1938-08-01 — Page 11

THE CHINA MAIL, AUGUST 1, 1938.

International Spy Business Said At New

"High" As Millions Spent

World

When a Federal grand jury in New York indicted eighteen per- sons last month for participation in a. German espionage ring operat- ing in the United States, it pro- vided dramatic confirmation of one more peculiarity of our contem- porary world. The international spy business has touched a post- war "high."

During the last three years more intelligence agents have been ar- rested and convicted than during any commensurate peace-time period in several decades. Only a minute. fraction of the thousands

To Get Secrets

ons of foreign: societies. But hey are also dangerous. They are fine breeding grounds for espion- dge in peace and war""" "Major Yardley says that in peace spies are usually as safe in America as

Countries Said Flooding in church.

Dictatorship Countries U.S.A., Britain And France With At The Annual Cost Of $50,000,000

By LELAND STOWE

Agents

Gold

of spies now prowling around the tered Russia on false passports,, that their trained agents run into globe have been caught.

•.

One reason for this is the lack of restraint under American laws on aliens living in the Unitec

States, with almost no check on

their movements or even ~ their identities. In European countries, as every American knows who has lived abroad, for igners are com- pelled to report the take out “identity. under the name of Mr. and Mrs. tens of thousands and their or

few weeks after Even cursery examination of the| Robinson, and mysteriously dis-ganisations, like Germany's Ges-cards must be rer

• records is sufficient to make a trust- appeared. The Soviet authorities tapo, function as training grounds must be presented and stamped by ing citizen spy-conscious. It also evidently had little difficulty in for spies who are graduated into the police at every change of re- emphasises several features of the convincing American diplomats work abroad. present remarkable activity in the Mata Hari racket. Particularly striking are these:

that they had a case against the "Robinsons" -as intelligence opera- tors,

AMERICANS CONVICTED

Inevitably, parliamentary govern- ments are seriously exposed in con- trast to the mailed-fist dictator

L

sidence. Usually they must also be presented whenever the foreigner stops at a hotel

EASY TO TRAIL ALIENS

This gives to both the govern- ment and the local police a per- manent record of all, foreigners in the country, in addition to their ordinary passро Of all the first-rank nations the are said to be more than 3,000,000 To-day there American melting pot constitutes aliens living in the United States; the easiest operating spot for for- yet once they have passed the im-. eign agents, in the opinion of ex-migration authorities, our police: perts, Our extraordinary mixture nave no reliable means of keeping- of races is one factor; others are track of them. our manifold foreign language so- cieties and newspapers.

1. The European nations alone Not long ago four men were systems. It is much safer to be a are now estimated to be spending tried in England for removing German spy in France than between $50,000,000 and $80,000,- secret plans, including those of a French spy in Germany. In the 000 annually for all kinds of fourteen-inch naval gun and aThird Reich the foreign agent pays espionage.

depth bomb fuse, from Woolwich with his head. 2. On the basis of the number supplied both the romantic angle Arsenal. A blonde and chic "Miss of agents apprehended, it appears in the ease and the evidence which that

the German and Japanese resulted in convictions. military dictatorships are most active in "intelligence" work abroad. (Incidentally, these two governments together with Rus- In 1986 two Americans, former sia-mete out the several penalties Lieutenant Commander John S. for spies caught within their own Farnsworth and former seaman borders and have executed many Henry T. Thompson, got long sen of the Cryptographic Bi Major Herbert O. Ya such persons in merciless fashion). tences for betrayal of naval infor

3. Of recent years Nazi Ger- mation to Japanese intelligence United States Military many's espionage agents have con- agents. Among other cases that Department during the centrated their efforts in England, year a German, Dr. Herman Gortz made this further com

cularly dangerous at the France and the United States on ob- was sentenced to four years in Eng-time are some of the various taining military aviation secrets in land as an aviation spy; another cist organisations, which

German agent received & three- year term in France, also for ob-friends to Germany or Italy. 4. According to-the-record, the taining data.on-aerial-armaments, average American laughs at European dictatorships are send- and four Germans and four ing abroad more spies than other Frenchmen, all convicted as spies, governments—or else their agents were exchanged at the Franco- are abnormally clumsy.

German frontier.

particular.

..

Service

Whenever a sensational spy case crops up, such as the latest Ger-

affair, people wonder whether the information obtained begins to compensate for the millions of dol-- hasars spent for espionage. That is a question which only the experts esent could hope to answer authoritative-

Fas-ly. But it eventually must be worth are the expense and the risk, or why The does the spy business keep grow these ing?

The quickest way to get the best whisky

5. Experts insist that spies can

The spy mania reached a point operate with greater impunity in where at least 1,000 foreign agents the United States than in any other

were estimated to be active in Eng- large nation. This is the only great land last year, and the appropria- country which possesses no tion for Britain's Secret thorough police machinery for fund (exclusive of special funds for tabulating all aliens within its the empire) was increased to more borders and maintaining a regular than $1,500,000. Every European checkup on their whereabouts and

government actually spends larger. activities.

sums for espionage and counter- 6. The persistent intensification espionage than are announced in of international espionage since budget figures. Consequently the 1996 keeps pace with world' re-total cost of international spying armament and militarisation of can never be accurately fixed. But nations. This indicates that, in the extent of this procedure is both event of a second great war, con enormous and formidable. trol of the spy business is certain

The aggressive military dicta to become a major problem for the American government, far surpass-

torships-notably Germany, Italy ing in gravity the racketeer and and Japan-already have their es- kidnapping... challenges, to the pionage systema keyed to war-time Federal Bureau of Investigation. pitch. Because of their current ad-

CASES IN ABUNDANCE

To appreciate the incréas tempo of spy cases which come light it is merely necessary to view head-liners in the record

re-

of

ventures on foreign soll, they are xceptionally · anxious abo the litary secrets of their neighbours and possible future adversaries,"

This probably accounts for the exceptional number of German and Japanese spies caught in the last

recent months. On June 15 three years. It must be concluded

George and Anna Schwitzer beheaded in

espionage. On

Jordan,

has now spyri York) in Edinbür Not long

that these governments have un- precedented numbers of neoret operatives now, busy in all parts of

world,

Moreover, the dictatorships (in- cluding Russia) depend on Vant secret police systems to consolidate en- their power at home. This means

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