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SECR3T WIRELESS.
Are There Any in Australia?
:c Did«i'ne V/6l£ Get Its
Information? ' - ;
Mrs. Mackenzie, who was ' stew-'
aidess of the ill-fated Matunga, has.á
word.or two to say of particular in-,
tcrest to Australians, says the writer
of the "Verandah" column of the Mel-
bourne- "Leader." She says, "The.
Wolff .was desperately in need'of coal:
Evidently she had been informed we
were taking 500 tons. She had waited
for us for five days." '
If the Wolff had been informed pf
this, there must 'have been an inform-
ant. From whom, then, did the Wolff's
captain derive his.knowledge?
. Is thc Spy in-Australia?-Is there
somewhere in this country a wirele?i
apparatus at v.-ork that might keep a
German rover in the Pacific aware of
all that is going on amongst Common-
wealth shipping. There is every like-
lihood af such being the case. What
one thinks of is a well-appointed wire-
less station in some out "of the way
place, among unfrequented hills, pro
hably, the operator being fed with in-
formation by contingents of, German
spies in Melbourne, Sydney and Bris-
bane.
There is nothing irrational in the
supposition. It would only be in ac-
cord with the proven "conduct of Ger-
mans in; other places. .Yet you find
everywhere in Australia a "disposition
to laugh at such suspicions as far-
fetched and melodramatic. . It has
.been demonstrated .a thousand times
'that' the Germans are not. to be
trusted, yet wc go on trusting them at
every turn. I have to admit that two
years ago I regarded as preposterous
the idea of every second German as
an agent of his. country, ferreting out
the interests of Germany, holding
nothing unimportant that seemed to
have the slightest bearing upon com-
mercial, military or maritime affairs;
to-day I would not trust a German as
far as I could throw him, and retain
confidence in few of those who are
not Germans, but who have had Gea
ínán educations, have been too much'
in/.touch' with Germans, and do not
hesitate to betray pro-German sym
oathies.
] have noticed particularly the zeal
with which' Germans and pro-Ger-
mans cultivate the acquaintance of
simple and confiding people who. have'
.any chance of success, however re-
mote, to information concerning ship-
ping movements, the coming" and go-
ing of transports, and the landing'* of
troops, supplies, etc. There is no ap-
proach' to astute people who would be:
likely to suspect such interest'on the
part of an enemy subject, but an in-
genious woman or á thoughtless.youth
who has a relative who is an officer
on a trading steamer, a transport, or
any kind of shop of war, finds her .(or
his) German acquaintances, if he (or,
she) have any-growing surprisingly
solicitous about so-and-so's health and
welfare, and unusually concerned with
regard to his peregrinations in the
seven seas. I have some grounds, too,
for thc suspicion that there arc young
Germans abroad, paying what cannot
be regarded as wholly disinterested at-
tention to the servants of people who
might'possibly drop trifles of valuable
information about the house. There
is a sayirig that a fool is more danger-
ous than a rogue-what we have most
to fear is thc combination of fools'and'
rogues; and among, the former you
Imay include, i?.you like, certain autho-
ritative persons who by hiding 'the
.'danger from thc people relieve them
from the necessity of paying any par-
ticular care or taking special precau-
tions; . .' ...
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