The St. Lucie County tribune. (Fort Pierce, St. Lucie County, Fla.) 1905-1920, 1911-08-18
SPIES AFTER
u. S. SECRETS
Foreign Countries Seeking For
Military Information
IN VARIED DISCUSSES
Startling Revelations by Secret Service
Officers Discoveries are of Such Ma
ture as to Cause Alarm

Newspapers throughout the country
have given publicity to the statement
from Washington intimating that the
department of justice had received in
formation that emissaries of foreign
countries have their spies at work in
portions of the United States taking
note of means of defense, methods of
government, etc., for what purpose,
however, was not clearly divulged.
Additional interesting speculation on
the subject comes from Washington in
the following comments:
Startling evidences of the pernicious
activity of foreign spies is in the pos.
session OF the army general staff VIII ch
accounts for the serious consideration
that is now being given to the most
thrilling reports at attempts to discover
the military secrets of the country.
Some of these incidents are of COM
paratively recent date and it was upon
the submission of such information to a
secret session of the Judicial committee
of the house that legislation was Sc
cured at the last congress providing for
the severe punishment of spies in time
of peace.
An Englishman in Calcutta picked
up in the streets small package of
blue prints showing every detail of the
offences of CorreeidOr island, the main
stronghold of the United States in the
Philippines. The prints were not copies
of any drawings or charts prepared for
use of the United States, but evidently
were the result of careful and deli
berate Investigation of the official and
confidential records of the United
States.
The existence of the blueprints made
it evident that there were other copies
in existence.
The Englishman sent the papers to
the war department in Washington, but
the most careful investigation failed to
discover the means by which the in
formation had been obtained.
A waiter in a Seattle hotel was found
to be foreign officer in disguise, pos
sessing many drawings and notes he
had made of the Pacific coast defenses.
An American ambassador notified
the state department that certain
captain belonging to the army of the
country where he was stationed had
been detailed to spend three years
secretly investigating the American
countries and studying their military
conditions.
Even the Panama canal has not es-
caped; one of the engineers found
foreign officer, an attache 20 one OF the
American countries secretly studying
the canal from a strategic standpoint
and he understood that there We're six
or seven other officers of the same
nationality in the United States gather
ing military information.
A New York policeman arrested a
man for trivial otfense and found IN
his trunk military maps and ntorma'
ton which convinced the officials that
he was in the employ of a foreign
government, but the incident that CON
vinced the judiciary committee OF the
necessity for the protective law oc'
cured less than year ago IN the
Philippines. An enlisted man IN the
engineers was offered $25, 900 by two
soreign officers for the plans of the de-
lenses of Corregidor island. Being the
official photographer he had ample OPP
nortunity to get all the necessary
nict,lres, having first informed his
superior of the attempt.
A trap was laid and the two foreign
spies we're captured, but habeas corpus
proceedings were obtained and they
were released as thele was then no
law in the Philippines or United States
under which they could be prosecuted.