Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1917-07-09
British Check on
Gable and Mails His
German Spy Systen,

Washington. July s-Lord North
cliffe head of the British missions in
this country, has authorized publica-
ton of parts of confidential speech
on spies and censorship made to the
National Press Club July 4. He de-
scribes the work Of spies In England
and the flood of fatal information that
pours over the cables thru neutral
countries to Germany and spoke OF the
dangers of any except technical mill
tary and naval censorship of the press
Only twice in the last month, Lord
Northcliffe said, had he seen anything
published in American newspapers that
might have been OF value Of the enemy
The address follows:
What does not yet seem to be I'M
derstood here, and what we did not
understand at the beginning of the war
is that the really deadly high explosive
news is not newspaper news but the
news sent out by spies in code to neu-
trail countries for transmission to Ger
many.
Find Spies by Checking.
Admitted that the task of examining
hundreds of thousands of cables day
is difficult and costly: admitted that
keen brains are required in large num-
bers for the task. the brains are here in
abundance and 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 eyes of the same CEN
sors week after week. 1t is by means
of checking back cables addressed
from England to neutral countries that
we have caught many of our spies.
1T is not difficult for spies to get
news Their task is the delivery OF the
goods and that task they concentrate.
Now that ocean travel has become
so difficult, now that the British mail
censor has perfected his methods. the
enemy spy working in your midst is
thrown back entirely on the cable and
one or two steamer routes.
Mail Censorship Needed.
II do not know whether you have a
mail censorship on letters to Spain.
hut venture to think that II YOU have
not and start opening letters to that
country you will ge. as rich a haul OF
Information as our secret service de-
partment did out of the censoring Of
american kelleTS 10 Europe
THE cable censor must be remorse-
less If he finds constant domestic tele-
grams going TO one particular place. At
the risk OF disturbing happy homes he
must hold up or destroy the cables A
world OF meaning can he concealed be-
hind the words, Mother better or
Mother going to seashore.' Many com
plants will come from business men as
TO detention of their messages. but
business men of standing can easily
satisfy the cable authorities. and, In
any case the main business at the pres
ent time is war, and lives are more i'm
portant than business losses.
System Long Established.
I'VE. in England. were loath 10 be-
lieve in the existence Of an extensive
German spy system in our midst until
strange happenings by land and sea
proved that their spy preparedness,
firmly established in England years be-
fore the war. were Just as efficient as
all other preparations.
THE German spies are divided into
five or six classes. working independ-
entity Of each other
There IL the business spy. whose
work is the gathering of information
personal and otherwise. An establish
ment called acknowledgements opened
out in England prrporting to be some
thing like your Bradstreet's or Dun,
but really with the object OF ascertain
ing the capacity for making guns mu-
nitions, and what not Of every plant in
England. together with any other in
formation that might be useful to Ger
| many when she went to war.
"A second form Of spying was organ
lied by the German consuls in Great
Britain, who collected information by
means Of hotel walters. BARRIERS, gov
ernesses. and domestic servants to
whom they paid comparatively small
sums monthly.
Germans Purchase Hotel.
''In naval and military towns the
German government provided Germans
| with capital with which to open and
1