Evening star., 1916-06-04
Aliens Furnish One of Wars Big Problems

d - - dS>>~D
shows his identity book and gets an
Endorsement On one OF the several
blank pages at the end. Upon his de-
parture he must again go to the police
station and get another Endorsement.
If an alien appears in restricted area
without his identity book he is obliged
by the police Immediately TO return to
where he came from.
The stories of spies in the war will
be fascinating one when the war is
over. 1t cannot be told in any detail
whatsoever until then: At the begin
ming of the war and for some months
following n majority of the German
spies operating in this country used
American passports.
Some were genuine passports fraud
ulently obtained. others We're mere
forgeries. That there were forgeries is
beyond doubt.
About a year ago young American
named Reginald Rowland, hailing from
Paterson. y. J., obtained a passport
from the Department OF State for the
purpose of visiting Germany on busi-
ness. His affairs were entirely legit-
innate. He went to Holland and then
into Germany. lie returned to Holland.
went again to Germany and then went
back to the United States.
Somewhere in Germany some German
officials noted all the details Of his
passport name. number, date Of issue.
etc. Either this passport or another
one was by some photograp phic process
reproduced with the blanks not filled
in. The Germans then made copy of
the seal of the Department of State and
put It in the passport. The evidence is
that the passport was made In Ant
werp.
The blank places left for description
of the holder We're filled in TO At the
spy who was to carry the passport.
He took the name of Reginald Rowland
and his passport bore the same name,
number and date of the genuine orig
inaL It was a clever move. for IL the
passport were questioned in England
the first thing the authorities would do
would be to ask the American embassy
if a passport We're issued TO Reginald
Rowland on such and such date, bear
ing a certain number.
The embassy would cable the State
Department, which. investigating the
records. would naturally say yes. On
every American passport there is
space which, filled in, tells where the
holder desires to go and for what pur-
pose. The real Reginald Rowland de-
sired to go to Holland. Germany, Bel
GUM, England and France for COM
mercial business. In the forgery this
was all changed. No mention was made
of Germany-only Holland. Italy. Spain
and England. Before he finished with
it Reginald Rowland's passports bore
a number Of German stamps. vlses by
frontier authorities, etc. These dis
appeared from the forgery.
The forgery was not a bad one It
was good enough, in fact. to get the
spy into England. but he was very
ryh IiS
forgery, his business discovered He
was shot in the Tower of London.
Taken by itself, the forgery looked
like an American passport, but. COM
pared with another real passport. there
were many points of obvious difference.
The engraving was not so good, and
the handwriting was not the chara cter-
istic flowing chirography that appears
on all American passports. The red
wafer for the seal was of slightly diff
ferent color. Whoever made the pass
port had the greatest difficulty with
the water mark The parchment was
quite the same, but the water-mark
was hard to produce. 1t finally
done by making an impression of the
outline of the American water-mark
on the back of the passport with
paraffin. Until closely examined 1t
looked pretty good.
passports. and still more passports
fraudulently obtained. Lately there
are not so many, owing to many safe
guards that the State Department has
adopted. The German spies are now
turning to passports of other nation
alities.
Copyright, 1915. by Curtis Brown.)