The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-12-05
TALKING ALOUDIS
 DANGEROUS THING Ears Everywhere Open to Catch Remarks DerOga-
 tory to the Allies

London, November 20. Especial cor respondence. )--There is little chance of German spy remaining at liberty in England these days. There was a time when there was great deal of spy ac- tivity, professional and amateur, but now the evil has been stamped out, or at least so the authorities believe. It is accepted as an axim here that every German or pro-German person is a po- tential spy and in a way the same thing can now be said of every English man. It is unsafe these days for any one frankly to express their opinion. for everywhere there are ears to hear, and the slightest comment on the prog
 ress of events which is unfavorable to
 the British is more than likely to reach
 Scotland Yard, where the already eff ficient staff of detectives has been aug mented so that no tip" no matter how trivial it may appear on the surface, is not thoroughly investigated. It is particularly undesirable for foreigner to permit himself to say anything de- rogatory of England or the allies or anything favorable about the Germans. Americans, who are easily spotted by their accent, are marks of suspicion, Tor the people here are now thoroughly familiar with the 'hyphenated" Ameri- can. An Englishman may say dreadful things about his government about | cabinet ministers, the situation in the lDardanelles and so on, and nothing may happen, but for an American or other neutral foreigner to express similar opinions is, to say the least, inJudi- | cious.
 | Recently there moved into a small town adjacent to London an American
 family of semi German name. The man of the family was American to the core. ardently broadly in his sympa- thies and long resident of England. I But unquestionably his name had & German tinge. No sooner had he set | tied down than he had visit from the ! police. He explained his status to them quite satisfactorily, showing his pass 1 port and has had no further trouble lin that quarter. But his wife Is having 1 difficulties. She went to the butcher to | open an account and was received with lconsiderab1e suspicion. It was with some l difficulty and only after she had been l identified by other customers of this seller of meat, that she made arrange | ments for providing her family with food. At other shops she encountered similar difficulties. The baker asked her quite frankly if she were German, with an air that indicated that if she
 were she would -have to go. elsewhere for her bread.
 It Is said that Scotland Yard gets
 hundreds of tips a day from outsiders. besides those the police themselves pick up. Every one is investigated and more than one unsuspecting person has received surprise visit from an agent from ''the yard" who politely asks
 what he meant by saying so and 70 and who was he and where did he come from. The yard isn't unreasonable about lit, at all, and great many innocent
 but careless people are bothered be-
 cause of the rule that has been adopted that no clue shall pass unnoticed. Thou sands are investigated. Most come to nothing. but once in while the police find something worth knowing.
 It used to be considered funny to make fiippart remarks !n German in Ithese parts. A playful "gesundheit" in this atmosphere was at one time anus
 ing. It isn't any more, aud except tor