The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-07-28
NO FEAR OF JAPAN'S "SPIES"
NAVAL OFFICERS AMUSED ny TIE
san DIEGO ARREST.

-
Jspanese When Away From Home Con.
stantly on the watch TO sem na,i. I'M
formation some Valuable. lat Much
Could Have Iseen iLa,i for Ask ir.x.
The story OF the arrest Of = Japanese
spy while making drawings Of Fort Rose-
Grams in san Diego. Cal. rnadc mere thnn
one American naval oihccr smile. Every
officer Of several years experience will
tell you that It ID the expected thing for
every Japanese who can make a map or
a drawing to send one home from every
place in a foreign coGniry that he visits.
Probably no war yiiicc in the world In
SO overloaded with amateur drawings vt
other countries. from a rulltary stand
point. as is that 10 Toxic lGrn a japanese
loose where he can get information hat
might be used in case OF war and an a
matter OF Iarriosism and Of duty he gcts
out his pencil and sends so-.alei secret
information home.
Tn reports not only have 10 Go with
Notifications but with factories for The
making OF munitions OF war They also
include roads and mountains aad passes
and streams. They tell about the food
sup lies and landing places. When me
I officers Of our warshIps employed Japanese
as servants in the ward rooms there used
to be protests from time to time because
the servants would send home drawings
and information about the ships. There
was no doubt that in many cases such
Information was sent home. but our navA
officers never worried much about IL.
Really there are no secrets about modern
warships. All the Information Of value
that exists abou; them is well known to the
experts. Even il it were not, any good
naval constructor could supply all the
necessary data for fighting by a little
figuring. The size Of the guns on every
warship is known. the dimensions OF the
ship. the amount Of arrnor and all that.
IL requires very little time TO plan out
exactly how the craft is constructed. Any
information. therefore, that the Japanese
servants might send home amounted to
little Of value.
One of the best Known officers in Admiral
Evans's feet was talking about the San
Diego episode the other day and said:
"That. incident only made a lot Of ns smile.
Every japanese is expected TO send home
such stun, so that if his country ever goes
TO war some of it may he used The infor-
nation that the Japanese got about Corea
in this way was really valuable in the recent
war with Russia. In the war with China
she also got information that she made
use OF. 1t related chiefly TO the matter OF
roads and OF water supplies. japan knew
every stream, hill. road, mine and the X
in Corea. There are no good maps OF that
territory and so IL was OF great value, over
here there would be no such need. Our
maps can be secured anywhere. The cham
nels in all our harbors are marked. japan
knows all about then. She knows where
all our forts are and how many guns there
are in them.
But in Corea it was different. remem-
Der being in Seoul "A dozen years ago and
started out in the country for a walk. 1
soon saw a naturalist in Corean costume
out catching bugs with a net. He was
going over hills and into valleys. Finally
| stumbled across him late in the afternoon
and found he was sketching the streams
and roads. | had met him at the club. He
spoke English. He had to confess what he
was about and l felt under Obligations TO
keep still about the matter.
Several years went by, and l was with
one Of our warships far up the interior OF
China We had a gathering OF foreigners
one night and | was introduced 70
a Japanese, dressed in European fash-
ion, who said that he spoke no other
language than his own, except french.
We had a few words together ana then
separated. He did not seem inclined to
converse. / learned that he had been all
through that region, ostensibly to see II 1t
would pay to establish banks and other
Japanese agencies in that country. Any
one could sec that there was nO need o.
banks in a region where there were no
large cities. and l smiled.
Later in the evening l came upon this
Japanese alone, l dropped all pretence OF
speaking French with him and addressed
him in English, saying that the last time l
had met him was when he was making
sketches near Seoul while pretending to be
a Corean. He answered at once in English,
owned his identity and said he was doing
the same thing in China. He put me on
my honor not to expose him and OF course
l kept silent.
-Such incidents as these have become
known generally among American naval
officers and the result has been that We
We have found highly educated men work.
ing as laborers in cities where there are
Notifications We have found expert
! chemists at work in factories. We have
known of trained biologists at work in
mines. We have had men OF fine families
serving on warships as servants Where
ever information was to be obtained that
might some day be valuable to Japan in
time of war, there we have found Japanese
at work.
1T has not deceived any intelligent officer
in our service. We know practically what
Japan has secured i'm the way OF information
! in this manner and she could have got the
information more easily by merely asking
for il. There are few secrets in warmaking.
| The manufacture of armor and OF certain
highly explosive compounds, such as Shi-
NOSE powder. which the Japs themselves
make. may have some secrets about them,
but about making war there are none. III
BEST trained army. other things being equal.
wins, The best trained gunners on ships.
other things being equal. win"