps. He was formerly a drau-Jitsn .'i at the Esnault-Pelterie and \o!>>.i works. IMe German Headquarters Staff were ■ : polite as t6 write to him in I' l ench. A few davs before the declaration of war, M. De-scamps, who saw hew things were going, escaped from Germany and returned to Fr;:nee to perform his military service. ... It is unnecessary to describe tlio familiar methods of minor spies operating on the front of the Army: hucksters, pedlars and shepherds. But I may mention a curious spy agency established in Switzerland since the war, under the guise of a tobacco business. It operated in the following manner. The fii-.m despatched 10,000 circulars L o as manv different addresses in I'ranee, offering tobacco to the soldiers. "Desirous of manifesting our warm affection for France," the circular ran, •'we should fee' obliged if you would send us the address of a soldier to whom we could forward gratis a tew packets of cigarettes and cigars. The Swiss firm in this way received addresses of soldiers at the front, with the indication of the regiment, of the division, and of the postal sector.