The International Spy
IT ispopuiarU" supposed that Antor
vitch is a spy; l>ut the authori
ties say that no incriminating
paj>ers have been discovered." was
the most significant sentence in a
cable despatch to a news service not
iong ago from Singapore. Straits
Settfements~ But it was so typical a
statement that seeing it in the des
patch seemed v > brand the man as .1
spy. Perhaps he wasn't Russian, as
the name he gaye — Vladimir Antor
vitch—suggested; but that he was
a spy the fact that no incriminating
{tapers were in his ]>ossession ap
parently proved.
That'll always the case with the
real spy, — no evidence on him.
usually no nationality, and. if he is
in a light place, no Government to
plead for him. Paris was asking a
couple of years ago, " Who is Ellis?"
But no one answered, and Ellis has
not been heard of since, probably
having been sent across the frontier-
Edward Smythe Gordon seas ar
rested not long afterward charged
-with making plans of a French
fortress for the .British Intelligence
Office. He was a cool one, his pres
ence having bec:i noted in the pen
meter of the Lorient fortifications and himself de
nned as a suspicious person. He went to Quiberon.
then to Belle Isle, where, thinking the detectives
had left hi? trail, he began making a water color
sketch of the Gios-Rucher battery.
The French soldiers pounced on him from behind
Gordon in custody, they found a water color sketch
of the fort in a cleft ■ . ■.,■<■!, two cocks
"I pal it there so that the wind wouldn't blow it
avav, | observed Gordon.
When the officers jostled him, a pencil sketch fell
to the ground which showed the exterior of the fort
It was a sketch to help his water color, he said '" I
na an English 111 1 >urist, he continued. " I like to do
water colors "
"Water colors or fortresses?" they accused him.
"The fort was picturesque," he protested "' Being
a retired English army <>lhcer. I thought it interest
ing to include the fort in my sketch, which, you see.
is a marine i ietr "
Audaciously Ik- furnished a London address, men
tioned his rank "I Colonel, his former command, and
all the persona] questions the resourceful French
men could think of were answered with superficial
frankness
The English authorities did nothing Gordon re
mained in prison, explaining that there could have
en no harm in what he did, for he was arrested
once before :■.? .t similar offense — and let ■■>'. A
month elapsed: It had been found that Edward
Smyth..- Gordon had l>een arrested two ears before
for mak:.v n .:• : oolor ..... which. be it noted,
we not plaiii The French were sure that England
would a;>;. ..! liehind the man should he be given a
taaL The British did not stir. The French held
nim "in secret" so that what evidence they had
thoul.i not leak cut. The British did not stir.
Then from the Embassy of Great Britain it was
j-sked when the man Gordon would come up for
trial < >r.h that : hut it made the French show their
hand, arnica was woefully lacking in good cards.
The evidence v\as t<«o sh"a<lov\y to bring Edward
Smythe G .rd<»n to trial, and so he was put on a
ChaiiTicl iri.it
But how much information concerning French
Ouitary positions he who styled himself Edward
Smythe Gurdon gained only the British Intelligence
Office knows
. That litUe game is going on all the time, not only
manny a:H navy icirclesj but in the realms of diplo
matic politics iam assured that at Washington
°* American State Department sometimes knows
rae contents <<t despatches to foreign Governments
bytheii representatives before the Foreign Secre
taries abroad receive them.
Few Governments acknowledge that their postal
i,up],.,rts a Black Cabinet. In France it is
abolished a- an institution, but still the opening of
pnvau- mail is occasionally resorted to. Neither
Italy, nor Austria admits the existence of
«n Cdt'itu-! noir; but in Turkey, I<u^sia. and Servia
it fiounshc, 'Jin- Black Cabinet in Servia in the day>
uf Eng Alexander was the means of leading to the
rudder: irresi and mysterious death pf many promi-
iieu}»le, and even yet King Peter's Government
•iMs it u*.-iul
The operators of the Black Cabinet all use aln.ut.
ttesame methods An ordinary envelop is opened
I >Y mv.-rtuig a pencil into a corner of it beneath the*
•jjjP. anl following it round, revolving the peril i!
"unnj> the process. Sometime.-, steaming i* era
|Jl'jyt-'j Jf ;tJI c ., iv «-l<,ji is sealed with wax, a thin
"""•Made, heated, gently parsed under the wax.
*vi enable one to raise the flap. « h a thin pair of
t'htr±> may I*- passed into the envelop to grip the
tt^U-iu:,. v.hi<li art then rolled into a spiral ami
"•'ithdra-A!,.
wcrecy iv correspf»nd«:nce has Ik-oti violated in
these ways many times; but
most of the European countries,
Prance and England for instance,
do not make a practice of main
taining a Black Cabinet. Napo
leon lll.'s interest in other
people's affairs put the French
department in the highest state
of efficiency "it ever attained;
and England has ceased to pay much attention to
others' correspondence since the Fenian outrages
But England does not repose too much confidence
in some of her neighbors; for the Foreign Office
still maintains the King's messengers, who on
their two routes from London to Teheran and from
London to St. Petersburg, are able to deliver in
person most of the diplomatic correspondence
Downing Street sends out Anarchists, criminals.
and other undesirable citizens, of course, enjoy no
assured privacy for their Letters, ana Scotland Yard
frequently violates epistolary seals for the public
°Tobe a spvone must be an adept at many things,
including languages and the ability to disguise one s
features The Japanese are for these reasons thebest
material for espionage service Having mastered
their own language, they find most others easy, and
h is a tine qua mm of education in Japan to know
thoroughly at least one language besides the national
one Hut" where the Japanese- has the greatest ad
vantage over those of other races when he applies
himself to spying, is his entirely different ideas a.'
to exhibiting emotion. Professor Ucrinrh of the
rokio Surgical University in 1874^ analyzed these
differing signs of emotion scicnUheally. and the
results are extremely interesting as showing how
innately easy it is for the Nipponese to conceal
bis thoughts from the Occidental. ,-,,.,..„
The surprised Japanese puts his head si ghtlj to
one side, shaking it at intervals, frequently draws
the air ii.lv between his teeth with an F sound.
wrinkles his forehead, and lets his mouth open;
Turning the face to one side with a single bitter
laugh or a single smile— such as Press Agent Sato
used at Portsmouth— signifies supreme, disdain
Their countenances do not change, and it is that
which bothers the Occidental Sputtering forth
words to a superior signifies bad humor A guilt\
child will allow its head to ink but the grown-up
keeps erect and keeps hi fare i blank. 1 hey
do not wring their hand in great grief, shake hands,
throw up the head, or do lots of occidental thing!
of that kind Yet the authorities say they are not
stoical- that a deep sinking of the head means great
sorrow' and a shrinking of the body together is a
prelude to weeping.
: The lapancse obviously ]»ossess a great advantage
in si.ving on the Occidental, and. considerinj> the
n-cent afarm concerning alleged Japanese- spies m
United States forts, these things are interesting to
note Not less so is the fact that while a spy n Ins
oountrv may get information, he can scarcely obtain
. i " Fora si'Vs glorv-'H,twardh--resuks from
MsMtting caught. And ii was found, when some
oMhonedto reap a reward by furnishing the Govern-
tips with a view to leading to the arrest oi
oriental intruders, that the statutes of the I mte-.l
tSsss^isssss
ESS ;!;;;./;::■, ;:",., 11 t i u|S* ■ the nuti
BY DENYS P. MYERS
Drawing by George G bbs
ii such action is taken
in time of peace.
There is. conversely,
no reward for the ac
tive American who ap
prehends such a per
son.
Racial rivalries of
one sort and another
have brought these Orientals into the public eye as
getters of forbidden information. A few years ago
there was a tremor in some quarters because it trans
pired that Admiral Evans's valet was not a mere
Japanese coolie but an educated Mian. It seems that
the officers laughed at the public astonishment and
fear that ensued ; for it likewise seems that there are
no secrets on battleships Their measurements are
public property, the number of their guns, their de
tailed plans, are readily accessible, and any other
information can be procured in the manner in which
it had its genesis,— by a little expert figuring
The Japanese, however, are inveterate in their
thirst for knowledge about other nations. Most of
them abroad send home information of presumed
military value. It is well known that spies swarmed
in Manchuria and Korea prior to the Russo-Japanese
War. and that every hill, mountain, road, well, and
town was on the military maps. That information
was valuable, because charts of the districts were
lacking. But our cartographical publication; can
be obtained anywhere. . .
The itinerary of a Japanese in the Far Last is fre
quently elusive An American naval officer met one
in Korea, apparently a naturalist, in Korean cos
tume Later in the* day he was sketching streams
and roads. The same officer far up in China some
years later was introduced at a club to a Japanese
in European dress who spoke nothing but French.
He was in a section devoid of cities to establish
banks The officer thought he recognized the man.
and, finding him alone, spoke in English, The Nip
ponese dropped his pretense, told what he was about,
and pledged the American to secrecy 1 hat game
is going on all the time in the Far Last. One of
Kipling's longer works tells how a lad became a most
expert member of the secret service that England
maintains along the Indian frontier.
Hut here in America the same game IS going on.
One leading New York society woman long had a
German nobleman for a coachman, and the telephone
girl of a well known hotel has been a trusted agent
of the Belgian secret service since she was a child.
The immigrant sections of New York are full of
foreigners despatched here to keep tabs on people.
With the military and naval secrets of the Gov
ernment below par as secrets, and with the open
face policy adhered to in diplomacy at Washington,
the reason for spies ii Amen* ■ is naturally not clear
at first sight. .
But European royalty and nobility nave not ti
ways led virtuous live and there are more of their
descendants in real life than are dreamed of in the
Aim. m. i. de Goth ior the peerage And there are
many ticket-of-leave men. Few of these leave royal
or baronial halls of their free will to meet the work
face to lace. Many of them are despatched to Amer
ica, to live, unknowable in their true dignity and
unknown, on stipends paid regularly. A good man;.
of the spies here are charged with paying over this
Continued or pagt 1?