Evening star., 1934-04-08

length what they were doing in WASH
ington to the child of his brain. He
answered, equally discouraged at condi-
tions in secret service and intelligence,
that he had thought of writing book
to place in the archives of the War De-
partment so that in the next war the
director of intelligence might turn to
this for guidance and profit by the ex-
periences of the World War. I told him
his manuscript would be just another
document buried in the archives, and
urged him to publish such a work. He
might he Said-but of course the pub
lication of such book, under the pres
ent law, the secret act, would place the
father of intelligence in Atlanta.
And so intelligence, or secret service,
or whatever one wishes to term it today
is not an operating bureau, but an ad-
visory one. It's major function Is for
our military attaches throughout the
world to mark certain paragraphs in the
local newspapers for tranSlation-iron-
ically enough, by foreigners-and sent by
the attaches to Washington, where they
are neatly filed.
bureau, spies in the United States in
peace time are as safe as in a church.
Because of this and because of the Sc
cretS act which, designed to punish the
betrayal of official secrets is chiefly use
full in preventing the wholesome light of
publicity from being turned on the activ-
tiles of foreign agents in the United
States.
In the heated debate upon the secrets
act in the Senate last Spring it would
seem that the act was chiefly designed
to prevent the publication OF the sequel
to the American Black Chamber" which
had been impounded by the Federal au-
thoritieS in New York few weeks before
If this were the sole effect of the bill
no great harm would be done except to
me. But under its I-defned but COM
prehensive terms it will, like most laws
passed for specific case, do great in
Justice in the future, because the pub
lication or furnishing of certain informa-
ton may equally lay the offender open
to 10 years Imprisonment and $4,000
fine.
ONLY a few years ago secret pact
~ between France and England was
uncovered by newspapers and published.
This would have been impossible under
the secrets act. Today if one should
either by design or by luck intercept a
communication detrimental to our in
terest, such as a plan to destroy the Pan
anna Canal on the eve of war, the in
veStigator would indeed have to be pa
triotic to publish it with a 10-year SEN
tence and fine of $4,000 hanging over
his head if his action were disapproved
and the secrets act invoked.
For myself, shall henceforth devote
myself to fiction, where, as in my novel,
'The Blonde Countess" can spin ficti-
tious accounts of the activities of spies.
But though the incidents and characters
are fictitious, the story is modelled closely
upon facts.
The master spies-those who direct the
activities of host of subordinates-are
men and women high in the world Of
diplomacy and finance and above suspi-
cion. Those who work for them do not
know the superior minds which direct
them. They cannot, if they would, be-
tray more than the few of their kind
with whom they have contacts. Robert
Switz may confess all that he knows and
only few spies will be caught-minor
agents, mostly. The higher-ups he will
not know.
Spy activities emanate from several
sources and the work of one group will