Part 4 (1/2)
One favourite system of espionage on active service, from the German point of view, consists in the use of the Red Cross van. Under the rules governing international war, the Red Cross van may go anywhere, even into the enemy's lines, to pick up wounded, and the German forces, ”making war by all the violent means at their command,” have not scrupled to make use of Red Cross vans both for espionage work and as shelter for machine-guns--authentic cases are reported in which treacherous fire has been opened on the troops of the Allies in this way. Another method of obtaining information consists in sending two scouts out with a coil of wire, when in the presence of the enemy. The scouts, bearing one end of the wire, are instructed to approach the enemy's lines, at night, and of course, when they have approached within sight, they are shot. The wire no longer ”pays out” from the end kept in the lines, and the length unrolled, when hauled back and measured, gives the artillery-range almost to a nicety.
Communications in times of peace are never made direct to headquarters.
The fixed spies, as already remarked, employ such agents as they may choose and their rate of pay allows. Their reports are collected by the travelling spies, who are under the control of agents of sections, stationed in Belgium and Switzerland (up to the outbreak of war) but not in Germany. From the agents of sections reports go to the Central Bureau of the secret service at Berlin, where sorting and cla.s.sification of news supplied is pursued, and all that part of the world which could possibly be inimical to Germany is card-indexed. It is a sordid, sorry, mean business, utterly devoid of the romance and glamour with which the spy of fiction has invested it, and, whatever the fate of German armies in the field may be, the secret service of Germany has done more than anything else to pervert the moral sense of the nation.
CHAPTER EIGHT.
WOMEN SPIES.
In any account of the German spy system one invariably harks back to Stieber when pa.s.sing to a review of any fresh branch of the system.
Psychologist as he was, Stieber recognised that such a system as he proposed to establish in France prior to the war of 1870 could be rendered more effective if women were employed in conjunction with men.
Thus he requested that there might be sent from Prussia to France a certain number of domestic servants, governesses, women-workers, and others who might, by gaining access to the family life of the French people, pa.s.s on to the fixed agents information which might be useful.
Further, he requisitioned the services of a smaller number of attractive-looking girls who were to be placed out as barmaids, and in similar positions, where they could incite men to talk a little too freely for the benefit of the Grosser General Stab of Berlin. Stieber reckoned that women could learn what men would miss, in many cases, and the event proved him right.
He was careful, however, not to employ his women spies in positions of extreme trust, for he had learned, by the time that he was ready to organise his system, that the Prussian woman--it is unwise to include more--was not to be trusted with a secret. Out of the many failures to be credited to spies, most of all are laid to the accounts of women, mainly through the women in question having lost control of their heads through their hearts, and having become more or less infatuated with men whom they ought to have regarded as their prey, but whom they would no longer betray. It seems that the temperament in a woman which best fits her for spying also renders her likely to fall victim to her own affections, as far as her efficiency in espionage is concerned, for the German secret service, though it may overlook one mistake--no more--on the part of a male agent, disowns a woman spy as soon as she errs, without any exception.
The case of Lison, who ruined Lieutenant Ullmo, is partly a case in point. Not that this vampire lost her head in the things she did, or acquired any undue affection for Ullmo; but she bungled her case after having rendered good service to the German secret service. The mistake was not overlooked--the German secret service no longer knew that such a woman as Lison existed when once the trial of Ullmo had opened. Her error put her out of the spy system for ever, and, no matter what became of her, she never received another pfennig from her former paymasters.
The woman spy is largely utilised in the matter of internal espionage; in Berlin, for instance, society women are able to form _salons_, more or less worthy of that historic t.i.tle, at which they can hold gatherings of men and women and gather up the t.i.ttle-tattle from which scandals are constructed, and consequent pressure can be brought to bear on various persons as desired. In another circle, women keep houses at which men congregate, and here the charmer of fiction is dimly reflected, for personal attraction on the part of the female spy plays a large part in her power of acquiring useful information. Still lower in the scale are domestic servants, who overlook correspondence, overhear conversations, and in many other ways act as bearers of news which would otherwise go unheard by the Berlin headquarters.
On foreign service women spies in responsible posts are rare, but dangerous in reverse proportion to their numbers. One of Stieber's women learned all the secrets she sought, simply by supplying a young French officer with as much cocaine as he asked. Had the officer in question discovered other means of procuring as much powdered cocaine as he wanted, the spy in question would have been forced to offer some other reward for information. But he relied on the spy, and, in common with most drug-takers, was sufficiently morally enfeebled to be persuaded to give up all the information at his command.
Some of these foreign service female spies are artists in their profession. One may take the case of such a one who keeps a discreet establishment, say, in a garrison town. She welcomes visitors, and is a very tactful sympathiser with hard-worked officials in government offices. She offers encouragement, advice, and sympathy as regards work and worries, and sides with the complainant in any grievance regarding the arrogance of superiors. Her introductions, in the first place, give her a definite social standing, and, like the male fixed agent, she is so connected with the life of the place as to seem quite a part of it-- she is above suspicion in every way. It follows, given the type of woman who attracts men, that men talk to her far more than to members of their own s.e.x; they find her companions.h.i.+p restful and soothing-- especially the younger men--and are easily led on to talk of themselves, their hopes and their work. They talk in all innocence, and are encouraged by the listener to talk always more and more; and, after a month, or two or three months, perhaps, there falls one sentence which is as a straw that marks the direction of the wind--and that sentence finds its way to Berlin, where it is card-indexed. Acquaintance ripens to friends.h.i.+p; to the outer world's sight two people talk of things that interest them, but in reality the spy, having completely won the confidence of the man she set out to make her victim, leads him to talk of his work in a manner that he would have deemed impossible when first he met this attractive woman.
There is on record one failure among women spies which ill.u.s.trates the danger of employing them. The spy in question was sent out to win the affections of a young attache at a French Emba.s.sy, and this she accomplished through the simple expedient of teaching him the German language. In a regular course of lessons which the young diplomat underwent at the hands of the lady he found out that he was not so much attracted by her, after all; but she fell in love with him in earnest.
Thenceforth she was not only useless, but a danger to the German headquarters, since she was in a position to impart information instead of to extract it as Berlin desired.
It must be obvious, when one considers the extent of the organisation that Stieber set up, and the nature of the reports furnished by the staff, that an enormous amount of service work is done to no purpose; but this is inevitable, like the keeping-up of a navy which remains idle for fifteen or twenty years, but must still be maintained at full strength. Thus this corps of women spies is maintained and its reports are received and studied and tabulated. Much of the information sent in by women is, of course, hopelessly useless; but out of the ma.s.s of chaff sufficient grain is sifted to make the continuance of the work worth while--in German estimation, at least. It is a known fact that the Government of Berlin have not only overlooked but favoured the establishment of houses of ill-repute in the city, simply because through the keepers of these houses valuable information is to be obtained. Young men were lured to a certain notorious establishment in Berlin from the foreign Emba.s.sies, and even from departments of the Berlin Government itself. In the first case the object was information with regard to the procedure at the Emba.s.sies, and in the second case information was desired as to the integrity or lack thereof on the part of those entrusted with the control of German national affairs. The woman who ran this establishment had laid to her own count many ruined reputations and ruined lives in the course of her career.
It is known that the permanent spies, known in the vernacular as ”post offices,” have to send in to headquarters certain information. This information is tabulated as follows:
All possible information relating to general officers and their equals in the country concerned, including personal as well as official details.
Particulars of all who pa.s.s from military colleges to commissions, and all who pa.s.s from naval colleges to the navy.
Particulars of all directors and examiners of military and naval colleges.
Particulars of the official duties add personal habits of all officials in charge of a.r.s.enals, powder factories, store depots, and other works connected with military and naval organisation.
Staff officers, aides-de-camp, and generals' orderlies--particularly concerning the lives and habits of these.
Officers or officials employed in the Ministry, secretaries and under-secretaries in government offices, _especially those whose circ.u.mstances are low or whose affairs are in disorder_.
If the varied nature of this work is borne in mind, and the many opportunities a woman would have for learning details of the personal side are considered, it will be seen that the work of the woman spy can be invaluable. As already remarked, Germany wants to know not only the things that are of immediate use, but also the little things that may be of use in certain contingencies--possibly useful as well as certainly useful and probably useful information is welcome. And, in the average French or English household of the official cla.s.s, either in France or England, a German domestic, perfectly capable at her work and in every way above suspicion on the part of her employers, can render enormous service to the German secret service, simply by keeping her ears open.
For the servant, whether spy or honest employee, knows nearly everything there is to be known about her employers. If the master's financial affairs are in such a state that bribery might be tried with a remote chance of success, she is aware of it; if the mistress has compromised herself in any way, and is open to blackmail, the domestic is more likely to know of it than any one else, for she has unquestioned access to letters where even the husband is ignorant of their existence--n.o.body thinks of suspecting her of more than mere curiosity, at the worst. The object of the system inaugurated by Stieber is to work along the lines of least resistance, to ensure safety and efficiency by choosing means so obvious as to be negligible--and that system has produced great results, past question. More especially is this method noticeable in the case of the German spy: it is not the adventuress of fiction who does most of the useful work, but the inconspicuous and apparently thoroughly trustworthy woman, who, whatever her station, has an obvious reason for occupying it, and is above reproach or suspicion.
Not that the adventuress has not her share as well. A woman carried out most of the underground work connected with the Morocco loan; a woman stopped the clandestine marriage of one of the imperial princes, and another woman arranged a marriage between a Bourbon king and a member of the house of Hohenzollern. Yet another, according to Von Blowitz, brought off as skilful a coup in connection with the theft of doc.u.ments as has ever been known. But these things are exceptions to the regular work of women spies, which is for the most part unromantic, petty, and mean--as is most espionage work, whether man or woman be concerned in its accomplishment.
In active service the woman plays a very small part, for the endurance of a man is required to undergo such rigours as usually fall to combatants and spies alike once the armies have taken the field. Here, however, women are of use in carrying messages and in similar minor capacities. Such of them as manage to keep their places in civilian establishments may be of great use in learning projected plans--though plans are usually kept too secret, since the organisation and extent of the German system of espionage is fairly well-known in official circles of other countries.
During the siege of Liege men masqueraded as women in order to obtain information for the German commander. In one particular case four ladies were observed in the town, and certain small points of make-up and attire caused the police to entertain suspicions. The ladies were seized and examined, and very few inquiries were sufficient to settle the question of their s.e.x, while further inquiries certified them as German spies--and they paid the penalty of their daring. Before execution, spies captured in the present war have stated that they have been forced to take on their tasks; certain persons are selected by lot out of the army, and are given choice of the disguise with which they must go out to the front. In many cases the disguises are hopelessly inadequate, and all the men who go out know that they are going to almost certain death. But the man who, without some rehearsal, goes out disguised as a woman, is not only facing death, but looking for it--as do these German soldiers in like case.