Evening star., 1900-03-31
s2s.ooo,ooo FOR SECRETS.


From the London Mail
One of the most unpleasant duties of par.
fiament is the voting every year of a sum
Of money for secret Bservice. Every one
| knows that 1t is to be,used to bribe traitors
and reward spies. and there is nothing an
Englishman so much detests as traitor or
spy, even when he isrworidng for our own
government. hh
Consequently. our secret service fund is
probably the smallest in the world. Last
year it amounted to only $4,000. and not
very much bribery can be effected with
that. But some years ago it was three
or four times that sum and some authort-
ties appear to hold the opinion that the
interests of the state would be better
served If it amounted to f10O, ,0OO instead of
f13. 200.
The spending of this money Is one of
those few secrets which are really kept.
Parliament votes the money. 1t Is paid into
the treasury. Then permission is given to
the secretary for foreign affairs the sec
retary Tor the colonies, the home secre-
tary, and the Irish secretary to draw on
1t as they require 1t, each being allowed
certain fixed fraction of the whole
amount.
Suppose our ambassador in Russia sus-
poets that certain preparations are being
made to seize Persian or Chinese mort,
and he wants to get some secret informa-
ton, he draws whatever sum Is necessary
AAS
KNOWS to whom he pays 1t.
Many NJ. P.'s have objected to the public
money being spent in this way, and year
after year they try to obtain information
as to whom it is paid. But of course to
make the names public would render the
fund perfectly useless.
But the most suspicious taxpayer may be
assured that the money is properly spent
AS a matter OF fact, not much more than
half OF the money is ever expended the
balance being returned to the excheuuer
moreover, the secretaries of state are un-
der oath to spend the money honestly
w men secretary of state is allotted his
share he has to take the following oath
before a commissioner:
Il swear that the money paid to me for
foreign secret service. or for detecting, pre-
venting and defeating conspiracies against
the state, has been bona fide applied to
the said purpose and no other"
The reason this oath has to be taken is
that at one time It was suspected that the
secret service money was being used for
electoneering purposes, and for pensOniny
government favorites.
At present most of the money Is spent by
our ambassadors in foreign countries. In
ofoer to know what kind of a foe she may
nave to meet. Great Britain must be made
acquainted with the details of foreign ar
mes, the power and range of their guns
their new inventions in powder shells tor.
peooes, submarine boats, and the like. The
country must also know what are the in
tentionS OF other countries toward her and
IL antagonfstfc endeavor to thwart them
very valuable information of this kind
can only be obtained by bribing an official
OF foreign nation, and the amount which
one country will spend to get such informa-
ton may be gathered from the fact that
Great Britain paid 100000 for a copy of
the treaty of Tilsit between France and
Russia. ~
Foreign countries spend enormous sums
on secret service. France, Germany and
RUSSIA nave their agents everywhere and
tfere are very few secrets of any natioh
winch they do not know, for it is unfor-
tunately, the case that in the employment
or all governments there are men willing
10 oetray their country-for a considera-
ton.
The sum spent by Russia on secret SER
vice does not fall far short1bf three-ouarters
OF a million annually. + Germany and
france each spends close on half million.
Italy nearly quarter of a million and
Austria about the same.
The expenditure under this head of small
er states, such as Belgium. Holland. DEN
mark, Norway and Sweden. Switzerland.
Spain and Portugalsis greater than that
OF england. the average sum for each he
ing about 100000. Lord Salisbury the other
day said that the Transvaal spends $500 OOO
a year on secret seryice.t This estimate is
ihet ahopt eonntv "nssiHth of he total revenue of
The whole amount spent in Europe, Asia,
Africa and America on secret service can
not fall very far short of, f5 200. 900 annu-
ally, and 1t is not a pleasant reflection for
the honest taxpayer that SO much of his
earnings is expended in trying to make
traitors Of men.