The New York herald., 1922-11-26

victims. During the war it even planned
to do away with the present ruler of the
Serbs, Croats and Slovenes as well as
NJ. Patchich, Serbia's leading statesman.
To-day it is looking for new victims, ac-
cording to detectives who know the Vienna
situation, although it's almost nightly meet
ngs in the Cafe Museum opposite the
Naschmarkt seem to the outsider to be
merely beer drinking bouts, with an oc-
casional political argument
Just as dangerous to Europe's future is
the meeting place of the so-called Com
mittee of Albanian Patriots-a dingy,
smelly cafe just off the Josefstaedter-
strasse. 1t was here that Essad Pasha
was condemned to death, and the young
Albanian student given the funds with
which to come to Paris, first to ransack
the desk of the Albanian official and then
to slay him in front of the Hotel Cont
mental. But every member of this group
is spy, with the secrets of Jugo-Slav
as his particular objective, and as the COM
mittees attitude has become openly hos
tile during recent months Belgrade has
had to counter its influence by instituting
spy group of its own in another Yiennese
bierhaus
The Serbian Government has considered
the situation so serious that it has placed
Its Vienna outpost under the control of
the famous Irfan Balleff, known in his
own country as the Terrible Ivan" His
job is a multiple one, for no sooner had
he started to spy upon the actions of the
Albanians than the Montenegran element
and the Mohammedans of Jugo-Slavia
each became militant, with the result that
to-day Vienna is seething with dangerous
intrigue which may at any time develop
the basis for a new Balkan confederation.
One effect of the Terrible Ivan's" pres
ence, however, has been the removal of
the headquarters of the National Croatian
Club to Budapest, where in common with
Austrian monarchists it is working for the
collapse of the Central European system
devised by President Wilson in the treaty
OF Versailles. 1t still maintains few
trained agents who meet in the Cafe I'm
perial in Vienna, which is also the head
quarters of the Montenegrin revolution
aries, described by the police as "as sincere
lot of cutthroats and political thieves
as ever existed in spy ridden Europe"
Two other factions, but each with far
reaching espionage services, have deyel-
oped alarminsly in Vienna during the last
year. The first of these is the Bolshevik
Russian group, and almost any night in
the Cafe Fuchs, the Cafe Herrenhof or the
Piccola one can find the Moscow agents
receiving reports from their spies return
ing from the big capitals of Europe They
are closely watched by both the agents of
other nations and the representatives of
the Russian Emigrants Committee headed
by the Prince Gregoire Troubetskoi-and
IN many cases the spies of the latter Or
ganization have actually succeeded in de-
nouncing the Red spies to the Vienna no.
nee with suflcient proof to obtain their ex-
pulslon from Austria. In addition, tho
Turks are becoming very active in Vienna
and. with the Egyptians and Bulgarians,
have let it be known that the Cafe At
lantis will always find a willing ear to hear
grievances against and to conspire against
the safety of England and her possessions.
rs it any wonder" commented the spy
chaser, that Europe is always in a state
of torment? Diplomats never know
whether their plans are secret or already
defeated by a counter scheme devised
around the beer stained tables of a Vienna
cafe And nothing can be done. at least
until Austria herself becomes more SET
tied. and, after all, perhaps it is lust as
well not to provoke a change to the old
system, as with all these groups under
our watch in Vienna and the League itself
IN hn 1n,rt