Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-03-01
OFFICIAL SPIES.
IN EUROPE THEIR BUSINESS IS CON-
 SlDERED A SCIENCE.

IN EUROPE THEIR BUSINESS IS CON-
 slDERED A SCIENCE.
 Turkeys Military Attaches at the Princi-
 pal Courts-England's Intelligence De-
 partment-Germany's Marvelously Sys-
 tematic Organization.
 Of late years in Europe spying has been elevated into a science. 1t goes on all the time The utmost and sincere friendship of one nation for another does not prevent it from setting in a note book, learning and coming by rote all about its friends mili- tary strength and weakness and favorite pro- jects and general inclinations, thus acting on the principle "treat friend as if he may some day become an enemy" In the various capitals of Europe there are regular bureaus devoted to the classification of Information obtained by spies and to the direction of the movements and aims of such agents. Even Turkey has such department. It is situ- ated in the Seraskierate, and is closely adja- cent to the lofty apartments allotted to the council of war, that unhappy body which ten years ago was largely responsible for lettering the freedom of general officers in the field and for the result of the campaigns both in Europe and in Asia. Turkey has military attaches at the principal courts. They are rather faineant gentlemen, as a rule, but some of them are really smart and jealous officers They are supposed to mix freely in general, and especially military, society; to keep their eyes and ears open, and to get hold, by fair means or foul, of all official secrets relating to military affairs.
 In England the intelligence department is of quite modern growth. When it was in- vented it was put under the quartermaster general. Last year it was transferred to the division of the adjutant general, which seems to be it's proper place. The office used to be facing the war office in Pall Mall, but it is now on the other side of St. James, park, in one of the quaint old wainscoted mansions of Queen Anne's Gate Here are sifted and sorted and registered and docketed and ab- stracted the piles of information which ar rive through the foreign office from military attaches in Paris, Berlin, Vienna, St. Peters burg, Constantinople and Rome, as we'll as from the host of civilian representatives and officials whom Great Britain has lying abroad, to use the double barreled phrase of Sir William Temple. Every one of these is responsible for sending home whatever mili- tary or naval information he can pick up about certain countries, and this information is duly forwarded to the intelligence depart ment where it is either rejected or pieced in with other morsels, very much as puzzle map is pieced together, until it makes a whole. The system of cross indexing in the department is apparently perfect, and any point required for reference can be found literally instantly.
 But the best organized intelligence depart ment in the world is, if not on the banks of the Spree, at least on the banks of one of the canals connected with that petty river. The staff quarters of the German army occupy fine block of buildings between the Branden- burg gate at the end of the Unter den Linden and the Hanover Railway station, and in this block, built and paid for out of the French indemnity, the intelligence department has a great suite of offices which are a marvel of sytematic arrangement. Here are to be found not only all the information that money and zeal can obtain about the military forces of the world, and about the terrains on which conflicts are likely to occur, but plans perfected down to the last detail for utilizing the gigantic forces of the empire in whatever part of the world they can ever come to be handled.
 Plans are there not only for dealing with France or Russia, or Austria or Scandinavia, but for invading Belgium and Holland and even insular England. What they are pre- cisely very, very few people know. They have been drafted in thu first instance as ex- ercises in military staff work; they have then been revised by high authority, touched up by the highest authority, and, being from time to time amended as information is re- ceived, remain ready to the hands of those who may at any time be called upon to exc cute the task which their iramers had in IT, ;e 1,,,t foi fhot include schemes for the invasion of the United States, but this fact need give no one any uneasiness, as there are doubtless to be found in the same corridors plans equally exact in every particular for the invasion of China, Brazil, Italy, Portugal, Hindostan, Australia or Persia.
 The French are believed to have developed an intelligence department which fairly ri vals that of Berlin in 1870 they had the spy mania very acutely. It was not easy for any man of blonde aspect to travel in France, however remotely from the theatre of war, without being arrested as an "Espion Prusse" Now the French are spending more money and more labor than any other country in acquiring just the sort of informa- tion that the spies supply. The Germans are working much more cheaply, and, besides, they have long ago got all the information aAS' ASNSA 1Ai>O and its cartridges. Even of the latter they know nearly all they need, for it is ascer- tained that the explosive in these cartridges will not stand prolonged storage and trans port, danger some time ago pointed out as likely to attend any ''smokeless" powder. But any student of military matters mast doubt whether the French will be able to make as much use of the information they acquire as the Germans do, or the English. France used to have the, in professional sense, best educated officers in the world. But that is no longer the case. Indeed, it is not saying too much to express the belief that the French staff are virtually uneducated in the science of war. The blunders made in the recent partial mobilization werc of just the same sort as those made in 1S70.-New York Times.
 Explosion of Melinite.
 The report made to the French Chirurgi-
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