Evening star., 1927-10-30

"kOM Bern l. Was Sent Oh Ie"
Rss% %'ss'"' to viii ''na ss,, Ss.Es% ss@nis: 5sS
at Geneva. According to ar
anonymous warning sent the
Swiss police, he had made several
trips into France for the Bern agency
of the German Secret Service.
On nv arrival in Geneva I got in
touch with the proper officials. They
gave me certain details. but they
didn't know where Schmidt lived. or
even what he looked like.
AS there are so many people of his
name in Germany, it was the proven
bial needle in a haystack. But as
am not one to be easily discouraged
by difficulties, I got to work at once.
Two days later, after much hustling
about, l had a list Of all there We're
of that name in Geneva. There were
"a OF them, 4 mere handful, AT
least I knew their addresses.
For a month l went on wedding
them ont, and disposed OF 80 of them;
although most Of these were of Ger
man birth, they minded their own
bushes and not ours.
However, with four of them the
lives they We're leading. the kind Of
talk they were said to indulge in. the
money they spent (Which was out Of
all proportion to their incomesl, made
them seem extremely suspicious. One
of them was especially so. He was
chemist by profession, but had no
regular job. He was always travel
ing, as was proved by his passport,
which was covered with vises. II was
able to glance at it when he pre-
scented it to the Italian consul in or
der to obtain permission TO go TO
Turin)
He claimed to have been born at
Zurich, Switzerland, on January IA,
1884, OF German parents who had ap-
piled for Swiss citizenship, but all the
evidence pointed to the fact that all
of his identification papers had been
forged. Therefore, he must have
some reason for wanting to conceal
his real identity. 1t was up to me to
unmask him and to discover who he
really was.
I knew positively that at the head
quarters Of the German secret service
at Bern there was a separate en-
ve'ope with a photograph for each
agent they employed. Thus, il
Schmidt was employed as the anony-
nous communication claimed, / could
prove it by looking up his envelope.
Obviously, this was no easy task to
accomplish. The envelopes We're kept
in the private office Of NJ Won X,
who took the greatest care Of them
He shut them up in a strong box and
allowed no one else to have a key to
1t But. as you know from what /
said before, the private office Of the
head of the German secret service in
Switzerland held few secrets for me-
even had my private entrances" to
it, and by complying with "the neces
sary requirements l could be pretty
sure of getting what l wanted Ny
readers must excuse me but / am not
allowed to give the details of just how
I did it. At any rate, that was the
method l used to get the information
that established the real identity of
Schmidt
HIS. as I had supposed. was really a
German, and had performed his COM
pulsory military service. He was the
son of German emigrants who had
moved to a town near Metz. He had
gone to school at Nancy. He was a
distinguished chemist, and before the
war had worked" in foreign coun.
tries for the famous German /. G.
company Unforeseen Gemeinschaftl.
Thus Schmidt had served an appren.
ticeship for his military espionage in
commercial espionage. Working as a
chemist, he had stolen trade secrets
and had turned them over to the l. G.