Arizona republican., 1903-07-26
INTERNATIONAL SPIES
How Desired Information Is Secured
 by London Foreign ofiice.

l All the great nations require informa- i ton about other countries which is not | obtainable openly. For this reason the | intelligence departments of the great | military powers on the continent are | organized, on a scale of cost and eff ciency undreamed of in this constitu- | tional country. In Russia the secret police employ a considerable number of agents. both male and female. who are resident in England. Some of these paid agents ,or spies, are people we'll known in society. Their duties vary from diplomatic work of the highest | delicacy to the collection of newspaper cuttings.
 One of the points attended to by the | Russian secret service is the record of every English public man who speaks or writes about Russia. On one occa- sion the present writer had the oppor- | tunity of seeing the system followed by the Russian police. Every speech and every writing of MT. haw-Lefevre-an | innocent and not very formidable per sonage-with particulars of his birth, | parentage, means, residence, habits, | tastes and position, were all entered in | a great portfolio.
 Considerable sums are spent by Rus sia on secret service agents in Central Asia, Beloochistan, Persia, and in In- | dia itself. The object of these agents | is to belittle Great Britain and belaud | Holy Russia. Constant diplomatic duels take place between British con- sular agents and the aVOwed represen- | tatives of Russia. This subterranean | war of secret agents is going on all | over the world.
 The German system of secret service is conducted on much more scientific lines. German knowledge of the United Kingdom is more complete than that of most Engishmen. I was lately in- formed by a British diplomatist of the | highest rank that the German general | staff possesses a schedule of the con-
 tents of all the chief residences in the kingdom. Every picture and work of l art of any considerable value is known | to the German general staff. while the study of British topography the mas 1 tery of our ordnance maps, the know | ledge of the lords, smithies, obstacles. population and high roads form the subjects of examination from German
 officers who are told off to the duty I of'-acquiring full knowledge of the
 counties of the United Kingdom. The
 German agents in England, who are
 occupied in surveying our country with
 a view to contingencies, are generally | to be found in couples in the guise of
 tourists. They know to d head how many horses the Irish farmers can SUD-
 ply within a given time. They have
 made a careful study of the idiOsyn-
 crasies of our leading men. Their
 tastes, habits. health, friends and
 means are carefully noted by the as
 tute Teutons, who distill the honey of i information from English fields for the
 German hive. The principal feature in ! which German secret service differs
 from that of England is that the Ger | mans coordinate the whole of their | knowledge and have it ready to hand
 in a concentrated form whever 1t is
 required.
 The English system is different.
 There is a secret service fund, controll-
 ed by the foreign office. So many for
 eign official agents are hostile to Eng
 land and are unpaid that the foreign
 office service is often found to be use
 less for naval or military purposes.
 During the last two years the admiral
 ty has succeeded in wrestling from the
 foreign office the control of the secret
 service, so far as it affects the navy. During the trouble with France over Fashoda agents of the admiralty were
 busily watching French opinion in the great centers. The English military
 intelligence department is again a separate service.
 What is required is to concentrate in
 one spot the whole of the knowledge obtainable. The foreign office should
 be the brain. the eyes and the autennae
 of the nation. The German and Rus sian foreign offices fulfill these func-
 tions. The British foreign office not ! only does not know what is going to
 happen. it does not want to know,
 while the military and foreign office in
 telligence departments are separated
 adEninistratively.
 What does the admiralty know about ! the German fleet? Very little. How many times has the naval attache in Berlin visited Emden, or even kiel: For what purpose are the miles oi quays erected at Emden, a little viii ! lage with tenth-rate museum in 1t If the Boer war taught us anything il