Evening star., 1946-01-20

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When spelled in capital letters, IRIS
does not mean a beautiful flower; it
means Interim Research and Intelligence
Service, recent bureaucratic outgrowth
of the State Department intended to
deal with the complicated problems of
information and espionage in the four
corners of the world.
1t is called an interim" organization
because its creators live in hope that
the entire intelligence machinery, which
is now being handled by the Army, Navy
and the FBI will soon be placed under
its control under new global organ
ization called the Centralized Intelli-
gence Services of the United States.
A fierce underground battle has been
raging for some time, not SO much on
the general principles of whether a
centralized intelligence is necessary but
on who will be the real boss of the new
there has been struggle of personal
tiles rather than principles. The objec-
tions placed by the State Department,
and more recently by the Budget Bu-
reau, to the Army Navy plan empha-
sized the necessity of having the head
of IRIS become the secretary general
the actual supreme authority-of the
new organization which the President
wants established >as soon as possible.
All those who have been dealing for
years with intelligence matters, which
are more essential to national defense
than ever before, agree that. wide
spread network of information centers
must be strewn throughout the world.
The old espionage system of endeavor-
ing principally to fipd out how well an
army is trained and what caliber of
guns have been developed in secret is
as dead as the horse and buggy. In
telligence in these days of atomic energy
requires the use of all types of men
who are capable of appraising the eco
nomic, social, financial and industrial
developments of a country.
Hints in Imports.
These men will become the agents"
of our intelligence service, sometimes
without their own knowledge. Com
mercial attaches, or bankers or travelling
salesmen in a country can give the
most useful information to their gov
ernment without actually spying on
another nation.
For instance, if the representative of
an automobile factory reports that there
is strong demand for American cars
in an Industrial country, the informa-
ton may be of the utmost Importance
The proper authorities in this country
know'the manufacturing capacity of the
foreign factories. When they learn that
production has fallen off substantially
! they Immediately begin to investigate
the causes. And if they learn there is
no industrial reason such as strikes or
lack of certain parts, the assumption is
that the cause must be something else
which has nothing to do with the pro-
duction of automobiles.
In the same way. the importation of
cereals from abroad by an agricultural
country is an indication that the crops
of that particular year are being put
away for some definite purpose Observ-
eign countries or follow the courses of
foreign universities or schools can re-
port on the psychological trends and
some of the latest scientific develop
mentS in those countries,
This type of information, in which
the British have excelled in the past,
was sadly neglected in the United States
in the days before the war The diplo-
matte intelligence of the State Depart
ment was faulty because members of the
American diplomatic missions were un-
der strict instructions not to poke their
noses into matters which had no direct
relation to their diplomatic or consular
work
Former Intelligence Limited.
The intelligence of the War and Navy
Departments was "operational." That
is to say, the military and naval attaches
endeavored to obtain only information
AS6oAdAiiS eilC AaoCoG P1dIlCo, OI
guns of the nations to which they were
accredited. They were neither prepared
nor encouraged to study the psychology
cal moves, scientific developments or
any other questions which go to make
up the war potential of another nation.
AL this will be changed and most
comprehensive study has been made re-
garding the setting up of an informa-
ton center which would keep the Army,
Navy and State Departments fully in
formed about the aims of any country.
While this departure from the old
style intelligence is essential if we are
to watch where the next blow may be
coming from-should the UNO be unable
to ward off other wars-the struggle for
the control of the new set up makes
many professionals in modern intelli-
gence doubtful that it will accomplish
its purpose.
The roots of the new service have
recently been placed in the State De-
partments IRIS, which has taken over
some of the personnel of the Foreign
Broadcast Intelligence Service, and sew