The Dickinson press., 1888-03-31
OFFICIAL SPIES.
IN EUROPE THEIR BUSINESS is CON.
SlpERED A SCIENCE.
Turkeys Military Attaches at the Princi.
pal Courts-England's Intelligence DE.
partment-Germany's Marvelously Sys.
tematic Organization.

MISUNDERSTANDING MarvelOusty 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 n note book, learning and
coming by rote all about its friends mill
tary strength and weakness and favoritc pro-
jects and general inclinations, thus acting on
the principle treat Il friend as if lie may
some day become an enemy" In the various
capitals of Europe there arc 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 a department. 1t is situ-
ated III the Sclasiiicratc, and is closely adla-
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 i'll
the field and for the result of the campaigns
both in Europe and i'll Asia. Turkey has
military attaches at the principal courts.
They are rather ~faireant gentlemen, us n
rule, but some of them are really smart and
jealous officers. They are supposed to mix
freely i'll general, and especially military,
society: to keep their eyes anu 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 i'll
vented it was put under the 4'iartcrmastcr
general. Last year it was transferred to the
division of the adjutant general, which seems
to be its proper place. The Office used to DO
facing the war Office in Pail Mall, but it is
now on the other side of st. James park, i'll
one of the quaint old wainscotcd mansions
of Queen Annc's Gate. Here are siited and
sorted and registered md dockcted and alb
stractcd the piles of information which ar
rive through the foreign Office from military
attaches in Paris, Berlin, Vienna, ST. Peters
burg, ConstaArtinoplc and Rome, us well us
from the host of civilian representatives and
officials whom Great Britain has lying
abroad, to use the double burrclc,l phrase of
Sir William Temple. Every one of these is
responsible for sending llonc whatever mill
tary or naval information he can pick mp
about certain countries, and this information
is duly forwarded to the intelligence depart
ment, where it is either rejected or ricccd Ill
with other morsels, very much as n puzzlo
map is pieced together, until it makes u
whole. The system of cross indcXing in the
department is apparently perfect, and any
point required for reference cun be found
literally instantly.
But the best organized intelligence depart
ment in the world is, if not on the hanks 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 Il
fine block of buildings between the Branlcn-
burg gate ut the end of the Inter den Linden
and the Hanover Railway station, and in this
block, built and paid for out of the French
indemnity, the intelligence department has,
great suite of Offices which are Il marvel of
sytcmatic arrangement. Here are to he
found not only all the information that
money and zeal can obtain about the military
forces of the world, and about the tcrrnins on
which conflicts are likely to occur, but plans
perfected down to the last detail for utilizing
the gigantic forces of the empire i'll whatever
part of the world they can ever come to he
handled.
Plans are there not only for dealing with
France or Russia, or Austria OF Scandinavia,
but for invading Belgium and Holland and
even insular England. What they are pre-
ciscly very, very few people know. They
have been drafted in the first instance us en-
crcises i'll 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-
ceivcd, remain ready TO the hands Of those
who may at any time be called upon to exc
cute the task which their trainers had in
view. 1t is all but certain that these plans
include schemes for the invasion of the
United States, but this fact need give no one
any uneasiness, US there are doubtless to he
found in the same corridors plans equally
exact in every particular for the invasion of
China, Brazil, Italy, Portugal, Hindostal,
Australia or Persia.
The French are believed to have developed
nn intelligence department which fairly III
walls that of Berlin. In 1870 they had the spy
mania very acutely. 1t was not easy for any
man of blonde aspect to travel in France,
however remotely from tho theatre of war,
without being arrested Us an '~lIspion
Prlsse." Now the French are spending
more money and more labor than II other
country i'll acquiring just the sort of informa-
ton that the spies supply. The Germans are
working much more cheaply, and, besides,
they have long ago got oil the information
they want, except about the new Lehcl rifle
and its cartridges. Even of the latter they
know nearly all they need, for it is ascer-
tanned that the explosive i'll these cartridges
will not stand prolonged storage and trans
port, a danger some time ago pointed out as
likely to attend any 'smokelcss' powder.
But any student Of military matters must
doubt whether the French will he able to
make as much use of the information they
acquire as the Germans do, or the English.
France used to have tho, i'll u professional
sense, best educated officers in the world.
But that is no longer the case. Indeed, it is
not saying too much to expresst the belief that
the French staff are virtually uneducated in
the science of war. The plumbers made in
the recent partial mobilization were of just
the same sort as those made III 1S10.-New
York Times.
Explosion of NAlinitc.
The report made to the French Chirurgi-