Los Angeles herald., 1905-01-26
SELLING STATE SECRETS
Female Spies Are Now Employed BY
France

FTdUtC
From the london Express.
When people read or hear Of a Sc
cret Service agent the picture of a
man armed to the teeth with revolvers
and stilettos, a mixture of a Sherlock
Holmes and a Bill Skies rises before
their eyes.
Now, as a matter of fact, the best
secret service agent In the world and
the one most generally relied upon by
the nations is-the editor of the local
paper.
Let us call the town Greenbeach, and
assume that the government has de-
cided to build hidden battery close
by. The editor of "The Greenbeach
Gazette" will announce in his columns
that Inspector Capt. so-and-so has
arrived at the local hotel to superin-
tend some work for the government.
Next week tenders will be invited for
bricks, cement and Stag. The foreign
intelligence man, reading this news in
Paris Berlin or st. Petersburg, begins
to chuckle, This Is going to be inter-
esting."
A few months pass, while foreign
eyes daily scan the paper for news of
the battery. At last the editor gravely
informs his readers that new guns
for the battery now building have ar
rived"
"Aha!" says the intelligence man
"our agent in London must have
look at that" And accordingly one
day a pleasant foreigner arrives at
Greenbeach, starts painting the cliffs
chats in the evening with the local
topers at the bar, and is a good lis
tener when yarn about the new bat
terry are told. Finally, he departs and
sends his report to his chief, who
hands 1t on to the expert branch for
close investigation.
Humdrum work 1t seems, but 1t Is
really only on rare occasions that ro-
nance enters the life of the intelli-
gence man. Every government has it's
press department and it's intelligence
department. The press department
reads thousands of papers, and i'm
parts the gist of them to the intelli-
gence service.
Often the military attache alone can
| attend to this. For example, let us
assume that new gun has been is
sued to the troops. Military as well
as military papers in our days of
kodaks and free press will compete
in divulging facts about the guns.
Compare all these data, and the
truth probably lies in those points on
which all papers agree, so that slowly
from all these different items pic
ture of the gun may be built up.
Not only governments, but also pri-
vate firms interested in the manufac-
ture of big guns, even banks and COM
mercial houses, use their local rep
| resentatives for keeping themselves in
formed of the enterprises of their COM
petitors. Banks like the Credit Lyon
nats employ private press agencies to
build up a history of every bank and
| large concern in existence.
AS regards the spies of the secret
intelligence service, it is interesting to
know that the the supply largely ex-
ceeds the demand. For anyone who
has not been in the service himself it
seems incredible what numbers of
scoundreds, young and old, are to be
found in most armies and navies who
will willingly sell their countrys Sc
crets to the highest bidder.
These and few specially appointed
agents are the main retailers OF mill
tary secrets There are, further, the
deserters, who, arriving in a strange
country, generally without money, turn
| the knowledge they have acquired dur
ing their time of service into money
by selling their country's secrets.
On this account, of course, prices are
not so high as is generally believed.
For example, a government would
rarely pay several thousand pounds"
for the purchase of signal book Was
not the secret of the French field guns
sold in 1898 to Germany for 5000 francs
| (S20O, and such a secret has hun
dredfold the value of the signal book.
| Altogether the life of the secret serv-
ice man is not devoid of interest. He
gets hardened to the business, and if
it were not for the exciting fact that
where other people deal in goods he
deals in the lives of nations it would
soon pail.
OF course, on the first occasions
when you have been sent to a foreign
country, and carry papers in your
pocket which, if found on you, would
obtain you twenty years hard labor
free of charge it is difficult to keep
perfectly at ease when talking to a
high police officer or military official.
In the end, however, you get used to
it and careless, till you are caught.
The main agents of Russia and
France are women, while Germany pre-
fers men-so does Britain.
The triumph of the French policy of
employing female spies was celebrated
in Italy when well known lady of the
French embassy managed to get the
Italian minister into her tolls. 1t was
at the time Italy intended to occupy
Tunis and to establish protectorate
there. The Italian fleet was preparing
at Palermo.
In only two more days it would sail,
and Tunis would belong to Italy, when
during one of the lovers meetings the
italian minister let the secret out. The
rest belongs to history France ar
rived first and occupied Tunis.