Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-06
Continued from Fifth Page

for anywhere in Europe O1ten neutral coISuLo
were bribed to help with visas. Of in the Far
East at Tientsin, under floor in Taku street
fish stall the Germans kept store of Italian
and Dutch passports obtained at the Pekln
legations by men hired to ask them for pre-
tended journeys.
Having provided false papers falsely stamped,
German secret service sought means Tor the spy
messenger to conceal messages. An early ulcK
was to jot down few key words on a time
table or a newspaper rolled and carried casually
Sometimes messages were slipped into padded
seat arms to be extracted across the 1ronuer.
Comter-espionage had to taboo books crossing
frontiers; they afforded so many means to con-
Vey messages.
There were myriad other ways to hide them:
in hollow and false teeth, in shoe heels, in the
plaster casing of broken arm, in cotton wound
dressings false curls, garters and smelling salts.
Others we're wigs, coat collars neckties, tooth.
brush handles, between safety razor blades, In
candy In lead pencils, even in common string.
Some messengers carried reports In plpe1W
of tobacco. II caught, they lighted the pipe
One way to transmit message was to menu
Orize it. cross the frontier and repeat 1t to some
one waiting there. But that took time. and
whose memory and selfcontrol were so steady
as to be mistaken by the griling cross-exam-
nations at frontier stations?
We got number of them. The French
caught 800 at the frontier station at Bellegarde
alone, some 1t is said by demanding that they
pronounce "Vingt-neu-vieme," which no Ger
man can. An American counter-spy once with
Hoover in Belgium Is said TO have caught one
German spy by suddenly shouting "Achtung"
the familiar Attention."
Some German agents who spied on the Amer
icans crossed through Evian, with groups OF
repatTies, French and Belgian civilians from
occupied regions allowed by agreement to re-
turn to unoccupied France. II the Germans
could bride none to spy for them they tried
10 slip in disguised agents with carefully pre-
pared stories.
RepatrieS were handled with care for more
reasons than one. Some might be suspect, far
more were loyal French or Begians, neither
blind nor deaf, who had lived some time among
the enemy-and now had no reason to remain
dumb Allied intelligence officers questioned
them carefully about everything seen and heard,
using maps and diagrams wherewith each
frontier station was equipped And from the
loyal they got the names Of dSloyal to add to
the evergrowing blacklist against the time Of
atonement to begin November II, 1918.
IT was harder for spies to communicate at
the front than at the rear Most Of the
Flashing lights" there were will-o'-the-wisps.
But some daring men did hop across no mans
land by airplane or balloon and back again.
Usually they were French or Belgians who re-
turned to old homes in the occupied region,
found a few trusted friends, collected informa-
ton, perhaps got promise Of more, then were
picked up again at a rendezvous. Sometimes
they stayed for days reporting by carrier
pigeons taken with them wherefor the Ger
mans made owning carrier pigeon serious
offense. A British agent once switched one for
a men, just in time
m Skc
AVA landing or parachute jump at night. be-
trayed by supposed friendsS, failure to meet the
returning airplane. To escape execution as
spies, some wore uniforms beneath peasants
clothes. Hope springs eternal. The Germans
caught 20 such allied agents. None was work.
inc for the Americans
Spy messages went through the air in al
most no other way. Despite the tales Of won
drous secret pocket wireless sets used in the
World War, there was none. The only secret
wireless set operated undecided anywhere near
the western front was hidden in the house
of Belgian priest behind the German lines
and worked by him and French woman who
received only recently the Legion of Honor deco
ration in recognition. She is now Nine. Georges
Herlieg of Roubaix. The priest was Abbie Pinte.
That was an accomplishment, for Germans land
allieS) had a network Of intercepting stations
to detect anything so dangerous to their safety.
There are stories that American naval INTEL
ligence detected German receiving stations
working behind the front near La Beaule and
Croisic on the western coast Of France, help
ing submarines sink American transports.
There is no official confirmation, and the truth
seems to be that the one hidden wireless sta
ton" the Americans detected was probably
harmless.
When on May 81, 1918, a German submarine
sank the President Lincoln, then our sixth
largest transport on the French coast be-
tween st. Nazaire and Bordeaux, the still
hunt began again. Hidden away in a secluded
village near the Spanish frontier. the Americans
did indeed find a wireless set hitherto I'M
known, operated by young girl. who said it
was the solace Of her aged grandfather. Here