The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1904-04-16
THE MOST DANGEROUS WORK IN
WAR FALLS TO THE LOT OF SPY

LONDON, April 16.-It is now well
known that for months-nay, years-before
the outbreak of the present Russo-Japanese
war the country likely to become the scene
| of operations was sWarming with the
agents of the intelligence department of the
japanese army
Officers of high rank have not disdained
| to disguise themselves as coolies, and per-
| form all kinds of mental labor, if by doing
so they could only obtain information like
ly to be useful during campaign.
Such work is best done in time of peace;
but a general commanding an army in the
field always has an intelligence department,
who conduct their secret work in the
enemys country at imminent risk of death.
The chief of the intelligence department
is attached to the generals headquarters,
and is directly responsible to the chief Of
the staff. The chief intelligence officer Is
nominally an aid-decamp, and pains are
taken to prevent the field force generally
knowing that he is in control of the spies.
! In all European armies-and, presum-
| ably. in that of Japan, which is modelled
on the European pan-there are half a
dozen approved methods of obtaining In
formation, all of which are practiced by a
! capable intelligence officer.
| A spy who is also an operator can tap
| the telegraph wires with his small pocket
! instrument. and one such man is worth a
dozen ordinary spies. He is useful in con-
veying false information to the enemy, or
ordering him to concentrate on points
where he has no business to be.
7 Prisoners are often useful in giving in
! formation. and are always questioned by
| the chief intelligence officer separately,
| queries being put as to which corps, di-
vision and regiment the prisoner belongs
to. where it is encamped, and how long it
has been there, to begin with.
The intelligence officer already has in his
possession the names of the commanding
officers of the various divisions, ETC.; he
talks of them Familiarity, and the unfor-
! tunate prisoner, bewildered by finding that
his questioner already knows so much,
readily yields up his remaining stock of
| information.
Questioning the inhabitants Of hostile
country is a totally different matter, and
forms science by itself Here, again, in
formation previously obtained is usefully
employed to extract more.
People to question are the mayor of
the town or village, the local clergy, the
chief tradespeope; though useful infoma-
! ton is often obtained from more humble
inhabitants.
An intelligent officer never allows those
he is questioning to be spoken to by sol
diers until after he has finished with them.
Now we come to the most useful part OF
the intelligence officers material-his own
| spies.
1t is hardsnd-fast rule that no spy is
made known to any of the others; each is
allowed to believe that he is the only one
engaged on that particular work.
Large rewards are given for really val
liable information, and a useful spy is al
ways well treated.
All bonafde spies (if such a contradic
ton in terms is allowable carry about
with them some secret means of proving
themselves to be really what they repre-
sent
A testament, with a certain leaf torn
out, coin of certain date, are typical
tokens of identity, and these are frequently
changed. Some intelligence officers prefer
as a token some gesture-such as touching
the chin with certain fingers, and so on
In this way spies can easily make them
selves known to the intelligence depart
ment Of any division of the army with
which they come in contact,
Snecial paper and ink-tbA lott-P at th1