Evening star., 1936-11-22
BY C. PATRICK THOMPSON.

BY C. PATRICK THOMPSON.
EICHS SFUH H r E r HITLER
- clasped him warmly by the
IN hand a: and IL, drew n,,ir,e him into hi his
ace for nice, long, cozy talk. Blom-
berg dined him. Goering gave a
magnificent party for him, and invited
Goebbels. Ribbentrop provided noe
turnal garden party in his honor. All
the May hierarchs beamed, clicked
their heels, saluted. chatted. made
themselves pleasant.
And why not? AS his Britannia
ma ajesty's permanent undersecretary
of state for foreign affairs. Sir Robert
Vansittart-"Van" to his friends-ex-
ercises general supervision over John
Bulls foreign policy. British premiers
consult him, foreign secretaries seek
and take his advice. A Nazi regime
anxious to win over Britain, or at
least secure her neutrality in the event
of a clash with that Red giant to
the east, would naturally make much
of him during his fortnights stay
in Berlin.
Besides, Sir Eric Phipps is his
Observation-Disclosures British AmbaSsa-
dor in the German capital and the
head of the British foreign Office mar
ried sisters. Further, he is poet, play
wright and novelist, as well as Dip
lomat, and, moreover, he is a perfectly
charming fellow-everybody says so.
Why, then, should the Berlin gos-
sips grin and a chuckle spread
through Europe's chancelleries? Well,
it's an embarrassing subject-one
doesn't talk about it, you know-but
Permanent Undersecretary of State
for Foreign Affairs Sir Robert Vansit-
tart also happens to be head of John
Bulls secret service, and John Bull
has jumped the secret service ailo-
cation from 100000 to 81 $50 900 and
Is catching and failing at a record
rate spies with German contacts, and
worrying the Nal war staff and Dip
lomatic chieftains by an uncanny
knowledge of things which the Nazis
thought were impenetrable secrets.
or course. nobody would dream of
associating the distinguished and at
tractive Sir Robert with cracked safes,
stolen plans, forged papers, micro
phones concealed in walls, surrep-
titious bribes. hasty flights over from
tiers, shooting squads at dawn, the
executioner's automatic at midnight,
corpses tumbled into quicklime In a
hole in a political prison yard and
similar bizarre events.
Lamentable Happenings.
As a matter of fact, nobody ever is
linked with these lamentable hap
penings. Two German frauleins are
beheaded with the axe for selling
copies Of Reichswehr ministry mem
oranda to a foreign agent. A British
soldier OF fortune is shot by Soviet
frontier guards while engaged in
smuggling operations" A lady and
gentleman of obscure nationality van
ish when a 6-inch shell hits a speed
boat in which they are trying to
slip out Of Japanese naval base.
Somebody breaks into the Russian
Embassy in Prague and steals the Am
bassador's code. An ex-Navy man is
given Is years in the United States for
imparting naval secrets to-whom? A
British officer is seduced by a German
girl; he IS cashiered and given five
years for supplying a foreigner with
military information. A German. an
ex-oficer, is caught collecting data
about aircraft and airdromeS in Eng
land and given long prison term.
M. Charles Magny's counter-espion-
age department of the French Surete
Nationale in Paris grabs % persons,
allegedly members of an international
spy gang of so and including three
Americans. A former naval officer
is arrested in the United States and
charged with purveying confidential
data to a foreign power.
In these and sundry other contem-
porary cases there is never any in
ternational incident, because no Sc
cret service ever knows ANYTHING
about it or the individuals involved:
nobody is responsible and no protests
ever are made.
And it is just as well: for the
whole structure Of diplomacy would
collapse If, say, DR.. Hermann Gortz.
German lawyer, convicted Of espion-
age in Britain in the Summer of
1886 and sentenced to Jail, were traced
publicly to some higher-up in Berlin,
with whom his Britannia majesty,s
permanent undersecretary for foreign
affairs might find himself pleasantly
dining little later.
Vansittart is the only man living
who knows all the No. Is of the
British secret service. Even the pre-
mier is denied that knowledge. But
one other man Is let in on the money
side. He is Sir Warren Fisher, per-
manent secretary to the treasury and
head Of the civil service; and he does
the auditing job himself. Parliament
votes the money asked for it, but all 1t
hears about the manner Of its SPEND
ing is contained in the audit formula
which runs: 81 certify that the amount
shown in this account to have been
expended is supported by certificates
from the responsible ministers of the
crown"
What strange and sinister tales lie
concealed behind that formal mask
of wordsl