Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1916-01-08
SNb8NS WITH SPIES
Baltic Ports Crowded With
Agents of Many Nations.
Heroes Too, smus1lers, Exchange
Gamblers and Fugtvee Are There
Many Women in Throngs
of Secret Workers.

uull lnSlpid sea. After war be-
gan the Baltic woke up little, but
its liyeliness was limited by Grand
Admiral rirpitz's command OF the sea
4 NOW about ten British submarines,
backed by some Russian submarines,
have awakened tho ordinarily quiet
waters All Baltic ports are nests of
espionage, adventure, patriotic hero
ism and roguery, chiefly the last
named
Stockholm ignores the war, but 1t
is tull Of Russian and German jobbers
who gamble in exchange Copenhagen
is the chief center of German espion-
age. The saloons and fourthrate ho-
tells are thronged with German agents
Lihau, since Won Hindenburg cap
tured 1t last summer, is the headquar-
teFs OF a German motorboat corps
which does scouting in Riga gulf.
Helnosand, OXelasund and other
! small Swedish eastern ports are the
| homes of scores Of marooned German
merchant captains whose ships have
been torpedced or nt ed up.
he liyclest places are Haparanda
and Tornea frontier townlets on the
ToFnea Elf river, which divides
Sweden from Russian Finland. These
toWnlots, 30 miles from the Arctic
circle, are crowded with spies, con
traband smuggers and fugitive pris.
oners. The Russian gendarme Colonel
Abassoif discovered two German spies
in Iornea recently With six gen
dafmes he pursued the suspects to
ha9nsi, further up the river. and be-
sieSed them in house. After two
hour battle the two Gcrmans and
four Russians lay dead
IN coming here from Copenhagen,
via Malmo, one has TO cross the
sound, the entrance gate Of the British
submarines The sound Is an inter-
national waterway, but 1t is also ter
ritorial being less than three miles
across at the narrowest point The
Swedos cwn the east side and the
Danes the west. The other entrances,
The Great and Little Belt, which are
entirely owned by Denmark were
mined against submarines in October,
1914
Danes and Swedes could not agree
about mining the sound The Swedes
regret this, for the submarines have
disturbed the nalcyon calm of the Bal
tic and injured Swedens trade with
Germany.
After England had got at least four
submarines through, Germany mined
the sound. Mines were planted in
big triangular patch in the south and
German patrol boats were set to watch
it, At least two English submarines
have got between or under the mines
ana more may come any day
From the Mamo steamer could be
seen Germanys tremendous meas
ures against submarines. South OF
the mine field, on the horizon. is a
forest Of masts and tunnels belong
ing to the big hotilla Of cruisers, gun
boats armed trawlers and motor pa.
troll boats Their business is to watch
for and destroy submarines that get
past the mines Ahead Of the aotilla
flew a hydropaue. The Malmo steam
or captain said that when he had
sailed a boat south q few days before
he had counted about fifty German
craft Of different kinds all on the look
out. Frora the sound down to the
broad water between Sweden and
Rugen island every mile of sea has a
small German warship on the watch
At Copenhagen the police brought
aboard for transit to Russia an alleged
spy In the Baltic ports are swarms
Of purely military and naval spies who
serve beIligerent governments, many
trade spies, and large numbers of
spies of the neutral Baltic powers
whose work is to spy on spies.
The trade spies, all British, haunt
commercial ports. Their function is
to collect facts about Scandinavian
firms trade with Germany, which
firms trade, what they sell and to
whom. London takes care that over.
sea goods consigned to Scandinavian
firms which trade with Germany do
not reach the firms The trade spies
pose as language teachers or drum
mers Many have been expelled.
Mile. Assanovitch, handsome,
black-eyed Russian girl, who, posing as
Governess, spied on great scale, was
expelled recently. The spies who spy
on spies are mostly Swedish They
watch all foreigners, particularly those
who speak English. Two days after
an Englishnan reached Stockholm he
visited a dentist. Half an hour later
all agent telephoned to the dentist to
ask who his patient was.
Washington.-Off Of a $4,000 pam
American aviation trophy, to be com
peted for annually by aviators Of the
western hemisphere, was announced
on Tuesday by the Aero Club OF