The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-03-21
SYSTEM OF SPIES
IN PARIS AND ITS
 MANY METHODS.
Has Become Settled Custom of Ruiers and of Their Opponents-What DOssier is and How Its Varied
 Information ia Obtained.

ana Ot Vne1r OppOhentD-WhAt - Dossier is and How Its Varied Information is Obtained. -
 | London Mail.
 "Espionage? Rubbish!' said my friend. You fellows who live here in Paris have spies and spying on the l brain. If a letter goes wrong you | throw out dark hints of black cabinets, and you would have us believe that there is no more sanctity for private life in France here than there ts In Russia. Down in your heart of hearts you know that that is nonsense, but your Britian who lives abroad Is so full of the -Englishman's s-house- | Is -his-castle notion that he invariably gets exaggerated ideas as to intrusion | on his privacy"
 My friends explosion gives, think, | a very fair idea of most Englishmen at home when espionage Is mentioned | to them, and yet the spy system not ] only does prevail in France. but 1t has entered into the customs of the coun- try's rulers, as we'll as into those of folk "agin the government" so much that, if 1t does not throw Russia's method into the shade. 1t at all events quite equals it.
 What . Doasier h.
 How much do you in England realize. | | "fiches" scandal in the chamber of deputies not long ago, which all but overthrow M. Combes and his govern ment? What think you of the fact | that practically every officer of the French army. from the young fellow | who has just left St. Cyr to the com mander in chief himself. has each his dissier at the war office, which is at the service of the minister for home Iaff hnn hn mand a sight of 1t? The minister of justice has the dossiers of every mem- Der of the French bar. and at the pre- lecture and the home office are my riads of dossiers referring to civilian I officials, politicians and to all classes of private folk.
 And now, of course, you would like to know just what a dossier Is. Filed and kept safe from prying eyes, be- | tween two strips of cardboard, the ministerial offices of which l have spoken collect short notes about the lives of every kind of people, written on scraps of paper and derived from sources more or less reputable. One of these slips, or fiches, which make the dossier up may make or mar the future of a citizen of the republic, and, as the scandal in the chamber showed, | the information gathered from club servants, walters in cafes, concierges. from no matter whom nor how nor where, has many times prevented otherwise officers from getting leave, promotion of the coveted exchange to other duties.
 What Premier Combes Learned. This, strange as it no doubt must sound to English ears and English mo- tions, would be a good mark in the France of January, 1905, but if tomor-
 row France were to be ruled by a re- actionary cabinet-and, as you know. lin France conservative reaction and Allegiance to the pope go hand-in Ihand-yesterdays good mark would mean such a bad one for the unfor- Itunate officer in question that he would probably be tucked away in a frontier garrison, where, to use the official explanation of such courses when they are questioned in the cham
 ber. his influence for evil is less to be
 feared"
 One of the great administrative jokes is the presentation to a high French
 official on his accession to office of
 the dossier concerning him. I can cite
 a rather amusing example of this. lThe present premier. Nj. Combes, on
 entering office, was particularly anx- Iious to see what information his for
 bear at the home office had about
 him. The secretary, who was dis
 patched for the dossier, so expurgated
 1t before he brought it in that all M.
 Combes found about himself was that
 he had been proposed twenty years
 before for the Cross of the Legion of
 Honor. He knew that that could not
 be all it contained. insisted, and even-
 tually was shown the other documents.
 They consisted of: First, information
 emanating from a detective employed
 by the prefecture of Lyons, a little
 provincial town where the present
 premier practiced as a doctor, and lgathered from "a person in the confi-
 dence of the doctors entourage:" sec ond, similar information from two dis missed servants. And all three fiches represented Emile Combes as being a
 "cross little person of untidy habits.
 who hypocritically abstains from mass,
 but has strong secret leanings to-
 ward the clergy and their works" The
 value of such information needs no Icrlticism.
 No One Safe From Spying.
 No one in France is absolutely safe
 from espionage, but it Is carried out
 fairly discreetly, and few people, ex-