Open Season in Britain

In Sweden, Denmark and The Netherlands, several persons convicted of selling information about ship movements and defense works to one or other of the warring powers were sentenced last week as spies. Last fortnight, the French destroyer Forbin dramatically overhauled the Portuguese steamer Lima off Lisbon to lay hands on one Lola Schroeter, 20, wanted in Paris on spy charges. But World War II's greatest spy hunt was under way last week in Great Britain, pressed by Scotland Yard, the Army and Navy intelligence services and a special division of the Home Office.

From the swallowing-up of Austria (March 1938) until last September, Britain's gates were hospitably open to refugees from three countries now incorporated in her enemy, the Reich. Some 74,000 aliens took up residence in England, in all walks of life. Only casual tab was kept on them. Restrictions on their activities were slight. Among the harmless, pitiable many were a sly, scheming few who have since served the German cause by getting employment near military centres or in war industries. Britain's huge new spy hunt involves checking up on domestic servants, railroad, shipyard and hospital employes; on aliens who have started nightclubs in London's West End, where service men on leave, their tongues loosened on "bottle parties," are prone to speak too freely. As an example to tighten British tongues and defeat the spy system from that end, a court-martial in London last week deprived an unnamed naval officer of his commission for "careless talk."

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