The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1919-02-25

Enuland-Lcose Passport System
Made Things Easy at First-Some of
the Spies Were Highly Educated
Men, Others Were Mere Shadowers
and Touts-Dangerous Band Broken.
There were 10000 known German
agents In Holland during the war. A
Dutch police inspector explained to
the New York Sun that to expel them
would simply mea that their places
would be taken by other and unknown
agents.
They driftcd into Holland IN vari-
Gus p~retexts. Some were highly edu-
Gated men, capable Of moving In the
best society; others were mere shad-
overs and touts. They took up all
sorts of positions. The case of the
porter at the Hotel DIES Indies, the
waldorf-Astoria of The Hague, who
proved to be a brother Of the then
German ambassador at Constantinople,
Is already known. But that Is only
one of hundreds of similar incidents.
luc tIlCI tuSh VI III aAAhy VI No.
vas OF curse to keep in touch with
Great Britain. In the early days of
the war there was no more difficulty
In this than IL there was no war.
British passports in those days were
not worth the paper on which they
were produced.
A young Journalist who was in Hol-
land but had no passport got n from
the local Consul "a Dutchman OF
c~ourse) simply on the production of a
letter from home. Later On 1t was
rendered very difficult to get a British
passport, but c~urioWsly enough the pre-
vious issues of useless paper were not
withdrawn until the war had been In
progress for three full years. 1t need
hardly be said that the German secret
service made good use Of the careless
ness.
Lack Of Cooperation.
Again the spies benefited from the
lack of cooperation between the diff
ferent British departments. Thus In
one large town the British community
was unofficially warned against patron
izing a certain music dealer, who was
a known German agent. Yet that man
was one of the few Dutch music deal
ers who had a license for the import
Of British music.
Dutchmen were largely used as cou-
riers between the German agents In
Holland and the spies In Britain. Loose
women and night clubs were employed
as a means of ensnaring young men
for this purpose.
Another aspect OF the activities or
these human moles was that of gather
ing information in Holland. The or
| ganization behind them was marvellous.
Enormous prices were paid to Dutch
tefegraphers for copies OF entente
code wires passing between the lega-
lions and Downing street or the Quay
d'Orsay. SO rampant did this evil be-
| come that the Dutch authorities had
to insist on each operator submitting
to a search before going on duty and
again afterward.
Photography was used to an extraor-
binary extent. Passengers boarding
the boats for England were snap
| shotted and the photos all carefully
filed. Photography was chiefly used to
possible victims. On n occa-
sion a French attache, riding in the
woods near Wassenaar, encountered q
lady who had been thrown from her
horse. With the gallantry of his race,
he went to her assistance. A few days
later he was confronted with photo
graphs of himself kneeling beside the
injured" lady. He was told that the
lady was not injured at all, and would
| tell her own story.
Dangerous Band Broken Up.
With the threat Of exposure as q
lever, great effort was made to turn
him into d traitor. Fortunately. he
acted promptly and with courage, and
In consequence a dangerous band was
broken up. This was by no means ar
isolated instance.
One characteristic of Teutonic meth
DDS was the adoption Of great precau
lions to get the odium. in the event Of
discovery, thrown on Britain. On on,
occasion an English" yacht, manned
by "Englishmen," was found strand
ed In forbidden waters near the mouth
Of the Scheldt. The yacht was seized
and the crew arrested. On board wal
found a fairly complete plan Of The
Dutch mine field protecting the mouth
Of the Scheldk. The odium was thus
thrown on Britain. Happily, a few
days later the plot was discovered and
the psuedo-E nglishmen found to b,
Teutons from Hamburg.
Finally. an instance may be given Of
how the practice Of spying has beer
ingrained In the German people. A
Dutch family living at Harlem had
German boy Of eleven staying witt
them in the summer Of 1917. The.
found that the youngster was keeping
Z note Of all that vas said In the con
versation about Germany. When asket
the reason Of this, the boy said tina
he had been instructed to do so by hi
school-teacher, 81 that anybody VIII,
nnnka a~rainst the kaiser could b,