How often have I seen one or other ofthese sirens—daughters of a foreign countess as their dupes have believed them to be—driving about London in private cars or in taxis, or supping at restaurants.
On a day in last November I found one of these interesting young ladies, dark-haired andchic—Parisienne, of course—enjoying a tête-à-tête luncheon at the Hut at Wisley, on the Ripley road, her cavalier being a man in khaki. I wondered what information she was trying to obtain. Yet what could I do? How could I act, and interrupt such a perfectly innocentdéjeuner à deux?
Yes, to the onlooker who knows, the manœuvres are all very intensely interesting, and would be most amusing, if they were not all so grimly and terribly tragic.
And who is to blame for all this? Would it be suffered in Germany?
The law of libel, and a dozen other different Acts, are suspended over the head of the unfortunate man who dares to risk ridicule and speak the truth. Therefore, with my own personal experience of the utter incapability of the Commissioner of Metropolitan Police to deal with spies, or even to reply to correspondence I have addressed to his hopeless department, and to the still greater discourtesy and amazing chaos existing in his ruling department, the Home Office, I ask myself whether it is of any use whateverto trouble, or even exert oneself further in the matter? It is for my readers,the public themselves, to demand the truth. The public are assuredly not blind to the fact that air raids have been made upon us directed by spies.
I can only address these serious words to my circle of readers throughout the Kingdom, and to make my bow, assuring them that while they were being gulled and bamboozled by those whom they have so foolishly trusted, I have, at personal loss to myself—which need not be counted—done my level best to counteract the evil which Germany has spread in our midst.
And my only request is that, by my works, constant and earnest as they have been, I may be judged.
CHAPTER IV
UNDER THE KAISER'S THUMB
Byevery subtle and underhand means in her power Germany has prepared for her supreme effort to conquer us.
Armies of her spies have swarmed, and still swarm, over Great Britain, though their presence has been, and is even to-day, officially denied.
The method adopted at the outset was to scatter secret agents broadcast, and to allot to each the collection of certain information. Men, and women too, in all walks of life have made observations, prepared plans, noted the number of horses locally, the fodder supplies, the direction of telegraph-lines, the quickest method of destroying communications, blowing up tunnels, etc.; in fact, any information which might be of use in the event of a raid upon our shores.
Each group of spies has acted under the direction of a secret-agent, termed a "fixed post," and all have been, in turn, visited at periods varying from one month to six weeks by a person not likely to be suspected—usually in the guise of commercial-traveller,debt-collector, or insurance-agent, who collected the reports and made payments—the usual stipend being ten pounds per month. Some spies in the higher walks of life were, of course, paid well, as much as one thousand pounds a year being given in one case—that of a lady who, until recently, lived in Kensington—and in another to a German who, until a few weeks ago, was highly popular in the diplomatic circle. The chief bureau, to which all reports from England were sent, was an innocent-looking office in the Montagne de la Cour, in Brussels—hence Ostend was so often made a rendezvous between spies and traitors.
It is certainly as well that the authorities have already taken precautions to guard our reservoirs. As far back as five years ago, a large number of the principal water supplies in England were reconnoitred by a band of itinerant musicians, who, though they played mournful airs in the streets, were really a group of very wide-awake German officers. They devoted three months to the metropolis—where they succeeded in making a complete plan of the water-mains supplying East London—and then afterwards visited Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham, Liverpool, Leeds, and Newcastle. At the latter place they were detected, and being warned by the authorities, fled. They were "warned" because at that time there was no Act to deal with them.
Just at this juncture a most fortunate incident occurred, though probably it will be met with an official denial. A young German who had been making observations around Rosyth and beneath the Forth Bridge, was detected, and fled. The police sought him out and he was compelled to again fly without paying his rent, leaving his suit-case behind. After a month the landlady took this bag to the police, who, on opening it, found a quantity of documents, which were sealed up and sent to London. They were soon found to be most instructive, for not only was there a list of names of persons hitherto unsuspected of espionage, but also a little book containing the secret code used by the spies! Needless to say, this has been of the greatest use to those engaged in the work of contra-espionage. Of the good work done by the latter, the public, of course, know nothing, but it may be stated that many a confidential report destined for Berlin was intercepted before it reached the spy's post-office, the shop of the barber Ernst, in London—to which I will later on refer—and many a judicious hint has been given which has caused the suspect to pack his, or her, belongings and return by the Hook of Holland route.
East Anglia has, of course, been the happy hunting ground of spies, and the counties of Lincoln, Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex have, long ago, been very thoroughly surveyed, andevery preparation made for a raid. It was found—as far back as four years ago—that next door, or in the vicinity of most village post-offices near the coast-line of those counties, a foreigner had taken up his residence, that German hairdressers and jewellers were everywhere setting up shops where custom did not warrant it; that Germans took sea-side furnished houses or went as paying guests in the country, even in winter; while, of course, the number of German waiters—usually passing as Austrians—had increased greatly.
When the Kaiser rented Highcliffe Castle, in Hampshire, under the pretext that he was ill, he brought with him no fewer than thirty secretaries. Why? A foreigner who comes here to recuperate does not want thirty secretaries—even though he may be an Emperor! Napoleon never wanted such a crowd of scribblers about him.
But the truth was that these thirty secretaries were engaged with their Imperial master-spy in reorganising and perfecting the various sections of his amazing spy-system in this country—a system that the British Government were with culpable untruthfulness declaring only existed in the imagination of a novelist—myself. I wrote pointing out this, but only execrations again fell upon my unfortunate head. I was laughed at as a "sensationalist," scorned by the Party of Criminal Apathy, and a dead set was madeat me by a certain section of the Press to jeer at, and crush myself and all my works into oblivion.
Let us go a step further. Mr. Anthony Nugent, who writes with considerable authority in theGlobe, shall here speak.
"The oddest situation in England," he says, "was just before the outbreak of the war. We had then, not only an Ambassador's cloak in London covering Prince Lichnowsky, but a real Ambassador in Herr Kühlmann, Companion of the Victorian Order. [I wonder if he still wears the honourable insignia?] The Ambassador was an honest man, and believed that he had a free hand in trying to improve our relations with Germany. He was only here to give us 'taffy'—as the Yankees say. All his speeches at Oxford and at City banquets were sincere enough from his point of view, but he knew nothing of what was going on in the Chancelleries at Berlin, or downstairs in the Embassy residence at Carlton House Terrace."Those who descend the Duke of York's steps in Pall Mall, will see a common, unpretentious door on the right hand side, part of the way down. That was one of the entrances to the Embassy, and quite a different class of people used it from those gay folk who came boldly in motor-cars to the front door, which sported the decoration of the Imperial eagle. It was by the lower door there passed the principals in the espionage system, and it was in the lower rooms that Herr Kühlmann interviewed his 'friends.' He was a tall, good-looking man, with a specious suggestion of being straightforward and open dealing, but probably there never was so tortuous-minded a person at the Embassy. He was there for many years, and knew all who were worth knowing. He it waswho furnished the reports on which the Emperor and the Crown Prince acted."Prince Lichnowsky, for instance, foresaw that in the event of war, the Unionists in Ulster would support the Government. Herr Kühlmann had sent over spies who masqueraded as journalists, and they came back from Belfast believing that civil war was inevitable. Herr Kühlmann accepted their view, and thus deceived the Kaiser and the German Chancellor. The same gentleman was much interested in the Indian movement, and I remember discussing with him the causes that led to the murder of a great Anglo-Indian official at the Imperial Institute. He was convinced that India was ripe for revolt. Again he deceived the Emperor on the subject. The German spy system was wide, and it was thorough, but its chief lacked imagination, and took niggling and petty views. In a word it is efficient in signalling, prying into arrangements, spreading false news, and securing minor successes, and that it can still do here, but had it realised how the whole world would be opposed to it, there would have been no war."
"The oddest situation in England," he says, "was just before the outbreak of the war. We had then, not only an Ambassador's cloak in London covering Prince Lichnowsky, but a real Ambassador in Herr Kühlmann, Companion of the Victorian Order. [I wonder if he still wears the honourable insignia?] The Ambassador was an honest man, and believed that he had a free hand in trying to improve our relations with Germany. He was only here to give us 'taffy'—as the Yankees say. All his speeches at Oxford and at City banquets were sincere enough from his point of view, but he knew nothing of what was going on in the Chancelleries at Berlin, or downstairs in the Embassy residence at Carlton House Terrace.
"Those who descend the Duke of York's steps in Pall Mall, will see a common, unpretentious door on the right hand side, part of the way down. That was one of the entrances to the Embassy, and quite a different class of people used it from those gay folk who came boldly in motor-cars to the front door, which sported the decoration of the Imperial eagle. It was by the lower door there passed the principals in the espionage system, and it was in the lower rooms that Herr Kühlmann interviewed his 'friends.' He was a tall, good-looking man, with a specious suggestion of being straightforward and open dealing, but probably there never was so tortuous-minded a person at the Embassy. He was there for many years, and knew all who were worth knowing. He it waswho furnished the reports on which the Emperor and the Crown Prince acted.
"Prince Lichnowsky, for instance, foresaw that in the event of war, the Unionists in Ulster would support the Government. Herr Kühlmann had sent over spies who masqueraded as journalists, and they came back from Belfast believing that civil war was inevitable. Herr Kühlmann accepted their view, and thus deceived the Kaiser and the German Chancellor. The same gentleman was much interested in the Indian movement, and I remember discussing with him the causes that led to the murder of a great Anglo-Indian official at the Imperial Institute. He was convinced that India was ripe for revolt. Again he deceived the Emperor on the subject. The German spy system was wide, and it was thorough, but its chief lacked imagination, and took niggling and petty views. In a word it is efficient in signalling, prying into arrangements, spreading false news, and securing minor successes, and that it can still do here, but had it realised how the whole world would be opposed to it, there would have been no war."
The gross licence extended to our alien enemies in peace-time has, surely, been little short of criminal. Fancy there having been a "German Officers' Club" in London, close to Piccadilly Circus! Could anyone imagine an "English Officers' Club" in Berlin—or in any other Continental capital, for the matter of that? In the first place, there would not have been a sufficient number of English officers to run a club, even if it had been allowed by the German authorities, which would have been most unlikely. But, on the other hand, there were enough Germanofficers in London, not only to support a club, but to give a large and expensive ball not very long ago at a well-known West End hotel!
Germany has a large army, and a considerable navy, but is leave lavished with such prodigality on her officers as to make it worth their while to have a special club of their own in the metropolis? One can hardly imagine this to be the case. Why, then, were there so many German officers in London? We may be sure that they were not here for the benefit ofourcountry. The German Officers' Club was no secret society, and was, therefore, winked at by the sleepy British authorities. The War Office may have argued that it enabled them to keep an eye on them, and there may be something in that plea. But what possible justification could have been found for allowing a considerable number of German officers to assemble near Southborough—between Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells—not so very long ago, and to carry out what practically amounted to a "Staff Ride" in the "Garden of England" over a very important strategic position? Fancy such a piece of espionage being attempted in Germany! It is even known that the German Ambassador dined with the officers in question.
Had the German Officers' Club been under observation, could this have possibly been done without the cognisance of the authorities?The authorities knew of all that was in progress, but calmly looked on, and, as usual, did nothing. The downfall of England was being plotted, but what did they care, so long as all went smoothly and they enjoyed their own social standing and their own emoluments.
There is an air of refreshing candour and simplicity in the official statement that no alien enemy is permitted to reside in a prohibited area without a special licence granted, after his case has been carefully examined, by the police.
Now, we know that proprietors and managers of hotels and licensed premises, as well as prominent residents, are usually on good terms with the police. It would surely be to their interest to cultivate good relations with them. And as the Lord Chancellor has assured us that the Germans are people of "greater astuteness," it is only reasonable to suppose they would be particularly careful to entrust their spying work in this country to only the smartest and most crafty emissaries.
One can imagine that a really clever German spy "bent on business" has had but very little difficulty in hoodwinking the honest man in blue, and obtaining from him the "permit" required for his signalling, or other work on the coast.
The experiences of the last four months at Liége, Antwerp, Mons, Rheims, Ypres, andother places, has taught us that it is not always the alien who is the spy. In each of those towns men who had lived for years as highly respectable and law-abiding citizens, and whom everyone believed to be French or Belgian, suddenly revealed themselves as secret agents of the invaders, acting as their guides, and committing all sorts of outrages.
In our own country it is the same. There are to-day many who have lived among us for years, and are highly respected, only waiting for the signal to be given to commence their operations.
It is true that bombs from German air machines have been dropped on English ground—one fell in a garden at Dover and damaged a cabbage, or maybe two—also that Zeppelins flew over Norfolk and dropped bombs, but so far no air fleet from Germany has given the signal for German spies to start their arranged work of destruction in our midst, for the enemy has declared with its usual cynical frankness that their army of spies will only start their dastardly work when all is ready for the raid and the fleet of Zeppelins sail over London and give the signal.
CHAPTER V
HOW SPIES WORK
TheGerman spy system, as established in England, may be classified under various heads—military, naval, diplomatic, and also theagents provocateurs, those hirelings of Germany who have, of late, been so diligent in stirring up sedition in Ireland, and who, since the war began, have endeavoured, though not successfully, to engineer a strike of seamen at Liverpool and a coal strike.
First, every German resident in this country may be classed as a spy, for he is, at all times, ready to assist in the work of the official secret-agents of the Fatherland.
The military spy is usually a man who has received thorough instruction in sketching, photography, and in the drafting of reports, and on arrival here, has probably set up in business in a small garrison town. The trade of jeweller and watchmaker is one of the most favoured disguises, for the spy can rent a small shop, and though he cannot repair watches himself, he can engage an unsuspecting assistant to do so. Therefore, to all intents and purposes, his business is a legitimate one. If he is a devout church orchapel-goer, and subscribes modestly to the local charities, he will soon become known, and will quickly number among his friends some military men from whom he can obtain information regarding movements of troops, and a-thousand-and-one military details, all of which he notes carefully in his reports, the latter being collected by a "traveller in jewellery," who visits him at regular intervals, and who makes payment in exchange.
Every report going out of Great Britain is carefully tabulated and indexed by a marvellous system in Berlin. These, in turn, are compared, analysed and checked by experts, so that, at last, the information received is passed as accurate, and is then indexed for reference.
Now the military spy also keeps his eyes and ears open regarding the officers of the garrison. If an officer is in financial difficulties, the fact is sent forward, and some money-lender in London will most certainly come to his assistance and thus ingratiate himself as his "friend." Again, there are wives of officers who are sometimes a little indiscreet, and in more than one known case blackmail has been levied upon the unfortunate woman, and then, suddenly, an easy way out of it all has been craftily revealed to her by a blackguard in German pay.
From the wide-spread secret-service of Germany, nothing is sacred. The German General Staff laughs at our apathy, and boasts that it knows all about us, the military and civilpopulation alike. In the archives of its Intelligence Department there are thousands upon thousands of detailed reports—furnished constantly throughout the past ten years—regarding the lives and means of prominent persons in England, with descriptions of their homes wherein, one day, the enemy hope to billet their troops.
These unscrupulous men who act as "fixed-posts"—and it is no exaggeration to say that there are still hundreds in England alone, notwithstanding all official assurances to the contrary—have all gone through an elaborate system of training in signalling, in reducing messages to code, and in decoding them, in map-making, in the use of carrier-pigeons, and, in some cases, in the use of secret wireless.
The naval spy works in a somewhat similar manner to his military colleague. At every naval port in Great Britain it is quite safe to assume that there are spies actively carrying on their work, though it is quite true that one or two, who have long been under suspicion, have now found it wise to disappear into oblivion. A favourite guise of the spy in a naval port is, it seems, to pose as a hairdresser, for in pursuance of that humble and most honourable calling, the secret agent has many opportunities to chat with his customers, and thus learn a good deal of what is in progress in both port and dockyard: what ships are putting to sea, and the strength and dispositions of various divisionsof our navy. Cases in recent years of spies at Portsmouth, Chatham, and Plymouth have revealed how active Germany has been in this direction.
In one case, at Plymouth, a salary of £500 a year was offered to a Mr. Duff for information regarding naval matters, on the pretext that this information was required by a Naval and Military journal in Germany. Mr. Duff, however, communicated with the authorities, who promptly arrested the spy—a man named Schulz, who lived on a yacht on the river Yealm. He was tried at the Devon Assizes and, certain documents being found upon him, he was sentenced to a year and nine months' imprisonment. What, we wonder, would have been his fate if he had been British, and had been arrested in Germany?
Of diplomatic espionage little need be said in these pages. Every nation has its secret service in diplomacy, a service rendered necessary perhaps by the diplomatic juggling of unscrupulous representatives of various nations. Many diplomatic spies are women moving in the best society, and such persons abound in every capital in the world.
The means of communication between the spy and his employers are several. Innocent sketches may be made of woodland scenery, with a picturesque windmill and cottage in the foreground, and woods in the distance. Yet this, when decoded in Berlin—the old windmill representing a lighthouse, the treesa distant town, and so forth—will be found to be an elaborate plan of a harbour showing the disposition of the mines in its channel!
Again, there are codes in dozens of different forms of letters or figures with various combinations, key-numbers, cross-readings, etc. There is the three-figure code, the five-figure code, and so on, all of which, though difficult, can, if sufficient time be spent upon them, be eventually deciphered by those accustomed to dealing with such problems.
Far more difficult to decipher, however, are communications written as perfectly innocent ordinary correspondence upon trade or other matters, yet, by certain expressions, and by mentioning certain names, objects, or prices, they can be rightly read only by the person with whom those meanings have been prearranged.
From the daring movements of the German Fleet in the North Sea it would appear that, through spies, the enemy are well aware of the limit and position of our mine-fields, while the position of every buoy is certainly known. When the first attack was made upon Yarmouth, the enemy took his range from certain buoys, and the reason the shells fell short was that only the day before those buoys had been moved a mile further out to sea.
Again, for many years—indeed, until I called public attention to the matter—foreign pilots were allowed to ply their profession in the Humber, and by that means we may rest assured that Germany made many surveys of our East Coast.
The spies of Germany are to be found everywhere, yet the Home Office and the police have shown themselves quite incapable of dealing effectively with them. The War Office, under the excellent administration of Lord Kitchener, has surely been busy enough with military matters, and has had no time to deal with the enemy in our midst. Neither has the Admiralty. Therefore the blame must rest upon the Home Office, who, instead of dealing with the question with a firm and drastic hand, actually issued a communiqué declaring that the spy peril no longer existed!
As an illustration of Germany's subtle preparations in the countries she intends to conquer, and as a warning to us here in Great Britain, surely nothing can be more illuminating than the following, written by a special correspondent of theTimeswith the French Army near Rheims. That journal—with theDaily Mail—has always been keenly alive to the alien peril in England, and its correspondent wrote:—
"Nowhere else in France have the Germans so thoroughly prepared their invasion as they did in Champagne, which they hoped to make theirs. In the opinion of the inhabitants of Épernay, the saving of the town from violent pillage is only due to the desire of the Germans not to ravage a country which they regarded as being already German soil. The wanton bombardment of Rheims is accepted almost with delight, as being a clear indication that the enemy has been awakened by the battle of the Marne from those pleasant dreams of conquest which inflamed the whole German nation with enthusiasm at the outset of the war."The spy system thought out in time of peace in preparation for what is happening to-day has served Germany well, and every day the accuracy of German gunfire pays a tribute to the zeal and efficiency with which these loathsome individuals accomplish a task for which they have sold their honour as Frenchmen. Hardly a week passes without some fresh discovery being made. At the headquarters of the different army corps along this section of the front, hardly a day passes without the arrest and examination of suspect peasants or strangers from other provinces. Elaborate underground telephone installations have been discovered and destroyed."One day a gendarme who wished to water his horse approached a well in the garden of an abandoned house. At the bottom of the well there was not truth but treason. Comfortably installed in this disused shaft a German spy was engaged in making his report by telephone to the German Intelligence Department."The mentality of the spy can never be explained, for how can one account for the mixture of the fine quality of bravery and the despicable greed of money which will keep a man in a city like Rheims, exposed every hour of the day and night to death from the splinter of a shell fired at the town by his own paymasters? I do not suggest for a moment that of the 20,000 people who still inhabit the town of Rheims and its cellars there is any large proportion of traitorous spies, but to the French Intelligence Department there is no question whatsoever that there is still a very efficient spying organisation at work in the city."
"Nowhere else in France have the Germans so thoroughly prepared their invasion as they did in Champagne, which they hoped to make theirs. In the opinion of the inhabitants of Épernay, the saving of the town from violent pillage is only due to the desire of the Germans not to ravage a country which they regarded as being already German soil. The wanton bombardment of Rheims is accepted almost with delight, as being a clear indication that the enemy has been awakened by the battle of the Marne from those pleasant dreams of conquest which inflamed the whole German nation with enthusiasm at the outset of the war.
"The spy system thought out in time of peace in preparation for what is happening to-day has served Germany well, and every day the accuracy of German gunfire pays a tribute to the zeal and efficiency with which these loathsome individuals accomplish a task for which they have sold their honour as Frenchmen. Hardly a week passes without some fresh discovery being made. At the headquarters of the different army corps along this section of the front, hardly a day passes without the arrest and examination of suspect peasants or strangers from other provinces. Elaborate underground telephone installations have been discovered and destroyed.
"One day a gendarme who wished to water his horse approached a well in the garden of an abandoned house. At the bottom of the well there was not truth but treason. Comfortably installed in this disused shaft a German spy was engaged in making his report by telephone to the German Intelligence Department.
"The mentality of the spy can never be explained, for how can one account for the mixture of the fine quality of bravery and the despicable greed of money which will keep a man in a city like Rheims, exposed every hour of the day and night to death from the splinter of a shell fired at the town by his own paymasters? I do not suggest for a moment that of the 20,000 people who still inhabit the town of Rheims and its cellars there is any large proportion of traitorous spies, but to the French Intelligence Department there is no question whatsoever that there is still a very efficient spying organisation at work in the city."
Among us here in Great Britain, I repeat, are men—hundreds of them—who are daily, nay hourly, plotting our downfall, and are awaiting the signal to act as the German General Staff has arranged that they shallact. To attempt to disguise the fact longer is useless. We have lived in the fool's paradise which the Government prepared for us long enough. We were assured that there would be no war. But war has come, and thousands of the precious lives of our gallant lads have been lost—and thousands more will yet be lost.
We cannot trust the German tradesman who has even lived long among us apparently honourable and highly respected. A case in point is that of a man who, for the past twenty-six years, has carried on a prosperous business in the North of London. At the outbreak of war he registered himself as an alien, and one day asked the police for a permit to travel beyond the regulation five miles in order to attend a concert. He was watched, and it was found that, instead of going to the concert, he had travelled in an opposite direction, where he had met and conferred with a number of his compatriots who were evidently secret agents. This is but one illustration of many known cases in the Metropolis.
Can we still close our eyes to what Germany intends to do? The Government knew the enemy's intentions when, in 1908, there was placed before them the Emperor's speech, which I have already reproduced.
Perhaps it may not be uninteresting if I recount how I myself was approached by the German General Staff—and I believe others must have been approached in a like manner.The incident only serves to show the "astuteness"—as Lord Haldane has so well put it—of our enemies.
One day, in September, 1910, I received through a mutual friend, a lady, an invitation to dine at the house of a prominent official at the War Office, who, in his note to me, declared that he had greatly admired my patriotism, and asked me to dineen familleone Sunday evening. I accepted the invitation, and went. The official's name, I may here say, figures often in your daily newspapers to-day. To my great surprise, I found among the guests the German Ambassador, the Chancellor of the Embassy, the Military and Naval Attachés with their ladies, and several popular actors and actresses.
In a corner of the drawing-room after dinner, I found myself chatting with a German Attaché, who turned the conversation upon my anti-German writings. By his invitation, I met him at his club next day. He entertained me to an expensive luncheon, and then suddenly laughed at me for what he termed my misguided propaganda.
"There will be no war between your country and mine," he assured me. "You are so very foolish, my dear Mr. Le Queux. You will ruin your reputation by these fixed ideas of yours. Why not change them? We desire no quarrel with Great Britain, but we, of course, realise that you are doing what you consider to be your duty."
"Itismy duty," I responded.
My diplomatic friend sucked at his cigar, and laughed.
"As a literary man you, of course, write to interest the public. But you would interest your public just aseasilyby writing infavourof Germany—and, I tell you that we should quickly recognise the favour you do us—and recompense you for it."
I rose from my chair.
I confess that I grew angry, and I told him what was in my mind.
I gave him a message to his own Secret Service, in Berlin, which was very terse and to the point, and then I left the room.
But that was not all. I instituted inquiries regarding the official at the War Office who had been the means of introducing us, and within a fortnight that official—whose dealings with the enemy were proved to be suspicious—was relieved of his post.
I give this as one single instance of the cunning manner in which the German Secret Service have endeavoured to nobble and bribe me, so as to close my mouth and thus combat my activity.
Another instance was when the Norddeutscher Lloyd Line, of Bremen, kindly invited me to take a voyage round the world, free of expense, so that I might visit the various German colonies and write some descriptions of them. And, on a third occasion, German diplomats were amazingly kind to me, both in Constantinople and in Belgrade,and again broadly hinted at their readiness to win me over to their side.
How pitiable, how absolutely criminal our apathy has been!
Do not the souls of a million dead upon the battlefields of France and Belgium rise against the plotters to-day? Does not the onus of the frightful loss of the flower of our dear lads lie, not upon our four-hundred-a-year legislators, but upon some of the golfing, dividend-seeking, pushful men who have ruled our country through the past ten years?
Without politics, as I am, I here wish to pay a tribute—the tribute which the whole nation should pay—to Mr. Lloyd George and his advisers, who came in for so much adverse criticism before the war. I declare as my opinion—an opinion which millions share—that the manner in which the Chancellor of the Exchequer faced and grappled with the financial situation at the outbreak of war, was an illustration of British pluck, of coolness and of readiness that is unequalled in our history. The poor suffered nothing, and to-day—even though we are struggling for our very existence—we hear not a word of that winter-cry "The Unemployed."
I trust, therefore, that the reader will find my outspoken criticisms just, and perfectly without prejudice, for, as I have already stated, my only feeling is one of pure patriotism towards my King and the country that gave me birth.
Though I am beyond the age-limit to servein the Army, it is in defence of my King and country, and in order to reveal the naked truth to a public which has so long been pitiably bamboozled and reassured, that I have ventured to pen this plain, serious, and straightforward indictment, which no amount of official juggling can ever disprove.
CHAPTER VI
SOME METHODS OF SECRET AGENTS
Someof the cases of espionage within my own knowledge—and into many of them I have myself made discreet inquiry—may not prove uninteresting. Foreign governesses, usually a hard-worked and poorly-paid class, are often in a position to furnish important information, and very serious cases have recently been proved against them. These young women have lived in the intimacy of the homes of men of every grade, Cabinet Ministers, Members of Parliament, financiers, officers of both Services, and officials of every class. By the very nature of their duties, and their extreme intimacy with their employers, they are, naturally, in a position to gather much valuable information, and often even to get sight of their employers' correspondence, which can easily be noted and handed over to the proper quarter for transmission to Berlin.
Here is a case already reported by me. Not very long ago, in the service of a very well-known Member of Parliament living in Essex, lived a clever, good-looking, and intensely musical young German governess,who was regarded by the Member's wife as "a perfect treasure," and who took the greatest interest in her two little charges. For over two years Fräulein had been in the service of this pleasant household, being, of course, regarded as "one of the family."
In the grounds of the big country house in question was a secluded summer-house, and here Fräulein was in the habit of reading alone, and writing her letters. One hot summer's afternoon she had gone there as usual, when about an hour later one of the under-gardeners, in passing, saw her lying back in her chair unconscious. She had been seized with a fit. He raised the alarm, she was carried back to the house, and the doctor was at once telephoned for.
Meanwhile her mistress, greatly alarmed, went out to the summer-house in order to see whether her unconsciousness could be accounted for. Upon the table she noticed a number of documents which did not appear to be letters which a governess might receive, and, on examination, she found to her dismay that, not only were they carefully-written reports of conversations between her husband and a certain Cabinet Minister who had been their guest during the previous week-end, but there were also copies of several confidential letters from one of the Government departments to her husband. That the girl was a clever and most dangerous spy was at once proved, yet, rather than there should be anyunpleasant publicity, the girl was, that same night, packed off unceremoniously across to the Hook of Holland.
In another instance a German governess in the employ of an officer's wife at Chatham was discovered endeavouring to obtain confidential information; and in a third, at Plymouth, a charming young lady was caught red-handed.
These three glaring cases are within my own knowledge; therefore, there probably have been many others where, after detection, the girls have been summarily dismissed by their employers, who, naturally, have hesitated to court publicity by prosecution.
It therefore behoves everyone employing a foreign governess—and more especially anyone occupying an official position—to be alert and wary. Many of these young ladies are known to have been trained for the dastardly work which they have been so successfully carrying out, and, while posing as loyal and dutiful servants of their employers, and eating at their tables, they have been listening attentively to their secrets.
We have, of late, been told a good deal of the danger of secret agents among the alien staffs of hotels, and, in deference to public opinion, the authorities have cleared our hotels of all Germans and Austrians. Though holding no brief for the alien servant, I must say, at once, that I have never known one single instance of a hotel servant of lower grade being actually proved to be a secretagent. It is a fact, however, that among the hall-porters of some of the principal hotels were, until the outbreak of war, several well-known spies. The class of person who is much more dangerous is the so-called "naturalised" alien. Among these are, no doubt, spies, men who have long ago taken out naturalisation papers for the sole purpose of blinding us, and of being afforded opportunities to pursue their nefarious calling. To-day, while thousands of men who have for years worked hard for a living are in idleness in detention camps, these gentry are free to move about where they will because they are so-called British subjects.
Surely the heart of a German is always German, just as the heart of a true-born Briton is always British, whatever papers he may sign. I contend that every German who has been "naturalised" during the last seven years should be treated as other aliens are treated, and we should then be nearer the end of the spy-peril.
"Naturalised" foreign baronets, financiers, merchants, ship-owners, and persons of both sexes of high social standing, constitute a very grave peril in our midst, though Mr. McKenna has not yet appeared to have awakened to it, even though the Press and the public are, happily, no longer blind to the German preparations. In the month of November, while spies were being reported in hundreds by the public themselves, the Home Office was actually engaged in holdingan inquiryinto whether there had really been any atrocities committed by the German soldiery in Belgium! And I was officially asked to assist in this!
As far as can be gathered from Mr. McKenna's reply in November to the Parliamentary attack on the methods of dealing with the spy peril, the position was still a most unsatisfactory one. Though he admitted that we still have 27,000 enemy aliens at large among us, nobody is assumed to be a spy unless he is an unnaturalised German. Even if he fulfils this condition, he is then to be caught "in the act" of spying, or if really strong suspicion be aroused, some evidence against him may be "looked for." But until this is "found," and so long as he complies with the posted-up registration orders, etc., he may continue unmolested. In short, after the steed is stolen, our stable door may be shut.
One sighs in despair. Could anything be more hopeless? If the matter were not so very serious, the position would be Gilbertian in its comedy.
Though we are at war, our sons being shot down and our national existence threatened, yet there is yet another very strong factor in favour of the German spy. According to Mr. McKenna, he himself is only responsible for the London district, while elsewhere the County Constabulary, under the Chief Constables of Counties, are "to pay every attention to representations of the naval andmilitary authorities," in the matter of hostile espionage.[2]
This strikes me as one of the finest examples of "how not to do it" that we have heard of for some time, and it must indeed be a source of delight to the secret "enemy within our gates." Fancy such a ridiculous regulation in Germany!
Of some of the hundreds of cases of undoubted espionage which have been brought to my notice since the outbreak of war, I will enumerate a few.
One was that of two Germans who—posing as Poles—rented a large country house at £150 a year, bought a quantity of furniture, and settled down to a quiet life. The house in question was situated at a very important point on the main London and North Western Railway, and the grounds ran down to a viaduct which, if destroyed, would cut off a most important line of communication. The suspicion of a neighbour was aroused. He informed the police, and a constablein full uniformbegan to make inquiries of the neighbours, the result being that the interesting pair left the house one night, and have not since been seen.
Outside London, the county constabulary are making praiseworthy efforts to find spies, but when men in uniform set out to make inquiries—as they unfortunately do in so many cases—then the system becomes hopeless.
The same thing happened in a small coast town in Norfolk where signalling at night had been noticed. Indeed, in two instances in the same town, and again in Dunbar, the appearance of the police inspector caused the flight of the spies—as undoubtedly they were.
As regards the county of Norfolk, it has long received the most careful attention of German secret agents. At the outbreak of war the Chief Constable, Major Egbert Napier, with commendable patriotism, devoted all his energies to the ferreting out of suspicious characters, spies who were no doubt settled near and on the coast in readiness to assist the enemy in case of an attempted landing. By Major Napier's untiring efforts a very large area has been cleared, more especially from Cromer along by Sheringham, Weybourne—a particularly vulnerable point—and from Cley-next-the-Sea to Wells and King's Lynn.
Major Napier engaged, at my instigation, a well-known detective-officer who, for some years, had been engaged at the Criminal Investigation Department at New Scotland Yard, specially attached to deal with German criminals for extradition back to Germany. He was a Russian, naturalised English, and spoke German perfectly, being born in Riga—and an ideal officer to inquire into the whole German spy system in Norfolk.
Well, after Major Napier had asked him to go forth on his mission, I saw him and wished him all success. Within a fortnight this shrewd officer returned to me with a hopeless story. Wherever he went the Coastguard refused to tell him anything, or any of their suspicions, as they said they were sworn to secrecy, while the superintendents and inspectors of the Norfolk Constabulary—with few exceptions—even though he bore proper credentials signed by the Chief Constable himself, actuallyrefused to give him any assistance or information whatsoever!
This keen and clever detective-officer returned to the Chief Constable of Norfolk and told him that he was certain spies still existed along the coast, but expressed regret at the hopeless state of affairs.
If any Government authority would like to question the officer upon his experiences, I shall be pleased to furnish that department with his private address.
I had a curious experience myself in Norfolk.
In a field, high upon the cliff between Cromer and Runton, I last year established a high-power wireless installation. When in working order—with a receiving range of 1,500 miles or more, according to atmospheric conditions—I allowed visitors to inspect it. There came along certain inquisitive persons with a slight accent in their speech, and ofthese I believe no fewer than eight are now interned. It formed quite an interesting trap for spies!
From the great mass of authentic reports of German spies lying before me as I write, it is difficult to single out one case more illuminating than another.
It may perhaps be of interest, however, to know that I was the first to report to the authorities a secret store of German arms and ammunition in London, afterwards removed, and subsequently seized after the outbreak of war. Other stores have, it is said, been found in various parts of the country, the secrets of which, of course, have never been allowed to leak out to the public, for fear of creating alarm.
That secret stores of petrol, in readiness for that raid upon us by Zeppelins which Germany has so long promised, have been thought to exist in Scotland, is shown by the reward of £100, offered by the Commander-in-Chief in Scotland for any information leading to the discovery of any such bases.
But in connection with this, the situation is really most ludicrous. Though, on November 8th, 1914, a London newspaper reproduced a copy of the poster offering the reward—a poster exhibited upon hoardings all over Scotland—yet the Press Censor actually issued to the London Press orders to suppress all fact or comment concerning it! We may surely ask why? If Scotland is told the truth, why may not England know it?
Between Rye and Winchelsea of late, on four occasions, people have been detected flashing lights from the most seaward point between those places to German submarines. In fact, two of the spies actually had the audacity to build a shanty from which they signalled! This matter was promptly reported by certain residents in the locality to the Dover military authorities, but they replied that it was "out of their division." Then they reported to the Admiralty, but only received the usual typewritten "thanks" in these terms:—
"The Director of the Intelligence Division presents to Mr. —— his compliments, and begs to acknowledge with thanks the receipt of his letter of ——."Admiralty War Staff: Intelligence Division."
"The Director of the Intelligence Division presents to Mr. —— his compliments, and begs to acknowledge with thanks the receipt of his letter of ——.
"Admiralty War Staff: Intelligence Division."
Now what happened?
Early in the morning of December 10th, in the midst of a thick hazy rain, half-a-dozen German submarines are reported to have made a daring dash for the western entrance of Dover Harbour, where several of our warships were lying at anchor. Fortunately they were discovered by men working the searchlights, heavy guns were turned upon them, and one submarine, if not more, was sunk. We have to thank spies in the vicinity for this attempt, in which we so narrowly escaped disaster. If not through spies, how could the enemy have known that, just at the time the attack was made, Doverwas without its boom-defence? And the question arises whether the spies were those detected near Rye?
In all probability there exists somewhere in the neighbourhood a secret wireless station sufficiently powerful to send intelligence say five miles to sea by day, and double that distance at night. By this means the enemy's submarines could easily learn the truth. Therefore the authorities should lose no time in making domiciliary visits to any house where a suspect may be living.
And if secret wireless exists near Dover, then there may be—as there probably are, since small wireless stations are not costly to fit up, and could, till the outbreak of war, be purchased without arousing the least suspicion—other stations in the vicinity of other of our naval bases, the peril of which will easily be recognised.
The replies by the Admiralty to persons who give information are curt and unsatisfactory enough, yet if a resident in the Metropolitan area writes to the Chief Commissioner of Police upon a serious matter concerning espionage—he willnot even receive the courtesy of a reply! At least, that has been my own experience. It is appalling to think that the authorities are so utterly incapable of dealing with the situation to-day, even though our men are laying down their lives for us, and fighting as only Britons can fight.
Existence of carefully-prepared concreteemplacements, in readiness for the huge German Krupp guns, has been reported to me from a dozen different quarters—sometimes they are concealed in the form of a concrete carriage-drive, in others as a tennis-court, or a yard enclosed by stables. Workmen who have actually been employed in laying them down, and have given me the enormous thicknesses of the concrete used, have communicated with me, and indicated where these long-considered preparations of the enemy are to-day to be found.
But as it is nobody's business, and as Mr. McKenna has assured us that we are quite safe, and that the spy-peril has been snuffed-out, the position is here again hopeless, and we are compelled to live daily upon the edge of a volcano.
Oh! when will England rub her eyes and awaken?
As events have proved in Belgium and France, so here, in our own dear country, I fear we have spies in every department of the public service. I say boldly, without fear of contradiction—that if our apathetic Home Department continues to close its eyes as it is now doing, we shall be very rudely stirred up one day when the Zeppelins come in force—as the authorities fear by the darkening of London. From the lessons taught us in France, I fear that in every department of our public services, the post-office, the railways, the docks, the electric generating-stations, in our arsenals, in our governmentfactories, and among those executing certain government contracts—everywhere, from Wick to Walmer—the spy still exists, and he is merely awaiting the signal of his masters to strike: to blow up bridges and tunnels, to destroy water-supplies, docks, power-stations and wireless-stations: to cut telegraphs and telephones, and to create panic—a sudden and fearful panic—which it would be to the interest of the invaders to create.
At my suggestion the Postmaster-General, at the outbreak of war, ordered each letter-carrier in the Kingdom to prepare lists of foreigners on their "walk," and upon those lists hundreds of arrests of aliens took place. No doubt many spies were "rounded-up" by this process, but alas! many still remain, sufficient of the "naturalised,"—even those "naturalised" after the war,—to form a very efficient advance-guard to our invading enemy, who hate us with such a deadly, undying hatred.
If Zeppelins are to raid us successfully they must have secret bases for the supply of petrol for their return journey. Such bases can only be established in out-of-the-way places where, on descending, air-craft would not be fired upon. The moors, those of Yorkshire, Dartmoor, and certain districts of Scotland and the Lake Country, are admirably adapted for this purpose, for there are spots which could easily be recognised from the air—by the direction of the roads, running likeribbons across the heather—where considerable stores could easily be secreted without anyone being the wiser.
This is a petrol war, and if any raid is attempted upon the country, petrol will be wanted in great quantities by the enemy. Is it not, therefore, with our knowledge of Germany's long-completed preparations at Maubeuge, Antwerp, along the heights of the Aisne, and in other places, quite safe to assume that considerable—even greater—preparations have already been made in our own country—made in the days when the British public were lulled to sleep by the Judas-like assurances of the Kaiser and his friendly visits to our King, and when any honest attempt to lift the veil was met with abuse and derision. If we assume that preparations have been made, it is, surely, our duty to now discover them.
Petrol and ammunition are the two things which the enemy will want if they dare to attempt a dash upon our coast. Therefore it would be very wise for the authorities to make a house-to-house visitation, and search from garret to cellar all premises until lately occupied by aliens in the Eastern Counties, and all houses still occupied by "naturalised" foreigners, who, if they were honestly "British subjects" as they declare, could not possibly object.
There are many licensed premises, too, held by the "naturalised," and the cellars of these should certainly be searched. Hundreds of"naturalised" Germans and Austrians are living—immune from even suspicion. They are of all grades, from watchmakers and hotel-keepers to wealthy financiers.
If only the Government would deal with the "naturalised," as any sane system of Government would in these unparalleled circumstances, then it would give a free hand to the Chief Constables of Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, and Kent to clear out, once and for ever, the canker-worm of espionage which has, alas! been allowed to eat so very nearly into Britain's heart.
I am not affected by that disease known as spy-mania. I write only of what I know, of what I have witnessed with my own eyes and have heard with my own ears.
I therefore appeal most strongly, with all my patriotism, to the reader, man or woman, to pause, to reflect, to think, and to demand that justice shall, at this crisis of our national life, be done.
We want no more attempts to gag the Press, no evasive speeches in the House—no more pandering to the foreign financier or bestowing upon him Birthday Honours: no more kid-gloved legislation for our monied enemies whose sons, in some cases, are fighting against us, but sturdy, honest and deliberate action—the action with the iron-hand of justice in the interests of our own beloved Empire.