THE SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE SECTION
FHTP i UK months i the Hllf , mViBB
I I If H I I HVB'i; E II Vfl anus into Morocco, was given ui to the l'aris
pu muien ami powiior-cnnrged, an mi H l u m Jl:f'(BH
1 I 1 "in only tlic lirst spark. In cei flllllllH ' 4 '. 0 JHflw.i'BB '
i or less openly. .BBaBBWaBt'' ! 1 r wAdfR-nHB
iiioliilicd, the spies wont the sides ami RB9 !' 1 T i,liWWiMlBl
Hi HhB i'KvTM
bvIHeB BHHlv slWEiBfciiiftlm? .Bf
K's'BtB' WssassHHroflaV ValilHMiiiHalflalnaHr
This slim, febrile woman .
of desperate.
Vc(
I III' sp -hunters.
I he center of the international spy-sslem
in HrusscN. Inileeil yon might say that Hrussi
is the clearintr-liniiM' for all I titt treason i
Europe. On this neutral territory the I raitoi -ol
all nations meet in relative security. Tin
recipient the groat hotels of the lower town ami
the darker taverns ami inns near the railway sin
limis. They are in touch with I heir embassies ami
ministries anil with the uawil anil militars at
laches. They may he ollicers of rank in their own
armies, like "l.eopolilus." There are women
unions tlieni, adventuresses with a genius for in
trigue ami a love for it. All nations and all races
are represented m tins grim world of treason.
No one of the groat powers is any hetter than the other. Each has Us oignuized
spy-service, ami one is not baser than the other. As you shall see. For it is in
teresting is it not to go down for a little while into this somber and for
midable world of infamy and intrigue, of treason and murder, with, now and
then, its distorted heroisms and its dingy romances.
When in mid-January I reached If missels there was keen activity in the spv
world, but a keener fear. No one rogue though for years they had tratlickcd
in treason like brothers trusted the other. My reason of a journalistic expe
rience that went back to the Dreyfus days the "days of Oners I had a number
of acquaintances among them; but at (list it was hard to make head-wav.
oils hand
smoHune was heiuir re
lentlessly carried on by every great power; German spies were being bribed to
deliver their agents to England, French spies were being bought over by Ger
many, and so on. What could a poor rogue of a spy do In what agent could he
trust'
TN German jails and fortresses in the month of January were live English
A spies. Three of them were ollicers in the English army. A fourth was a bar
rister, but also an ollicer in the territorials. They had gone blithely into Germany
l spy out the land -its forts and dockyards, its troops and munitions of war.
They had been sent by the War Olllce to a well accredited agent in Hrussols; lie
had sent them on their way, and betrayed them one after the other to the Ger
man authorities. In that same month a German ollicer, the Huron von b'ehoenobeck,
who was working in the interest of France, was delivered over to the authorities
at the German t'muticr; he had been sold by the French agent in Hnissels. A
.... talking quito easily
criminal thines
colonel of the Russian general slafl' was arrested
at Leo pel in Austria. Alfred Mnutillct, a French
soldier who was betraying his country by running
arms into Morocco, was given up
police by his "chief" in Hnissels. At Leipsig.
Worg, a young German acting as a spy for
France, was sentenced to four years' imprison
ment. Two private soldiers, who sold the lock of
a military carbine to the French embassy, were
caiiL'ht at Dantzig. A Russian colonel of nrtillorv
was arrested at Sosiiowice charged with betrayiui:
military secrets to Germany. At Ostrowa, a high
lailway ollicial was captured, while trying to gic
up compromising papers to a German agent.
And so on. 1 have not mentioned half the cases
gien me by my informant, who is at once the
dean and the chief of the agents of espionage in
Europe. Ho you wonder that fear lay thick and
cold upon the world of spies.'
For no man knew who would be next given
up.
- ..... ,....lf ,, ... ....-v ii n tin ii.tiu in iii.iuu 111:
Never in a doen years has fear lain so heavily on the tierce, uiisorupuloi
nf professional spies. The reason was this: The vontrc-vspiouuiic was b
Each of these men had been betrayed to the
authorities by one of the professional agents of
espionage. It might be as well before we meet these men at closer quarters
to make this matter quite clear. All of the spies to whom 1 have referred, as
well as the others imprisoned in that agitated month of January, were amateurs.
Some of them, like the English ollicers and two German ollicers now in English
jails, acted out of patriotism. In a way of danger and in what seemed to them
a way of honor, they were serving country and fatherland. They were on duty,
if you will. And that was true of the Russian colonel captured in Austria.
They had been placed in touch with the professional agents of espionago who
were supposed to be in the sole pay of their respective countries; and these men
had sold them to the enemy as one sells a trussed fowl in the market place.
The spy-agents had taken two fees, one dirtier than the other.
AS to those other men who wt.e arrested here and there, they were amateur
"traitors, willing to sell any military secrets that would bring a price. They
were private soldiers, non-commissioned ollicers, gunners, clerks in military rail
way service men given to debt and debauchery. Such poor devils as they
half-fool, all-knave form the base of the espionage system in Europe. Wily
agents tempt them. If they resist the rollicking agents who offer them money
and wine-bottles, they fall to those subtler agents who tempt them with kisses.
And the end of them It is always the same. Sooner or later these very agents
betray them.
One night a time ago I sat in a tavern in Hnissels. There wero a half-dozen
famous agents of espionage there Thiesscn and Schwartz and others. They
all knew each other. They were supposed to represent dilTerent governments';
but they liob-and-nobbed together, freely, familiarly as thieves in a cellar. Lajou
was acting for France, Oners for Germany. And La jou and Oners played a