The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-07-01

Major, if you didn't break Spanish neutrality wide open this time you most certainly put a deep crack in 1t. Spain was furious at what they con- sidered an unwarranted invasion of their territory when you arrested that man. They claimed he was a Spanish subject as you know, ana if you had not had an iron-clad case against him, much as we would have hated to- we would have been forced tC offer you up as a sacrifice"
 That was the first and last rebuke my chief gave me while l served un- der him in France.
 My offense resulted from a mes sage reading:
 Intelligence service in Spain re- ports large influx American desert CTS into that country. Stop exodus.
 From time to time, on our trips into Spain, we had encountered scat tered American deserters; but this was a more serious matter. we knew that Germany was spending millions of dollars in an endeavor to buy and hold Spanish friendship q write of World war times), though one faction was ardent for the Allies. There were also monetary reasons why Spain was not cooperating with us in keeping her frontier tightly closed; she was making money out of our deserters!
 When one of our soldiers escaped into Spain, her officials interned him. and the United States was forced to pay the Spanish government for feding him. And the Geneva con- ference required that all interned soldiers be paid. Then, too. the ex-
 eft a real danger,-Spain was over-run with German spies. and by cultivat- ing the acquaintance of these de- serters they were able to obtain valuable information.
 A draft army obviously must con- tain many n-fighters. or men who' having blood relations among the enemy, never intended tC fight their kinsmen. Many of these succeeded in escaping before they could be sent overseas, while others watched thelr opportunity to desert alter they hao landed in France.
 The southern part of Base Section No. included the French-Spanish frontier extending through the Pyre- nees Mountains, with many road leading into that district. Early in the war the Allied commanders, realizing the potential danger rom German spies in this territory had closed it for all troops except the forestry regiments. At each or the frontier towns the French had sta toned a small detachment of partial ly disabled soldiers whose duty It was to arrest any of her soldiers, or even civilians. who did not nave proper credentials.
 Lieutenant Hodson. who spoke Spanish fluently, was sent to Spain to check up on the activities Of the deserters and to obtain first-hand in- formation. In civilian clothes and posing as a Mexican, he studied the situation. When he returned to our headuuarters. his report convinced us that, if there was not an organized effort to assist Allied soldiers. who wished to desert in that country, at least there was a well-known path that the majority followed. Some of these deserters told Hodson how they had been supplied with passports and were now waiting for an opportunity to pass on into Austria. or even into Germany, But when these men were questioned as to how they managed to travel across France, they were dumb.
 Without doubt the deserters travelled mainly by train. So our first idea was to cover all the trains that passed through our section ana, at some point on the line, to search and arrest evp-'- -'@