Evening Star Newspaper, April 6, 1930, Page 111

B S —— RIS 4 T —— b ? THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, APRIL 6, 1930. Continued from Fifth Page men offered to equip thein all with passports for anywhere in Europe. Often neutral consuls were bribed to help with visas. Off in the Far East, at Tientsin, under a floor in a Taku street fish stall the Germans kept a store of Italian and Dutch passports obtained at the Pekin legations by men hired to ask them for pre- tended journeys. Having provided false papers falsely stamped, German secret service sought means for the spy messenger to conceal messages. An early trick was to jot down a few key words on a time table or a newspaper rolled and carried casually. Sometimes messages were slipped into padded seat arms, to be extracted across the frontier. Counter-espionage had to taboo books crossing frontiers; they afforded so many means to con- vey messages. There were myriad other ways to hide them; in hollow and false teeth, in shoe heels, in the plaster casing of a broken arm, in cotton wound dressings, false curls, garters, and smelling salts, Others were wigs, coat collars, neckties, toothe brush handles, between safety razor blades, in candy, In lead pencils, even in common string. Some messengers carried reports in a pipeful of tobacco. If caught, they lighted the pipe. One way to transmit a message was to mem- orize it, cross the frontier and repeat it to some one waiting there. But that took time, and whose memory and selfcontrol were so steady as to be unshaken by the grilling cross-exam- inations at frontier stations? We got a number of them. The French eaught 300 at the frontier station at Bellegarde alone, some it is said, by demanding that they pronounce “Vingt-neu-vieme,” which no Ger- man can. An American counter-spy once with Hoover in Belgium is said to have caught one German spy by suddenly shouting “Achtung!” —the familiar “Attention!” Some German agents who spled on the Amer- fcans crossed through Evian, with groups of repatries, French and Belgian civilians from occupled regions allowed by agreement to re- turn to unoccupied France. If the Germans could bribe none to spy for them, they tried 1o slip in disguised agents with carefully pre- pared stories. Repatries were handled with care for more reasons than one. Some might be suspect, far more were loyal French or Belgians, neither blind nor deaf, who had lived some time among the enemy—and now had no reason to remain dumb. Allied intelligence officers questioned them carefully about everything seen and heard, using maps and diagrams wherewith each fronticr station was equipped. And from the Joyal they got the names of disloyal to add to the evergrowing blacklist against the time of atonement to begin November 11, 1918. T was harder for spies to communicate at the front than at the rear. Most of the “flashing lights” there were will-o’-the-wisps. But some daring men did hop across no man's land by airplane or balloon and back again. Usually they were Prench or Belgians who re- turned to old homes in the occupied region, found a few trusted friends, collected informa- tion, perhaps got & promise of more, then were picked up again at a rendezvous. Sometimes they stayed for days reporting by carrier pigeons taken with them, wherefor the Ger- mans made owning a carrier pigeon a serious offense. A British agent once switched one for a nhen, just in time. MANY risks these air spies ran; airplane landing or parachute jump at night, be- trayed by supposed friends, failure to meet the returning airplane. To escape execution as spies, some wore uniforms beneath peasants’ clothes. Hope springs eternal. The Germans caught 20 such allied agents. None was work- ing for the Americans, Spy messages went through the air in al- most no other way. Despite the tales of won- drous secret pocket wireless sets used in the World War, there was none. The only secret wireless set operated undetected anywhere near the Western front was hidden in the house of a Belgian priest behind the German lines and worked by him and a French woman who received only recently the Legion of Honor deco- ration in recognition. She is now Mme. Georges Herlieg of Roubaix. The priest was Abbie Pinte. That was an accomplishment, for Germans (and allies) had a network of intercepting stations to detect anything so dangerous to their safety. There are stories that American naval intel- ligence detected German receiving stations working behind the front near La Beaule and Croisic on the western coast of France, help- ing submarines sink American transports. ‘There is no official confirmation, and the truth seems to be that the one “hidden wireless sta- tion” the Americans detected was probably barmless. When on May 31, 1918, a German submarine sank the President Lincoln, then our sixth largest transport, off the French coast be- tween St. Nazaire and Bordeaux, the still hunt began again. Hidden away in a secluded village near the Spanish frontier, the Americans did indeed find a wireless set hitherto un- known, operated by a young girl, who said it was the solace of her aged grandfather. Here was material for a spy story or a romance, but the Amiericans neither arrested the old man as a master spy, nor married the girl. They took away the radio, though. It was no time to take chances, Summer, 1918. Trutit seems to be that German sples did, indeed, tell submarines something about our transport movements, but by light flashes or in secret interviews ashore or at sea with some one from the submarine, not by ‘“secret radio.” RADIO plays a part in one story of that famous document that helped force us into the war, the Zimmermann note. Who can for- get President Wilson’s amazing announcement on March 1, 1917, over a month before we entered the war, that the German foreign minister had proposed to Mexico and Japan to join Germany in war against us? How did President Wilson know even the text of the note? The question has been answered since by Walter Hines Page, then American Ambas- sador in London but, some say, only partly answered. Mr. Page has told how the Germans sent the message on January 16 by different routes—by wireless from Nauen to Sayville, by Swedish diplomatic pouch to. Mexico City via Buenos Aires and to Washington by the American State Department, on whose neutrality the Germans thus monstrously imposed. The British radio intercepted it and a former Oxford Greek pro- fessor, turned code expert, is said to have de- coded it. Also the British in Mexico City got it by simply bribing some one in the telegraph office. To mislead the Germans the British started rumors that the American secret service Queer Tricks and Methods of World War Spics to Qutwit the Enemy. had got the note, even prompted London news- papers to criticize the British for letting the Americans beat them. Some say the Americans really did beat them —or at least tie them. American secret service got the Zimmermann note, too. State Depart- ment agents covering the Washington telegraph office got a message “that the Germans seemed excited about.” It was in a code changed only slightly from one that Ambassador von Bern- storff had deposited with the State Department at the outbreak of war, as evidence of good faith. Some German had forgotten that. The decoded message explained the German ex- citement. It was the Zimmermann note. And last, we hear that the ubiquitous note was intercepted still another time. The Ger- mans got their friends, the supposedly neutral Swedes, to send it to Minister von Eckhardt in Mexico City by way of Cuba and Buenos Aires in the Swedish diplomatic pouch, protected Notes of Art and Artists. Continued jrom Nineteenth Page ment. Primarily they are impressions, swiftly registered, of the spirit rather than of the sub- stance, of things seen. One, “A Bowl of Zin- nias,” is owned and lent by Mrs. Booth Tark- ington; another, blue morning glories in a gray pitcher, is coupled with the name of Margaret Deland—possibly from her garden. There is a very interesting bunch of Darwin tulips in & bowl; there are white peonies, gladioluses, petunias, anemones, California pop- pies—all, or almost all, as seen indoors, but in the full light of Summer sunshine. At the opening reception on Tuesday after- noon, April 1, Mrs. Archibald Hopkins pre- sided as hostess. FMNK TOWNSEND HUTCHENS, who has bhad s studio at the Powhatan Hotel for several weeks and who recently held an exhibi- tion at the Yorke Gallery, has just finished & three-quarter-length portrait of Mrs. Patrick Arthur Sweetser—One of the draw- ings by Violet Oakley, N. A., of League of Nations personalities. Mr. Sweetser was telephoning from the League head- quarters in Geneva to Raymond B. Fos- dick in New York, while the drawing J. Hurley. He has also painted Senator Pletcher of Florida and Mrs. Wilson, Mrs. Hurley's mother, and is at work now on a portrait of Mrs. Gertrude Semmes. The portrait of Mrs, Hurley shows her wear- ing evening dress and seated in a French chalir, apparently in her own home, the corner of a painting and a sconce with candles appearing as incidents on the wall which constitutes the background. The figure is extremely well posed, the expression alert and spirited, Tnno J. MORGAN of this city has just re- “" turned from Binghamton, N. Y.; where he gave & series of lectures on art, conducted a class in batik and gave a demonstration of monotype making, at the same time that he held an exhibition of bis work at the Bing- hamton Galleries. This exhibition included 30 paintings, 3 of which were sold at the opening. Mr. Morgan is to have a one-man show at the High Museum, Atlanta, during the coming Summer, a circuit of Southern States’ museums and galleries to follow. He is represented in the annual exhibition of the Southern States Art League, which opened at the Isaac Delgado Museum, in New Orleans, last week. T the Veerhoff Galleries this week and next are to be seen paintings and etchings by William' Lee-Hankey, an Englishman. Mr. Lee- Hankey is possibly better known in this coun- try as an etcher than as a painter, but the works mow on view at the Veerhoff Galleries evidence on his part a fine sense of color and equal facility in the handling of both mediums. The paintings shown are of English and French scenes. There is one very fine canvas depicting Rheims Cathedral; there is a charm- ing and unusual view, likewise, of a peninsula on the Cornish coast. Sometimes he paints somewhat in the manner of the Dutch school, but in other instances his works are essentially Prench in flavor. His color is fresh and cool, his effects pleasantly modulated in tone and atmosphere. These are pictures in which one finds reflected the elemental beauty of nature at her best—calm, smiling, untroubled. The little group of etchings by Mr. Lee- Hankey, which' hangs at the end of the gal- lery, is, however, of supreme interest. In these the master, the real artist, is at his best. Of the group most notable is a figure composition entitled, “The Chart.” Mr. Lee-Hankey is represented in the per- manent collections of the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the Luxembourg, the National Gallery, Budapest; the National Gallery of Canada, the National Gallery, Belfast; the National Museum, Barce- Jona; the National Gallery, Cape Colony, and other public collections. S PETER WAGNER of this city has, as usual, ° spent the late Winter and early Spring months in St. Petersburg, Fla., during which time an exhibition of his paintings was spon- sored by the St. Petersburg Art Club and at- tracted very general attention. A number of the paintings were sold, several of them to visit- ing artists, one of whom was George R. Barse of Katonah, N. Y. . Mr. Wagner has done much to create interest in art in St. Petersburg and has more than once represented the St. Petersburg Art Club as delegate to the annual convention of the American Federation of Arts.” His home, it will be remembered, is near Rockville, Md. It. was with great regret that local artists and art lovers learned this past week of the death of Cora Brooks, which occurred in Phil- adelphia, March 26, after a brief illnéss of pneumonia, . Miss Brooks was a member of the group kngwn as the Ten Philadelphia Painters and eahibited not only with the group, but individ- wally, at the Arts Club last year. No one oould have seen her paintings of still life and flowers without recognizing exceptional talent on the part of the painter. Her death closes what promised to be a notable career, THE Art Promoters’ Club announces a special exhibition of flower and still life paintings by Miss Elizabeth Muhlhofer, at the Cariton Hotel, beginning today and continuing for fortnight. . Yesterday afternoon.the club held a special exhibition of works of its members, from 4 to 7 o'clock, at the Carlton Hotel, too late, how- ever, to be reviewed in these columns, OUISE KIDDER SPARROW of this eity has recently completed portrait busts of Senator Thomas J. Walsh of Montana and of Miss Margaret Lambie, well known lawyer. She is at present executing a portrait bust of Justice Wendell P. Stafford. Dr. Austen Clark, curator of the Smithsonian Institution, will be her next subject. . ! A’r the Smithsonian Building, division of graphic arts, United States National Mu- seum, an exhibition of etchings by A. C. Webb opened on March 24 to continue to April 20. The Bond. By John Drinkwater. O far and well my gentleness Has walked among your coverts green, With your still wisdom to possess My weary brasn and gather in My thought from wmadness, as the bells Do beggared flocks from stormy fells. Now mute and careful shall 1 live Your constant alien to be? Or, as an honest fugitive, Lend love but sad security? O love, be brave, and bid me go In freedom still your bondfellow. " my messages. from search by international understanding. But in Cuba, the story goes, an American got wind of it, followed the German-Swedish ex- ample and violated the pouch’s sacred im- munity. After all, the news of the German proposal to Mexico and Japan was not an utter surprise to President Wilson. He had known since 1915 of a German plan to aid a Mexican invasion of Texas. Almost always success in intrigue hangs upon communications, LLIED control of the sea meant control of cables beneath, most of which converged on London. The British not only prevented or intercepted German communications, but ap- propriated trade secrets and business informa- tion. They would hold up a cabled order of one-non-British firm to another while a British firm was tipped off to bid. It was long before the innocent Americans suspected that. American cable censorship was under Navy, which checked every message. Some ‘- messages it passed immediately, some it passed but read later, some it held to read carefully, some it changed a little before passing, espe- cially if they mentioned numbers, and some never passed at all. During the Summer of 1918 naval censorship sometimes passed cables to suspect addresses in Switzerland, not despite but because of, the fact that they conveyed in- formation about our vast war preparations. That was to show the Germans the futility of fighting longer. & A favorite trick of cable or telegraphic censors was to hold up for a few days any and all messages from one country to another, no mat- ter how harmless. One allied authority said, “Any telegram whatsoever, even the simplest, “Forward 15 boxes of sardines” means “150th Regiment of Infantry is here,” or that “Sell 3,000 bgles in February " means “3,000 men arrived in February”? royalty and held up messages between a wealthy American woman and Queen. Sophie of Greece, ‘the Kaiser’s sister, who was on every allied suspect list. The messages were in English and seemed innocent, but the sergeant took no- Besides traveling messengers, cable and telee graph, especially where time was less important, came through Pontarlier. The Germans de« veloped secret inks, Secret writing fluids run from lemon juice and milk and water to those especially de~ veloped for secret service. Usually the writing is between the lines, on note-paper coarse and porous with a double coating, wet in water and dried with a linen cloth. In write ing, the paper must not be scratched, so & blunt, ball-pointed pen of gold or aluminum is from movements to urgent pleas like the following: “Here the police have their eye on me. Tell my wife never again to write me letters or poste cards with a German stamp. All correspond- ence should bear a Swiss stamp.” “Impossible to send other communications. ::nls"dmm. ‘T must leave the city without “Astonished, uneasy to have mo bl I 'appeal” to ‘your well that it led to another- supplies of secret ink, usuall ——— < E E : woman spy wore them on the train. On reach- ing safety, she somked them in warm- water and behold—invisible ink! They even wrote upon messengers’ skins. A thousand tricks of German spies were vent leaks of military information, with explanation« “Without intimate knowledge of the ingenuity with which seemingly trivial de- tails, when assembled, furnish information of highest importance, no one can presume to say what is or what is not military information. Picture post cards, poorly censored Iletters, found by intelligence officers, have furnished clues to puzling problems, and have even actually determined the results of battles.” Mr. Johnson tells inside facts of secret codes museddurlngm the World War, in The Star maga= e n Sunday. An unusually interesting chapter, you should not miss it. (Copyrieht. 1930.) e -