Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-07-07
CENSOR AS AGENT
TO THWART SPIES
Lord NorthcIiffe Outlines Eng
lands Experience With
German EmissarieS.
WOULD TRUST THE PRESS

When Lord Northclifre. head of the
British missions now in the United
States. made his highly interesting talk
on England's experience with German
spies and on censorship at the National
Press Club. the night of July 4. he pre-
ferred the request that he should not be
quoted, and his wish was observed by
the newspaper writer's.
Since then, however, 1t has been ad-
visable to lift the ban of executive seS-
sion. and Lord Northcliffe has author
lied publication of his address. He said
in part:
What does not yet seem to be I'M
derstood here, and what we did not un =.
Aderstand at the beginning of the war. is
that the really deadly high explosive
news sent out by spies in code to neu-
trail countries for transmission to Ger
many.
Describes Method of Catching Spies.
Admitted that the task of examining
hundreds of thousands of cables day
Is difficult and costly Admitted that
the outgoing cables can easily be CO.
ordinated SO that all cables addressed
to the same names abroad and even to
the same towns abroad come under the
week. 1t is by means of checking back
cables addressed from England to neu-
trail countries that We have caught
many of our spies.
ut is not difficult for spies to get
news. Their task is the delivery of the
goods, and on that task they concen-
trate.
Now that ocean travel has become so
difficult. now that the British mail CEN
sor has perfected his methods. the en-
lit to-
thrown back entirely on the cable and
one or two steamer routes.
do not know whether you have
mail censorship on letters to Spain. but
l venture to think that if you have not,
and start opening letters to that coun-
try. you will get as rich haul of in
formation as our secret service depart
ment did out of the censoring of Amer
lean letters to Europe.
We In England were loath to believe
IN the existence of an extensive German
spy system in our midst until strange
happenings by land and sea proved that
the1r spy preparations. firmly established
In England years before the war, were
Just as efficient as all their other
preparations:
Divided Into Glasses.
"The German spies are divided into
hve or six classes. working independently
Of each other.
There is the business spy, whose work
is the gathering of informal ion personal
and otherwise. An establishment called
Schfmmelpfennigs opened out in Eng
land. purporting to be something like
your Bradstreet's or Dun's, but really
with the object of ascertaining the
and what not of every plant in England.
together with any other information that
might be useful to Germany when she
went to war.
= second form OF spying was or
Britain. who collected Information by
means OF hotel walters, BARRIERS, gov
etnesses and domestic servants, to whom
they paid comparatively small sums
monthly
In naval and military towns the Ger
man government provided Germans with
capital with which to open and purchase
hotels. All this was done through the
consuls.
Then there was a series of snies or-
ganized by the famous department which
mad Its headquarters in Brussels These
were spies who moved about in good
social circles as rule, picking up any
Information they could get. When it
came to picking up information as to
British psychology they got it all wrong,
Tor 1t has been notorious that, almost
without exception, they reported to Rer-
lii that Great Britain would not 70 to
wa-.
AGo"A ny NuuOSIS.
Members of this class of spy were
entirely unknown to each other and
Snly known to headquarters by num-
% 900 and a maximum Of $4,000 a year.
ana were usually engaged in some other
KIND OF work-very often insurance WORK
very oIten as travelling statesmen. Quite
respect for their sex among the sn,es
we nave shot at the Tower of London
the women have been exempted and sent
70 long terms Of Imprisonment.
urther. there were the military and
naval spies. This kind Of spying is re-
Earded as legitimate among all nations
carr Lody. whom I saw tried by court
martial and who had an American pass
port and spoke American with the slight
n ns, Hs sna1 accent. was legitimate
authorities. who treated him as well az he
couid be treated in the circumstances. and
nnaiiy. very properly. shot him. He was
captured owing to clumsiness on his part
anong other fooiishnesses. he kept his
cooe IN MS pocket. and, therefore. knew
AT the moment he was arrested that he
was dead man. One Of the things that
sorship. ee-
We had been warned for years that
the country was full Of German spies. hut
did not believe It. Germans were admit
teo TO our clubs. went about among us
ana seemed very friendly. At the out
break OF war we found that we had been
entertaining several battalions Of snies
remember the sight that went on day
after day In London. Just before the out.
Dreak OF war. when they swarmed to fhe
German consulate to get their passports
vlsed- Many Of them obviously had in
formation that a war was coming and
that they might have dif1iculty in getting
out. al ee''ihs
Central Depots" Established.
Large organizations such as insura nce
companies. electrical concerns and piano
forte makers. who required large numbers
OF men to go about tuning pianos, were. in
enect. central depots for gathering infor-
nation for the German government
The HamburE-America Steamship Com
pany also had its own series Of spies and
mad to do with the subventions of Ger
manized newspapers in London and Of
certain notorious English writer's. In their
hurry TO clear out Of England, the Ham
burg America Steamship Company LEFT
behind valuable discriminating documents
one OF which was evidence Of Germany's
war Intentions
Compared with the-,leakaee of news
into newspapers. the daily leakage OF