Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-09-02
War Time Travel
Rigidly Watched
by Fnstieric ]. Haskin

To prevent spies and other enemy agen
from entering the United State and to
prevent them from leaving once they have
entered are the chief duties Of the new
Bureau OF Passport Control OF the State
Department. Incidentally this bureau is
new only in name H. used to be the Bureau
of Citizenship, under the direction Of
Richard ". flournoy, Jr., who still re-
tains control with largely augmented
staff, and whole new set of laws and
regulations TO administer.
To appreciate the problem faced by
thus organization, you must realize how
poorly the United States was prepared
when the war broke out in Europe, to do
fend itself against the secret operations Of
its enemies.
In Germany for example, whore every
preparation for war had been made long
before, there were elaborate regulations
governing the obtaining of passports
either to leave or to enter the country.
Furthermore in Germany the police are
Federal organization, so co0rdinnted that
the movements Of any individual enter
ing the country are followed from the day
of his arrival until his departure. as
| matter of routine duty.
In this country, n citizen, IN order to
obtain a passport, had only n prove his
citizenship, while an alien might enter
and leave on passport issued by an
! other government without any declara-
ton or proof of his purpose p either case
Furthermore being unused to dealing
with espioua =. oIr officials were wholly
inexperienced ~ the detection of fraud
Our police, moreover, consist of 4 large
number Of city and State organizations Of
uneven merit and HncooTtiinated our
various Federal secret services were IN the
l. 4. L
task ef detecting espionage and thcir
present eihcicncy s The result If n low
| development
sPY 5 WORK Easy
! How easily a spy might operate in the
! nlted States Is shown by the case ri the
famous Franz Won Rintclcn Having
spent some time in the United states
/ snporintcudod ne destruction Of var0us
mnnlt,H plants, and gained much vall-
:, able information, he desired 70 return 10
:, Germany accordingly he applied 10 he
bureau If Citizenship for q passport
! This he would probably have obtained
except for a new regulation, which was
the first change madc ~ our passport
system following the out break Of the war
il Europe, aui which requires the APP
pllcaut 10 STATE and prove for what pur-
pose he Is listing q foreign country
Non Rlntelrn applied for passport rs
m american citizen under The name N
Eugene \ Gates the name was subtle
joke and announced That h. was gong
abroad on commercial business l'ut be
! Was unable 10 furnish the naue If any
firm urth winch hp intended to 90 tu-l-
ness. and 80 vas refused tie then oh-
tanned by theft or brbcrs d passport
iSsled by the Swiss (,,vernucnt to tie
ne port of New or and von RIntcIna
reached England where h. vas arrested
Il + fact acknowledged bv the de-
parfment of STATE. that number Of
spies ucre more -liccessfu than Won Rim
tccn and left the country unmoicsfrd
Some III these we're later arrested For
example one 3oehm. sometime before
We entered the war. got passport as an
American citizen by presenting a birth
certificate which he had obtained n an
American woman 20 whose hlIsh ..t It be-
ionged lie also presented fakt ter- "a
show that he was gong abroad ou bHsi-
ness lie was arrested IN Europe as j spy.
and the dcceptions revealed
EXPERT At DETECTING FRAUDS
The Bureau Of Citizenship has become
export in detecting such frauds But it has
more rlgid system Oi cont trolling the aFriv-
al and departure Of avowed aliens IS neccs-
sary Accordingly measure was nitro
duccd In Congress, which passed recently.
and whica will 20 into effect On ~eptem-
Der - This requires that every alien de
sIIng to leave tins country must 20 10 ne
nearest immigrant Inspector or district
attorney. present his passport and make
full declaration OF his citizenship, where
he wishes to 20 and why. Persons residing
east of he Mississippi must MAKE the
declaration at least ii days before he
date 0i departure those residing west of
he Mississippi At least Il days befo e
tnat daic
During this interval fall investigation
will be made 10 ascertain whether the
statements IN the declaration are true
and the entire secret service 81 tac guYeIu-
ment may be used for this purpose. II
the declaration Is found 10 be correct, "a
copy of it Will be sent 10 the port from
which tie alien WISHES 10 sal Aile DE-
siring to leave the country should on no
account 60 to Il port before making tals
declaration ~ they will not be allowed 10
depart but will be compelled to return 10
the point from which they started, even L
tins /. ou tic other side OF the continent
In like manner aliens in Europe wish
ing to come to th" United States have t.
make full advance declaration OF citizen
ship and purpose 10 the nearest United
States consul ii days before sailing, and
this declaration is subject 4 to The same
careful examination \ copy Is sent 10 the
port II which the alen expects 70 enter
the United States
Controlling the travel OF American
citizens to Europe has been Il less serious
but scarcely a less iii tculJ problem than
that presented 10y enemy activities The
war a. a spectacle has drawn the curious
and the IDLE from All parts Of the world
From this country. ever since 1914
continuous stream of relief workers
journalists. commercial agents and others
who had business real OF ostenslble N
Europe has poured across the Atlantic
The task of the Passport Control DNl-
sion has been To assort the real from the
ostensible workers. No passports are
issued for pleasure trips
HON TO AVOID TROUBLE.
Much trouble might be saved Il these
desiring 10 90 TO Europe would learn the
exact restrictions under which such