Evening star., 1928-10-21

she was rejected.
These girls were quietly distributed
in garrison towns in the eastern part
of France to serve as barmaids for
French soldiers.
The order given them was to see
| that their customers had plenty to
| drink and in return to get from them
all the information the girls could
wheedle.
The second line of recruits was 1000
| German women of a somewhat higher
| caliber. These, too, were distributed
| throughout Eastern France as cham
| bermaids in hotels where French officers
| and perSonageS of importance were in
the habit of stopping.
Some were helped to secure places
as servants to French families of the
/ lawyers, editors, business men, doctors
and civil servants of the higher rank.
Then several thousand German farm
hands were sent into France, and many
a French farmer thought himself lucky
to get such competent labor at harvest
time. But
These German plowboys are sure
| ly sober lot" ran the amused COM
ment among the pIeasure-loving French.
when he has ~, little spare time
my Fritz'-with a Gallo smile and
| uloOcdQ b LIS W bAlC I'LL Va
meeting a girl, he takes walk along
the road to this or that place, or along
the canal, or he goes of to brood by
himself on the railroad bridge. Seems
| to be more interested in geography than
| in women. Stupid, isn't he?"
A more highly select corps went next,
frock-cOated young men who were given
short but intensive course in Secre-
tarial work. Some of the courses in
their curriculum would have made their
| future employers uneasy.
| These young men were taught how
to open sealed envelopes and to seal
them again so that no one would detect
they had been tampered with.
| They were taught to take wax i'm
pressions of keys; to initiate handwrit-
ing, particularly signatures; to detach
seals from documents and replace them
with others. Then they were sent to
France and helped to find employment.
Most of the young men were univer-
sity graduates, had discreet manners,
| showed marked intelligence and dressed
well. AS their French was excellent
and as they were modest in the salaries
| they asked, 1t is not surprising they
found excellent situations with French
men in public life.
| A LII of these men and women drifted
L into France singly, quietly, and
each one found his or her appointed
place without arouSing suspicion. How
efficiently this invasion was maneuvered
is shown by the fact that by 1870 there
were something like $4,000 of Stieber's
army Strategically distributed between
| the Prussian border and Paris And
still the French little suspected its pres
ence.
Meanwhile, to captain these thou
sands, several hundred retired German
officers were sent to France to establish
themselves in business, as book dealers,
provision merchants, dealers in optical
goods and the like.
Each Of these was what is known in
the parlance of modern spy systems as
a letter box" That means that CEN
trally located in a territory marked off
as spy district was a man with whom
subordinate spies regularly deposited
written reports.
To these subordinates, in turn, the
letter box" handed down instructions
he received from his territorial chief.
fSuch chiefs were established in Paris,
Lyon, Marseille, Lille, Bordeaux, Valen-
ciennes, Strasburg; at st. Cyr, Saumer,
Bourges, Fontainebleau. st. Etienne,
Tulle, LIE Creusot and other places.
These territorial chiefs, in turn, re-
ported to and were instructed by SUI
periors, one in Geneva, another in
Brussels. a third in Lausanne and a
fourth Immediately under the eye Of
| Stieber in Berlin.
These district inspectors" were for
hidden to enter France; forbidden by
Stieber. He trusted none but himself,
zernicki and Kaltenbach with the deli
cate business of inspecting the secret
army that had already overrun France.
The Napoleon of spies and his two
lieutenants -.Zernicki, disguised as a
Swede in the pursuit Of pleasure, and
Kaltenbach as Dutch engineer-cov-
cred their territory with Teutonic meth
cd and thoroughness.
First Stieber would arrive at some
town at which one of his letter boxes
was established.
Here he took bird's-eye view Of the
situation and issued general instruc-
tions for that district. Then. he went
on to the next.
In his wake at a stated interval fol-
lowed Zernicki and Kaltenbach. Both
saw to 1t that their chiefs general di-
rections had been executed in detail,
and each drew up report with such
minuteneSS that Stieber, to whom it
was forwarded at the next stop, knew
to chambermaid or a canteen girl
what share each of his spies contrib
uted to the information that was being
gathered.
With each visit went praise or blame
to the incumbent. Salaries were raised,
trebled, quadrupled or cut. But with
each doubling Of salary went trebling
Of the work
1t is tribute to the gift Zernicki
had of smoothing the ruffled feelings of
subordinates that not a single one of
that army grumbled loud enough for
the French to hear.
Finally. with 1850 reports from his
various letter boxes" Stieber and his
lieutenants returned to Berlin.
THE Prussian army chiefs, with Won
Moltke at the head, went to work
to digest the reports. What Won Moltke
had said of Stiebers Singlehanded sur
vey of Bohemia" he subscribed to even
more heartily now that he had read his
reports.
| He said so to Bismarck. The chan
cellor asked his spy:
DO you need any more money?
mo, excellence. have enough. NY
army is intrenched on French soil. 1t
waits only the coming of your troops"
On the basis of Stieber's detailed,
voluminous report, Field Marshal Won
Moltke formulated his plan for the in
vasion of France.
And exactly 1S months later Bis
marck gave the word for war.
Won Moltke was asleep when the news
was brought to him that war had been
declared between Prussia and France.
He said to an officer:
GO to the files and take out folio
No. and follow instructions therein"
Then he turned over and went to
sleep again, leaving 1t to his subordi-
mates to start the vast machinery of
war into action