The Daily News. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1912. THE SPIES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 189, 8 February 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1912. THE SPIES.

The imprisonment of an English officer in a German fortress for three years on a charge of espionage is unlikely to have a pacific effect on the already strained international relations. It is conceivable that, under the circumstances, Britain may demand the release of an officer, who, it seems obvious, did no harm to Germany and.who was "given away" by a Belgian ex-convict. In Europe there is a decided spy scare, until it has become disagreeable and unsafe for any Britisher who may happen to look like a soldier to take a holiday. Although every nation has a secret service which quietly collects all defence news it can get at every opportunity, the present nervous disposition to mistake every stranger for a spy is disconcerting, and shows indirectly how great a tension there is in international relations. The term "spy" is usually accepted as one for scorn and detestation. In reality the spy needs to possess qualities uncommon to most men, and in war time, when he is most active, he takes infinitely greater risks than the average soldier in the fighting line takes. He is the eyes, ears and nose of the army, the man who may save it from destruction, and who may bring destruction on the enemy—the whole object of war while it is being waged. Britain's most brilliant soldiers have been her most brilliant spies, and there can be no doubt that the spirit of emulation existing in the services spurs young officers not only to take the risk of being shot as spies in war, but risk of long imprisonment in time of peace. Britain, as is seen, has taken what precautions are necessary to ensure the freedom of officers who go to the Continent, for no British officer's education is complete unless he has viewed for himself the famous European battlefields and has studied by the aid of military history the dispositions of the oldtime armies which waged war. The War Office, by the orders it has issued to officers, plainly shows that espionage in time of peace by officers on leave is not desired, and lias instructed all travelling officers to report themselves at various places and to the authorities in Germany and also to the German authorities in Alsace and Lorraine. Captain Stewart, who is now undergoing three years' durance, was presumably visiting Germany in his private capacity, and certainly not as an agent of the War Office, which had no .official knowledge that he was in Germany. He possibly made the enquiries attributed to him out of interest in his profession, and he did not report his discoveries to the War Office. German officers in England oil leave are received with great courtesy by British officers, and it is unthinkable that a holidaying German would be suddenly

emptied into "clink" and tried, unless it ■were proved that he was an agent of the German War Department, instructed by it to act as spy. The vindictive punishment of Stewart is not likely to deter real British spies from working all the harder in German territory, and although it may be necessary for every travelling British officer to report himself to the German authorities, soldiers are not the only persons with eyes, ears, intelligence and money. There are thousands of men in Britain who know the military art and are yet not under the supervision of the War Office, and this new German method will probably dare them to perform feats of spying that would not otherwise have been contemplated. In Britain there are many thousands of Germans, and a very large proportion have been soldiers. To harass these people, as it is evident British men are being harassed in Germany, is impossible, but the treatment of Stewart may lead Britain to make reprisals by keeping a stricter eye on wandering Germans. It would be quite impossible for a foreigner to be condemned in a British Court to imprisonment on the unsupported evidence of a foreign convict, and it is this point that is more likely to cause friction between Germany and Britain than all others. The presumption must be that Britain at the moment knows all that is necessary about the strength, disposition and resources of the German fighting machine, and that anything a wandering officer on holiday might glean would be of little service, particularly if he had decided that it was too uninportant to transmit to the War Office. The fact that Stewart has been imprisoned in a foreign, fortress because he was keen without being dangerous or intending to be dangerous, is evidence that our cousins are in a state of intense nervous apprehension. That Britain's rather scornful idea of making her officers report to the German police while in Germany will not allay irritation in Germany is quite certain. There will be many interesting communications in regard to the Stewart case, anu there are strong probabilities that this officer will return to his regiment long before the stated term of his imprisonment has elapsed.