New-York tribune., 1908-09-27

III
ties say that discriminating ~
papers have been discovered. -
the most significant sentence in a W a
cable despatch TO a news service not Z#
S $: s .. F.. r +. !. s.: 81: ::::: +: i: ~: 4 ::: !:
SDv PERHAPS he wasn't Russian,
he name he gaye-EladTair Antor-
-itch-suegested. but that he
a spy the fact that no discriminating
papers were ID his possession ap- g.
That is always the case with the
zeal spv-no evidence on him
usually no nationality, and, If he IS h
il a tight place Government to Il
plead for him Paris asking a -
couple Of years ago, Who IS Ellis!
But no one answered. and Ellis has
not been heard of since probably
having been sent across the frontier
Edward Snythe Gordon ar
rested not long afterward charged
with making plans Of a French
fortress for the British Intelligence
Office He was a cool one his pres
ence having been noted IN the peri
meter Of the Lorient fortihcatons and himself de-
fined as d suspicious person He went to 9mperoh'
then TO Belle Isle where, thinking the detectives
had left his trail, he began making a water color
sketch Of the Gros-Rucher battery
The French soldiers pOunCed on hlm from behlhd
Gordon in CUSTODY they found a water color Sketch
of the fort in d cleft between two rocks.
Il put It there 50 that the wind wOuldn blow II
away, observed Gordon.
When the officers loStled him, pencil sketch 1el
70 the ground which showed the exterior of the tort
1t was d sketch to help his water color ne sad l.
am an English tourist, he continued. IKE 20 90
water col0rs
Water colr-- u fortresses2" they accused him
The fort was picturesque. he protested. Being
retired English army officer thought II interest
ing to include he fort IN my sketch, which, you see
Audaciouslr he furnished a London address, men
toned his rank If Colonel his former command ana
all the personal questions the resourcetul French-
men could think Of were answered with Su1erncld
fTanknes-
The English authorities did nothing Gordon re-
maIned N prison explaining that there could nave
been no harm what he did, for he was arrested
once betorg ar d similar Otfense-and let 60! =
month eaIsae- 1t had been found that EDWARD
Snythe Gordon had been arrested two years before
10y making ter color sketches; which. pe II noted
are not plans The French sure that England
would appear nchind the man should he be gwen
.rlaL The British did not stir The French heid
nm IN s-.re, that what evidence they had
should not leak out. The British did not STIR
Then from the Embassy of Great Britain II was
asked when the man Gordon would come up tor
.rlal Only hat. but il made the French show thelI
14ndr ahlch was woefully lacking IN good cards
me evidence Vas TOO shadowy TO bring EDWARD
SSnythe Gordon to trlal. and 50 he was put on 4
But hos much information concerning French
military positions he who styled himself Edward
Smythe Gordon gained. only the British Intelligence
Office kuoa-
That little game IS going on all the time not only
N army and navy circles but III the realms OF dlplo-
matte politics / am assured that at Washington
me American state Department sometimes knows
me contents of dispatches 10 foreign Governments
Dy then representatives. before the Foreign oecTe-
lanes abroad receive them
rev Governments acknowledge that their Ito9Iai
service supports d Black Cabinet In France 1t IS
abolished as an institution but still the opening OF
grVale mail is occasionally resorted TO Neither
ueTnany. Italy nor Austria admits the existence OF
~ Cdt1HE aOly. but IN Turkey. Russia ana 9eTNia
-tLJursie= The Black Cabinet IN SerVIa II the days