--- title: 'The Illustrated War News, 7 October 1914: "The Spy at Work", the innocent landscape "decoded"' url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/iwn-spy-at-work-landscape-code-1914/ description: A full-page drawing of a harbour, lettered for lighthouse, forts, town, railways and Admiralty buildings, shown as the plan 'decoded' from an… section: Collection --- [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/) **Content note:** Wartime British drawing and caption warning that enemy spies hide harbour plans in landscape sketches. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was) [![The Illustrated War News, 7 October 1914: "The Spy at Work", the innocent landscape "decoded"](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/iwn-spy-at-work-landscape-code-1914.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/iwn-spy-at-work-landscape-code-1914.jpg) # The Illustrated War News, 7 October 1914: "The Spy at Work", the innocent landscape "decoded" A full-page drawing of a harbour, lettered for lighthouse, forts, town, railways and Admiralty buildings, shown as the plan 'decoded' from an innocent-looking landscape sketch on the facing page. Tells: the closing line, 'Such is one of the many insidious devices of the spy ... and spies have been very active!', gives no case, count, date or source for the code or the spying, and asks readers to be alarmed. ## Text on the object Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked ``` THE ILLUSTRATED WAR NEWS, OCT. 7, 1914.—29 THE SPY AT WORK: THE INNOCENT LANDSCAPE AS "DECODED" BY THE ENEMY FOR WHOM THE DRAWING WAS MADE. [Continued.] Moreover, dark shading would become light, and vice versa, so that the portion of the landscape shaded dark would be "decoded" as representing water. The landscape, received by the spy's Government, is read in accordance with the code, and the result is a plan, as shown on the right-hand page, of the harbour and forts. The letters, which are merely inserted to help our readers, and would not, of course, appear on the plan, signify the following:—A. Lighthouse. BB. Forts. C. Town, or approximate area covered by buildings. D. Railways. E. Admiralty buildings or Town Hall. Such is one of the many insidious devices of the spy which, if successful, may cause the deaths of many brave defenders of their country, and spies have been very active! ``` Read from a 1600-pixel crop; clear. The drawing carries the letters A, B, C, D and E only. [← Berliner Tageblatt, evening edition, 22 September 1914: "Der Brand der Kathedrale von Reims"](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/berliner-tageblatt-reims-cathedral-1914/) [Australia has promised Britain 50,000 more men; will you help us keep that promise →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/australia-50000-more-men-1915/) ## Using the same techniques - [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers. - [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (Holy Roman Empire · 1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal) - [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling) - [Proclamation de Sonthonax en créole, Cap-Français (Proclamation of Commissioner Sonthonax in Creole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sonthonax-proclamation-creole-1793/) (France · Aug 29, 1793 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating). Content note: Colonial-era proclamation on slavery and emancipation in Saint-Domingue; speaks of slaves, whips and 'Nègues' in period terms. - [Gazette of the United States, "The Jeffersoniad" no. VIII, 14 August 1800](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gazette-us-jeffersoniad-1800/) (United States · Aug 14, 1800 · Name-calling, Fear appeal) - [Brolej Žemajčiaj! (Brothers Samogitians!): hand-painted broken-cross poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/brolej-zemajciaj-broken-cross-1862/) (Russian Empire · 1862 · Fear appeal, Transfer) - [豬叫取胎圖 (Picture of the Pig Sect Extracting a Foetus), from Reverently Obeying the Sacred Edict: A Complete Picture Gallery to Repel Heterodoxy](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/pig-cry-taking-foetus-hunan-1891/) (Qing China · 1891 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Colour woodblock caricature depicting foreign Christians as members of a 'pig' sect and showing them cutting a foetus from a woman; violence against a woman and derision of Christianity. - [The Radical Programme, No. 4: Dismemberment of the Empire (Gladstone & Co. auction India), St Stephen's Review Presentation Cartoon](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/radical-programme-selling-india-st-stephens-review-1891/) (United Kingdom · Oct 31, 1891 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating)