Death for Spies

France joined last week the growing list of European nations which prescribe the death penalty for peacetime espionage.

Five countries--Germany, Italy, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Rumania--now execute foreign spies. Soviet Russia uses the firing squad on her own nationals caught "wrecking" and spying, but sometimes lets foreigners off with prison sentences.

Illustrative of the growth of espionage in France is the fact that in 1932 only 16 spies were caught, that in 1934 a total of 95, 84 of them foreigners, were caught. During 1937 the number jumped to 150 for the Strasbourg area in Alsace alone and this year an average of nearly four spies a week, mainly German and Italian, have been detected near France's famed Maginot Line.

To watch the 3,000,000 foreigners in France a special mobile police of 40 chiefs, 215 detective inspectors was recently formed to reinforce the famed Deuxieme Bureau of the War Ministry, watchdog of French official secrets. Also the Minister of the Interior was empowered to expel or fix the residence of any foreigners. By decree last week Premier Edouard Daladier transferred espionage trials from civil tribunals to military and naval courts. The military law prescribes death for espionage; hence spies caught in the service of a foreign power, gathering information on inventions, manufactures, industrial methods, maps, documents or military plans, will hereafter go under the guillotine.

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