Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1919-01-07
OF WIGHT
WAS TO BE BIG
GERMAN BASE
sn;es Had Worked for Long
Time Before War to
Prepare Port.

r.ondon. Dec. 25.-(Correspondence
NJ the Associated Press.)-Secrets OF
the war work Of the british secret
service now revealed show that Ger
r,an spies or agents Of the German
rovernment were making active prep.
sr,tions, even before the beginning OF
hostilities, to use the Isle OF Wight as
/. Ia hiding place for German forces ana
for the honbardment- of Portsmouth.
One of the first precautions taken IN
August, 1914, was to place close re,
strictions on persons trying 10 Iahu
upon or leave the island. from fiar-
witch to Hampshire. along the sou.n
ana southeast coasts of England, nests
of German spies and agents,wele ~
gagged in desperate missions n M
earlv DAYS of the war. One of the
urgent tasks of the British secret
service was to stamp out the oper-
atoms of these men,, >
For a ong time the authorities
,,,nre unable to discover the origin OF
Morse signals that were being flashed
ont to German submarines from the
sea front at Pevensey. Special watch
was kept on a certain cottage and, al
though no lights were shown, the pa
| tient observers finally solved the mys-
te,.y.- They learned that after DUSK
several persons near an upper Wlnoow
~n,aninulated what appeared to be the
dial of an ordinary clock. A raid on
thc cottage disclosed that the clock
dial was fitted with a dark prism. ~
! fochsing the prism on the strong mead
light of a fishing smack OIL
shore it was possible to send fortn
signal flashes. These flashes were no
visible to a person standing on
beach, but out III the n they
could be read easily.
Between the coast and Tunbrldgel
Wells, which was the Headquarters OF
a British army corps. a band OF
gypsies made the rounds of villages
undisturbed until an officer made the
i, significant discovery that none OF
them could onver in Romany, the
eypsy tongue. Investigation by secret
service men proved conclusively that
the masuueraders, while pretending to
trade with the country folk and tell
fortunes, secured important informa-
ton as tosthe movements of troops in
the southern command. Prompt and
drastic action followed these revela-
TONS
At the beginning of the war numcr-
Gus instances came to light of aliens
attempting to enlist under false pre-
lenses. If the recruiting officers We're
dissatisfied with a mans appearance
or accent, he was taken aside and the
oath was administered to him separ-
ately. 1t is practically impossible for
a foreignerLo repeat the unusual
phrasing Of the oath without betray-
ing his origin, and in that way many
dangerous spies were captured.
About christmas, 1914, a foreign
diplomat in London received an an
onymous gift of pate de foie sras.
Suspicion was aroused and analysis
showed the presence Of a deadly
poison. Secret service agents were
called in and they proceeded to work
on. the theory that the pate de foie
gras had come from one of three
aliens then unde:: surveillance Ac-
%cordingly. to each of them was sent
anonymously a can of fote sras ex-
actly similar in appearance to the can
: containing the poisoned stuff.
: The landlady Of one of the trio
opened and served it for his supper.
and it was not until late in the re-
ming that she told him that the can
had been addressed to him. Thinking
that he had eaten his WI poison, the
man actually; became i'll. He was
promptly arrested,