THE SPY.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 21 April 1917, Page 6

THE SPY.

GERMANY’S WIDE SYSTEM. '■ AUSTRALIA’S EXPERIENCE.^

The Australian authorities recently allowed the publication of some details of the German spy system, insofar as it relates to Australia. The present tense is used, because, although most of the German agents and sympathisers in Australia have been rounded up and placed behind barbed wire, there are still undiscovered and active pro-Germans in the Commonwealth, and the German au- ' thorities are making continuous efforts to communicate with their friends in Australia. The Australian Postal censors are constantly on the alert, and flatter

themselves that there are few va>s of sending secret messages that they are not now acquainted with. The German press organisations are most active in distributing to their countrymen broad news favourable to their cause. Leaflets, printed in English, and containing under cover of neutrality, pro-German news and jviews, are almost constantly arriving from Holland, Switzerland, and Arhdrica. These are easily dealt with. A of cigarettes addressed to a prisoner, was examined. Nine of t-he cigarettes were of tobacco, but the

tenth was of newspaper clippings, | tightly rolled. A large package from the Philippines, contained many excellent Manila cigars, but in one box the cigars -were all paper. A box of walnuts came from Java addressed to an interned merchant. A suspicious censor found most of the shells full of paper. These devices, too, do not unusually disturb a careful censor. The most difficult trick to cope with is that c. writing messages in an invisible medium on what appear to be perfectly innocent letters and newspapers. The censors wer e probably deceived frequently at first, but they are confident that they do not miss much now. Documents which have been seized

show how completely the German spy system was in operation in Australia before the war. Nearly every German business w r as collecting information and sending it home to th e Government bureau. A great steamship company was, for intelligence purposes, nothing loss than a branch of the German Admiralty. Some of the German schools were used by the German War Office to grant certain men exemption from service in the German army. In some cases the German pastors were the official representatives of the Gorman ConsulGeneral in Sydney, and received portions of their stipends from Germany. One pastor who had been born in Australia of German parents, when arrested by the military, was found to have treasonble documents in his possession. The British intercepted in th e post from another pastor a “strictly confidential” report, giving a great amount of information about the north-west coast of West Australia. Finally, here is a translation of a document sent confidentially in January, 1914, by the German Minister for the Interior to all secret agents, including certain industrious, retiring gentlemen in Australia and New Zealand: ‘‘Our agents at fixed posts must not content Themselves with holding salaried positions; they might lose such positions at any moment.. Each .one must be obliged to keep some kind of office, whatever the nature of the establishment, whether it is a disputed claims office, or

land cr property agency, grocery establishment or cafe, restaurant, hotel, insurance office, or the like. In all cases the business must be soundly established and possess a substantial goodwill. It must, in fact, be bQrne in mind that it is necessary for our agents to inspire confidence in circles where they have their centre of action, and to create that confidence by the outward signs of ordinary, mid-dle-class existence. Indeed, hy a wellplaced munificence, and by taking part in all kinds of societies, associations and communities, they must acquire such a strong social position that, as far as their locality is concerned, each may be well received everywhere and highly thought of in all quarters, and may thus always b© in a position to give useful information on all points.”