The evening leader., 1918-07-15
BRITISH CAPITAL
/. ALIVE WITH SPIES
Americans Are Warned to Keep
Their Mouths Shut While
Staying in London.
GREAT WHISPERING GALLERY
Women Are Particularly Active in
Seeking Information From Careless
offieers-StiII Most cosmopoli.
tan City in the World.

London.-To young American fight.
ing men, as well as to English, the
same advice is good-that it is wise
and patriotic soldier and sailor who
keeps his war information to himself;
because, despite repeated warnings
about the dangerous habit of discuss
ing military and naval matters in pub
lie, London restaurants and hotels are
still full of chatterers. In the past
women have been accused of being
possessed of an uncomfortable pas
SION for gossip, but it seems that men
are even worse in this respect.
Some idea of the danger of random
talk about matters that should be kept
confidential and never discussed in
public may be gathered from the fact
that London is still the most cosmO-
pOlitan city in the world. The West
end is crowded with male and female
adyenturers from almost every known
country, including Germany, and al
though every one of them would swear
by everything that is holy that they
are longing passionately for an allied
victory, there is little reason to doubt
that some of them are spies, and many
undoubtedly are potential spies.
To give an example: Only recently
In enc of London's biggest hotels there
was quite a little cluster of Russian
women. They were young and pretty,
had attractive manners, and were not
hampered by any chaperon. So they
soon found admirers In plenty-just
what they were after.
Confined Attention to Officers.
Perhaps there would not have been
anything very strange about this but
for the fact that these young women
confined their attention exclusively to
officers, soldiers, sailors, and airmen.
They invariably turned the cold shoul-
der upon civilians, but no sooner did q
strange officer appear in the lounge
than somehow or other they man.
aged to scrape up an acquaintance
with him.
Another curious thing about these
women was that they rarely spoke to
any man for more than 20 minutes
or half an hour. Perhaps they would
have a cup of coffee with him or
smoke a cigarette, but in a few min.
utes the women made some excuse and
went away.
Still more suspicious was the fact
that several of these Russian women
were seen to be constantly conversing
with a young Russian civilian. He
also was stopping in the hotel and ap-
peared wherever he was seen with
them to be cross-examining the women.
Eventually their behavior attract
ed attention, and they were watched.
The next day they disappeared and
have not been seen since.
Women Probably Acted for Spies.
OF course, it is just possible that
there is an innocent, or, at any rate,
plausible explanation of these mys.
terious women. On the other hand it
ii regarded as likely that they were
in the pay of spy organization;
that their part of the business was to
collect information, which they hand
ed over to master spy, who in his
turn sifted and checked the data he
received, and then in some way or
other transmitted them to Berlin.
Only the other evening two young
pilots were dining In a restaurant
noted for its foreign clientele. They
were talking loudly and, as is the way
sometimes with young men, somewhat
heedlessly. When, however, woman,
total stranger to both of them, sit
ting at the next table leaned over and
said: ''I wonder if you can tell me
where the - squadron is stationed
now; have a friend there" the
youngsters were shrewd enough to say
they did not know and started talk
ing about theaters.
There is, of course, the wise dictum
that those who talk don't know, and
those who know don't talk" All the
same 1t must be remembered that
London is one great whispering gal
iery, and the most casual remark deal
ing with operations In France or else
where may be just the final check
wanted by the Germans to verify
vast mass of information obtained
2 from thousand and one sources.