The Secret Service

THE SECRET SERVICE The secret service supplies information regarding matters be hind the enemy's front and in his home territory, including strength and location of reserves, rear defences and lines of com munication, internal conditions in the enemy's country and the state of his resources in man power and material.

Secret Service Methods.

The methods employed in this branch of intelligence work can only be referred to in general terms. Broadly speaking, : is duties are :—(r) Offensive, in the acquisition of information by means other than those described in Sections I. and II. above; (2) Defensive, in the prevention of the acquisition by foreign Powers of information regarding the forces of its own country.

The duties of the offensive section, to which alone the name of secret service is popularly applied, are similar in peace and war, but war increases the importance, and with it the difficulties and dangers of the work of secret agents or spies.

Agents work a poste fixe, on definite missions or on general roving commissions; they penetrate into enemy territory through the ports, in the guise of peaceful neutrals armed with all the necessary papers, or get there by other means, which in war in clude penetrating the enemy lines, either in uniform or mufti, during the progress of an action; landing behind them from an aeroplane or free balloon or crossing a frontier guarded by sentries and electrified wire. False papers, disguises, secret ink and all the other tricks beloved of the spy novel may form part of their equipment, but in practice, the most dangerous and efficient spy is the least sensational in his methods; when arrested he invariably has all his papers in order, and is the most plausible person alive. An espionage system in war involves the employment of many thousands of men, women and even children of all grades of so ciety and of all professions : post-boxes, smugglers, guides, train watchers, pigeon men, couriers, runners, etc. All have their part to play, and that part, far from being ignoble, may be, if actuated by patriotism, as noble, as dangerous and as heroic as any played in the armies in the field.

Contre-espionnage.

The duties of the defensive section, popularly described as contre-espionnage, are also the same in peace or war, but the machinery and methods vary when carried out in home territory, in occupied enemy or allied territory. The contre-espionnage section in home territory commands in peace and war all the assistance of trained police, censorship, port con trol, hotel registration, the erection of arbitrary barriers such as prohibited areas and of all the preventive measures which are the outcome of years of experience in combating enemy espionage under all conditions. In occupied territory, intelligence in the field equally enjoys these powers, and, in addition, the arbitrary powers of an occupying army, but the whole population is potentially hostile. In allied territory the difficulties are greater, as it is the ally who controls in his own home territory all the real preventive machinery.

The object of contre-espionnage is, first and foremost, pre vention. Information may be gained by the enemy's agents equally from one's own troops and from the civil population; the former may sell or convey information deliberately, but will more probably convey it to the enemy's agents through indiscretion. "Leakage" may occur in several ways; gossip about impending operations among the troops, especially when on leave and out of the line; indiscreet conversations, messages and misuse of code on field telephones and telegraph ; marking of railway trucks, transport and billets, with inscriptions giving identifications of units ; indiscretion in correspondence ; careless handling of con fidential papers and books; taking orders, codes, books, papers of any kind, even private letters into the front line; wearing of badges and numbers, which reveal identifications and in many other analogous ways.

The contre-espionnage section is also responsible for the control of the civil population. This involves the control of circulation, of the use of telegraph, telephone and other methods of com munication, which might be utilized by enemy agents.

(T. G. G. H.)