Jan, 28.
When Lady, the Germany spy, Was executed in London the other day, not a few people must have been uncomfortably conscious of admiration for him.
Their discomfort arose from a triental struggle between recognition of his bravery and dislike for the occupation which brought him to his end. The latter feeling is partly traditional, and. in so far as it is so, is wort! analysing. To what extent is one right in regarding the spy with the contempt which is almost invariably lavished on him? The question is by no means an easy one to answer. as anyone will admit who considers for a moment the accepted and honourable position held in society by the detective or the secret service agent. Everybody recognizes that both are necessary and nobody would throw stones at either of them. Yet both—the former, perhaps. to a greater extent than the: Jatter—continually traffic in de-celt. The first thing the detective has. like the spy, to do is to conceal his identity. Very frequently he is called upon to worm his way into a friendship. inst as the spy crawls into a up. and then to make use of the information which has been given to him for friends! sake. Similarly, the first thine the secret service man has to do to convince people that there is nothing secret about him. In fact, the more successfully he can' pose as a pleasant, frank nobody with only a modicum of intelligence. the more likely he is to achieve the purpose for which he is employed. Yet most people would congratulate themselves on being intimately acquainted with a leading representative of either of these professions. They would, for ex-have no hesitation in inviting their friends to meet him at dinner. They would feel rather, that they were ''in the swim" because they were able to do s0.
It is clear at the start, then, that in end to answer the question just raised one must distinguish between different classes of spies. Perhaps the easiest way of doing this is to take historical instances. Macky is a good one, so is Samuel Turner. Macky accompanied James LI into banishment in 1688 and then, whilst he was still at St. Germains and enjoying such comforts as the Jacobite Court afforded, transferred his service to William IIT. Samuel Turner, while thoroughly trusted by the United Irishmen, secretly visited Lord Downshire in London—mufiled in a cloak and wearing a slouch hat in true melodramatic fashion—and offered his services to the Government. Through him the principal Trish rebels were arrested and hanged. For purposes of contrast, let us set against these names two others, those of Major Lo Caro and McParlan. The—former gave away the Fenians and saved Canada from the second Fenian raid, the Intter—generally called McKenna—showed up the brotherhood of criminals in Pennsylvania known asthe "Molly Maguires."" Obvious differences divide these men, The first pair were actuated entirely by personal motives. They spied for profit only and with no desire to help anybody or anything bnt themselves. The second pair spied for a cause and rendered great services to the State in the process. It is true that all four indulged in develt of the most barefaced kind Major Lo Caron actually went so far as to take Fenian oaths; in other words, in the presence of men who trusted him, he swore by all that men hold sered that he would be worthy of the trust. Yet it is quite impossible to put all four men in the same class.
The fact helps us very considerably for it furnishes us with the all important test of motive by which to judge whether a spy is contemptible or not, It is because his motive is sound that the military spy, though shot at sight, is regarded at the same time as a brave and, therefore, as an honourable—man. Lady was just as deserving of respect as the ordinary German soldier who dies fighting in the trenches. Yet motive alone is not an all-sufficient test: the end does not always justify the means. The fact that a man is a spy does not entitle him to break all the rules of the game. What constitutes the difference between man like Lady, men like Ahlers and many others who, in spite of having adopted British nations! ity, have shown themselves prepared to serve the country of their origin at a time like this?
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.