The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-07-19
GOVERNMENT SPY
 AND HOW HE WORKS Germany Pays S3,000,000 a
 Year for Such Services WOMEN ARE ACTIVE
More and Better Trained Spies on the Franco German Frontier Than Any where Else-School Maintained
 by French Government

by French Government
 Protests have recently been made against the action of our admiralty in permitting foreigners to compete at the sale of old warships. held periodically in the various dockyards of Britain, says London Ideas. At ordinary times the alien is kept at a good distance from the yards, but when a sale takes place he is practically given free run of them. There is very little doubt that among the foreigners who attend the 'warship auc- tions' are several secret service agents who are on the look out for information which will be valuable to the powers they represent.
 Careless British Admiralty | The main endeavors of foreign spies to | obtain our valuable secrets are devoted l to our naval stations and dockyords, and yet the admiralty has always been guilty of good deal of carelessness in matters | which concern the efficiency of the na- | tional defenses. It was not so very many years ago when American students were permitted to attend our schools of naval l denied them owing to the fact that the enterprisng Yankees did not hesitate to furnish Uncle Sam's naval department with items of naval architecture and de- tails concerning vessels under construc- tion. At the Royal Naval college, Green wich, the stranger to our shores had many opportunities of wrestling our naval secrets from us.
 | It was only a short time ago when an ex-naval gunner, named Parrott, was ar rested in a tobacconist's shop in the | King s-road Chelsea, where he had had letters addressed, on a charge of com | municating naval secrets to a foreign country. He was tried before Justice Darling, who sentenced him to four years l penal servitude. At the trial it came to light that Parrott had been the victim of woman spy whom he became ac- | quilted with in a place of amusement. l Women spies are said to haunt the | neighborhood of our naval stations and | dockyards like many flies on treacle | tin, and it was not so very long back | when a certain naval officer discovered l that pretty young lady he was on very | good terms with was secret service agent in the employ of a big power The | girls inquisitiveness concerning naval matters generally made him a little sus- picious, and he thought it wise to inform his superiors. Quiet inquiries elicited the l fact that she had attempted few days | Before to bribe a backyard employe to steal certain plans for her, and that she 1 was possessed of a small camera, with which she had taken photographs whole 1 sale without anyone being the wiser
 The Gibraltar Girl
 1 It has been said, and probably with | good deal of truth, that hidden away in a safe In a government office in Germany n laf pf lto,- ,-tc defence works, and that they were made from rough sketches supplied by Ger man girl who some years ago alighted at l Gibraltar for the benefit of her health. ," After she had been on the Rock for some weeks the officers there discovered that she knew too much concerning quick fir ing guns and other things, and in the long run she was politely but firmly advised to seek another health resort" It was proved that she was a spy in the employ of Germany, and it is pretty certain that she dispatched particulars and sketches of Gibraltars defence works to Berlin. 1 The various governments spend thou sands of pounds every year on their secret service, and it costs Germany over 9600- GOO every 12 months to maintain her bat 1 talion of spies. There Is special fund for paying the salaries and expenses of the body of men and women who com prise the skies of Britain, and as rule
  try e50000 annually.
 The minister responsible for the dstri- button of the money takes the following oath T swear that the money paid to me for foreign secret service. or for de- tecting preventing, and defeating con spiracies against the state has been bona fde applied to the said purposes and no other.''
 Our spies are well paid, but not too well when one considers the amaz zing risks in. volved, and the fact that if they happen to be caught by the foreign authorities they are more often than not disowned by their government
 l. The Germans are always bitterly com blaming of the British sketching and photographing tourists, and declaring that nine out of ten men, who to all ap- pearances are opulent and idle tourists travel under commissions from our war office. In this they are well justified, for our agents exist in France and Ger many in large numbers, and a good many of them are women
 Germany Versus France T There are certainly more spies in Ger many and France than any other coun- tries in the world. and scarcely a month passes but some spy is taken red handed on the Franco-German frontier. Germany I spies on France, and France spies on Ger many. and the spy work of the frontier
 
 present time 1t is considered quite n busi- ness, and men are trained by both the French and German governments how to become spies and to act as such.
 There is schcool for spies in France and the masters are expert hands at spy- Ing. If French spy is sent into Ger many he Is given miniature maps of Ger man Qualifications and the like These he has to learn by heart, for the French government wisely refuses to allow spy to carry such discriminating documents about with him. The spy is supplied with German notes and gold, and given several addresses, both in Franc eand Germany, to which he has to send his reports in code and under different names fl It Is an international law. but an un- written one, that a sovereign cannot law fully require subject to serve as spy, except in singular case. and that Of the last importance. Nevertheless no conn try will ever lack spies. for the work that IS required of them is so adventurous and