Evening star., 1940-04-05
Place toFind Spies
Is Little NeutraIs'
Biggest Hotels
Beautiful Stenoeropher
Cunt Type, but Knows
About Pursuit Planes
By WILLIAM L. WHITE.

BY WILLIAM l.. WHITE.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark.-This
is on the subject of spies, and don't
think that it isn't fascinating
topic when you're knocking around
the big hotels in these little neutral
countries. where you can be abso-
lutely certain that the bartenders
as well as the ladies of the evening
are in the pay of either the democ-
racies or the totalitarian states, and
occasionally, If, they are smart
enough to keep the right hand from
knowing what the left hand doeth,
are in the pay of both.
This big de luxe hotel in this town
Is overrun with them, and I want
to give you some ideas of how it
works. I register and I 60 down
to the bar and order a beer, and
I sit on a STOOL And all OF sud-
den I see, across the room, very
familiar face. It's the old baron
50 we Americans called him-who
used to hang around the lobby and
the bar of the Adlon in Berlin.
Not the regular Nazi type. And
old regime aristocrat, about 65, very
smooth, aping the manners and the
Harris tweeds of the British aristoc-
racy, as all German aristocrats do.
Liberal Expense Account.
Mixing with the boys, engaging
them in conversation-which aris-
tocrats usually don't do. For that
matter, the Nazis in Germany have
pretty we'll wiped out the old aris-
tocracy, substituting for it thick
necked, pig-eyed, hard-hitting aris-
tocracy of its own. So we used to
wonder how the old baron got the
money to hang around the Adlon
bar in Berlin. Only we. didn't really
wonder, because it was obvious that
he had been taken over by the Nazis
as a smoothie to pump foreigners.
The old aristocracy in Berlin is
badly broke these days. But the old
baron. his face laced with duelling
scars, always had money to buy his
end of the drinks in the Adlon bar.
The Nazis must have allowed him
pretty liberal expense account.
Few Germans are allowed to leave
the country. When they do, they
are allowed to take out only 10 marks
a day spending money. I watched
the old baron, buying drinks for the
crowd, spend easily double that
amount in half an hour. Obviously
they have given him a liberal ex-
pense account to pick up what he
can from careless takers in the bar
of this neutral hotel.
No Recognition.
Suddenly our eyes meet-and
break away. We pretend not to rec
ognize each other, but I know the
old boy knows I remember him, that
I know what he's up to out here in
Copenhagen.
I've picked up a little cold in Nor
way. I go up to my room, take my
temperature-102-flu-go to bed
So then the telephone rings. And
it's lovely, soft-voiced female who
mysteriously knows my name-also
that I'm an American-I've been in
Denmark, exactly an hour and a
half, says she must see me at once
about some secretarial work.
Now it just happens I may have
some. But I say I'm sick today and
can't talk about it until tomorrow.
So she says, oh, of course, If I'm sick,
she'll be right up. And so she does.
How does she know the number of
my room? Well, how did she know
my name? Or also that I'd just
come out of Finland? It's just an
other one OF those things. Anyway,
she's just as beautiful as she sounded
over the phone. Bear in mind,
please. that I actually was sick and
actually did have 102 temperature.
So, the very beautiful girl sits
down on the end of my bed, and is
very sympathetic. and explains that
she's Russian-left the country for
good three years age-and wants to
know all about Finland-particularly
about the Finnish morale and how
long I think they can hold out.
When I try to get the conversation
around to matters secretarial, it
turns out that she doesn't know any
shorthand, and doesn't know how
to use the typewriter, but wants to
know if I actually saw any of the
new pursuit planes the British are
supposed to have sent to Finland.
I'm sure she was Russian, not be-