The Daily Alaska empire., 1942-07-09

cnerS aDith the ATiSo
 Spying on Germany isn't the TO- lmantic business it was just a short while ago.
 The war is getting too bitter |Tempers are short The decisions of German military courts harsf and swift.
 Not so long few well-placeo cocktails at a diplomatic tea might ldosen some Nazi tongue. A little flattery might induce some enc close to the foreign office" to boast what he was going to do to Norway if it didn't behave. Or 8 clever woman might persuade some reserve officer to brag indiscreetlS about the secret weapon
 A Bad Slip
 In fact, one such slip year ago was broad and precise enough tc give Russia pretty straight tip | that the Nazis were doing theil diplomatic best to organize a world front against communism. The unwary German official who made the slip barely escaped with his head, and was yanked from a soft bureaucratic post to the east front as a commoN soldier. Convictions and executions for spying have been frequent. The men whom Hitler trusts are get ting fewer and fewer, and they become increasingly taciturn.
 Somewhere in Germany there may be a new Mata Hari, glam- orous creature able to wheedle secrets out of romantically inclined officers. But to a sec 1)ned observer it does not seem that she is going to have much of a chance to dis tinguish herself There may be some playboys in the Nazi move ment from whom the right girl might coax little information. But such playboys aren't the generals nor do they have responsible posts in the war machine. The modern German general is about as crusty hard bitten and realistic a GUS toner as it is possible to imagine There are, doubtless, hundreds of spies inside Germany, engaged in the most dangerous of occupations !, But it would be easy to exaggerate the role they are playnig, or to attribute too much importance to their influence on military deci- SionS.
 There are, beyond question, a few full time spies, accredited to responsible agencies working for the defeat of Hitler. But most of the spies might be called part-time workers. Individuals who hate Naz- ism or unprincipled persons who don't think much of Hitler one way or, another but who are willing to sell vital information for a price What kind of information do these humble spies uncover? Usu- ally it is of the most unromantic nature.
 One individual whom this writer has reason to suspect is doing noth- ing more exciting than counting coal trains. He lives near an i'm portant railway line over which coal is transported from Germany to Italy. Italian industry is com pletely dependent on Germany for coal. And if the United Nations knew approximately how much coal Italy is getting they could make a pretty shrewd guess as to the cap- acities of Italian armament and munitions industries.
 Railroads Betray Secrets Watching the German transpor- tation system betrays other war secrets. We were informed in Der lin, although we could not be quite sure, that similar humble spying on railways first revealed to the United Nations that the shipyards of Danzig started assembling sub marines after increasingly heavy British raids disturbed building op- erations at Kiel and other western German ports.
 Constant shipment of war ma terials eastward first led to the suspicion that Germany was with drawing some of it's industry from the Rhine valley. Destructive Brit ish raids on Rostock and Luebeck have been the answer.
 The professional spy inside Ger many sets himself up as clear ing agent for lcc of little tipsters He puts the dabs together, reads newspapers with particular atten- ton to what might be concealed be- tween the lines, and listens to the speeches. How he gets the report out to the country is his own busi- iness which, at the moment, should Int be betrayed
 To the suspicious German off cial almost every foreigner is a spy. And news correspondents par ticularly were regarded dubiously. Curious in this respect was the high moral attitude taken by the United States embassy in Berlin