Salt Lake Tribune | 1914-05-03 | Page 15 | Spies Are Chased by Counter-Spies

SPIES ARE CHASED By COUIER-SPIES Epidemic of Espionage Grows to Be Annoying Comic Opera Affair. Special Cable to The Tribune. ODESSA, May 2. The southwestern provinces of Kicff, Podolia and Vol-hynia, Vol-hynia, and nearby districts in Austria, are suffering from an epidemic of spy mania. It would be ludicrous in the extremo were it not a real hindrance to the good relations which ought to pro-vail pro-vail between tho two countries. Tho cit3' of Kieff literally swarms with spies, counter-spies and "ageuts-provocatours." "ageuts-provocatours." J?alse and malicious denunciations de-nunciations are the order of the day. Numerous arrests aro daily and indiscriminately indis-criminately made. One batch of suspects sus-pects follow another into prison or guardhouse, only to bo released again in uuo and brief course after being subjected sub-jected to the searching interrogation of the examining magistrates. The railway rail-way linos running to the western frontier fron-tier arc crowded with secret, agents in all manner of disguises. That is to say. they are "pro forma" disguises, ana it is not considered good form to recognize recog-nize an acquaintance if ouo chances to meet him when ho obviously wishes to bo considered "disguised." Constant travelers of ordinary intelligence, however, how-ever, arojarely taken in. Tho railway personnel has, to a considerable con-siderable extent, becomo a volunteer and amateur detective force, and its extraordinary zeal not infrequently leads it into ridiculous contretemps. A correspondent expresses Mb personal i sympathy with tno Austro-Hungarian consul general in Kioff. Tho extromo aud pestering vigilance with which tho consul genoral of tho dual monarchy i8 watched by a horde o secrot agents is obviously calculated to render the consul general's life a burden to him. On tho Austrian (Galician) Bid of the frontier a similar state of tho moat elaborate espionage obtains. It ib espionage es-pionage run mad! "What, is at once the most absurd and annoying fcaturo of tho business ib tho way in which tho professional spies do-liberntoly do-liberntoly play up to ono another. Ono set will keep business brisk for their brethren on tho other Bido by getting up littlo plots for discovery, knowing that tho others will repay them later in tho same waj It is oven alleged that nt certain places thero arc recognized meeting places whero spies and counter-spies moet and exchange ideas. This is a great convenience for tho older men, who are not .equal to the general running run-ning about which becomes an alert agent, for they can make a sort of superannuation su-perannuation out of coaching tho youug-or youug-or men in the tricks of the business. A business it. certainly is, and in quite numerous instances an hereditary one. Humorists even have gone so far as lo suggest (hat tho profession is now so lucrative, so constant and so promising promis-ing in the way of development that it should bo systematized, and a chair of espionage established in the universities.