Evening star., 1936-03-22

The military ana naval attacneS ana
the official desks" in charge Of col
lecting information and data in war
and navy departments are more or less
like editorial departments.
The political, social. economic and
financial trends Of the various coun-
tries are studied there The basis Of
these studies is official government re-
ports, newspapers and magazines and
statements of prominent individuals.
But while officials are keeping their
hands clean in order to avoid unpleas-
ant complications, the hirelings are
doing the dirty work which ranges
from obtaining the latest blueprints
of guns and warships to actually steal
ing the most up-to-date airplanes
guards.
The United States is the only power
in the world, where spies and foreign
agents can work without being inter-
fered with. There is not a single law
against espionage and what is more
there is not single agency to follow
up and learn the work Of spies.
X
Great Britain, France, Germany,
Italy, Japan and all the other coun-
tries have special organizations to
cope with that danger They have on
their staff able and highly trained men
provided with funds to check spy in
vasions which precede the outbreak Of
a war.
In Great Britain there is the politi-
cal branch of the Scotland Yard and
the special branch Of the foreign Of
fee. The formers task Is to follow all
foreign and British agents in the pay
of a foreign country within the United
Kingdom. And they seldom fail in
their task.
The special branch of the foreign
office supplies Scotland Yard with the
necessary data regarding the activities
of other countries, keeps careful files
of information received either from
counter-espionage agents or direct
from embassy and legation stats.
These two branches supplement each
other fully. Nobody quite knows how
much Is being spent on this work be-
cause the secret funds are never dis
cussed by the House of Commons.
France has the Surete Generate, a
very complicated and highly efficient
organization with agents all over
Europe and mountains Of files on
almost every individual in Paris or
the important cities In the provinces.
The representatives of the
"Surete" can be found In all i'm
portant cities in Europe and
ofiHates OF that organization are
spread all oper the ioorld. Their
main task is not so much to find
out what other countries are do
ing, but HON they are matching
France and try to get her military
secrets.
The same thing applies to Germany,
where the activities Of every living
soul are closely watched by able police,
to Switzerland, Austria and down the
line even to the little principality Of
Monaco.
These are, Of course, the defensive
work" of the world nations against
those who want to pry into their mill
tary secrets or want to produce In
ternal troubles for the benent Of
some hostile neighbor.
Should another international con-
fiagration break out. the United States
viii again become the haven of inter-
national plotters.
The military and naval intelligence
services have their hands tied. They
cannot so much as suggest that GER
tain individuals should be shadowed
while we are not at war with any
nation. If some important foreign
agent comes to the United States, the
only means of finding out is when
British or French intelligence services