KAISER'S SECRET SPEECH

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2558, 4 September 1915, Page 9

KAISER'S SECRET SPEECH

— 6- " WE SHALL STRIKE-WHEN 11 READY'; j a ■ GERMANY'S SPY ARMY ! ■ ,• t " ~ i '1 REMARKABLE DISCLOSURES ' } i c Air. W. Ie Queux, who has made so J great a study of espionage in Europe, J and, as ho admits, "lias done a bit ot it on iis orai," lectured at Bath in June' J 011 the spy peril. In the course of his ] opening remarks, Mr., le Queux read a' telegram from Lord Charles Beresford, ] who said:—"l wish yoii every success j in your lecture. The German spy peril is very serious, and in my opinion the 1 authorities are hot; taking adequate ' steps to meet it." . 1 In his lecture, Mr. lo Quoux explain- 1 ed that ho had spent half his lifo travel- ' ling in order to collect information, aiid to reproduce it in tho form what ho ' hoped might have been interesting fie-, , tion. For a number of years he had made a special study of the' secret ' service system of the Powers in' Europe. He thought he could with.mod- : esty claim he was the "first person in \ Great Britain- to discover the hostile intention of the Kaiser. It'came about briefly in this way. _ Early in 1907 he was m Berlin studying the gay night , life of that ! city .for the purpose of writing a book, and in'the course 1 of many evenings spent in those gay isurrouhdings he made the;acquaintance of. a young German actress, to whom, ho was able to be of' some little service. She revealed to him that her brother," a Prussian officer,, had been sent .tot England as a spy.. At first he took the statement with* the proverbial grain of salt, but on his return s _to England, what lie made it his business to discover showed the statement was true. He found that in 1907. a perfect network of-spies was being spread over tho face of Great Britain. With that knowledge he went to the War .Office, where a very : affable gentleman told him therei was nothing in it.- > / Tlia Advice of Lord Roberts. ; He' then .'saw Lord Roberts, ivho realised the-gravity of. the'situation ■ and urged 1 him to continue his inquiries. He did so, discoveed much more evidence, and three months later returned'to the War Office, where was at once formed a special department to foil the German espionage. In that department lie'(Mr. lo Queux) became a voluntary, assistant, and from that day to the present, had remained so. (Applause.) Although lie had been'in practically every corner* of Europe, he had never asked one penny as- recompense, and he had paid the' whole' of.his travelling . expenses.. .Everything he stated could to.pubstan-,' tiated by reports in tho archives of the, AVar Office,,' On June 20, 1908, ho returned from Berlin with :a document which the, German. Government; would have given many-thousand pounds to get from.him. It was an: accurate yerr ; batim report of the- Breret. speech delivered by the Kaiser at. a Council held' at Potsdam Palace on June : 2, 1908, to Ministers, admirals, generals, and chiefs of tho Federal States. , Kaiser's Secret Speech. • "! The speech took over'three hours to deliver,; and; for five hours - afterwards, was'discussed. The report he brought home was, placed before the next meeting.' of. the British. Cabinet,, and- dis- ' cussed. ; At 'first sonie > little suspicion ■ was'-'oast upon 1 -it—had the speech 'ever been delivered? So ;further /inquiry was made, and there was no doubt it •was'''.perfectly 'genuine:. '.'The .gentle-. . man- who handed it . to him . (the. le<>; turer) was a high official,'very'near.to. the Kaiser's person, an official to whom wo should all boi very deeply grateful, for, ! he had furnished us with much important information. He was friendly disposed towards England, and had no ' sympathy with the present war. If his ■ name were revealed he would be arrested, and probably shot. _ In the .course of the . speech' the Kaiser 'said: "We shall strike,;as ; so'on as I, have ciently large Sleet of. Zeppelins at my disposal. . I i have ;given; orders . for the hurried construction of more airships - of the-improved; Zeppelin'typo. When ■ those are ready we shall destroy Eng- ■ land's North. Sea, Channel, and Atlantic fleetsj- after which' [nothing "on earth - can prevent the/landing of our army on. British soil and its '' triumphant march to London." He went, on to. say: "You will desire to know'how the outbreak of hostilities will 'be; brought about.'. I can assure you on this point. Certainly we shall not' have to go far .'to find a cause for war. My army of spies scattered over Great Britain and ' France, as it is over North .and South America, as well as all the other parts of the world, 'will. take ■ good .care of that. I have issued already, secret orders that mil at the proper moment accomplish what we desire..' The concluding .sentence was; "With Great Britain and France' in the dust, with Russia and the-United'States at my mercy. I shall,'set a: new course to the destinies, of the world, a that will ensuro to Germany. for all time to come the . leading ''Power among' nations 'of the globe.":. .' While" the Cabinet' knew that the Kaiser.ihad. decided to make war, still" -the British publio read daily the . idea of disarmament.! Three days after reading that speech Losd Roberts resigned from the Army .Council > and devoted the, rest of his life to his universal service scheme.; (Clieers.) , He (tho lecturer) considered it his duty to place the whole matter before the Tiubfic, to' expose what was intended. iWith that object he made a copy of tho • speech,-/and ..wrote the ..first two chajH ters of a book 'warning the public. He, took them to his publisher. A Mysterious Theft and an Inspired Command. ' • In his presence, Mr. Nash locked them away, hut three, days later they' ! were stolen. ' Two days after that' three friends of : his, in Berlin, officers, received. domiciliary visits from the police, who ransacked their houses from top to bottom,, searching for correspondence from him. Happily nothing was found. On the following day he received an urgent message to go to the,' War Office, where Colonel Macdona, Director of'tho Secret Service, said: "I have been instructed by a very hif(h-personage to request you to say nothing : about that secret speech of the Kaiser's, and not to publish that hook concerning it." Ho did not know-who the -high' personage was, but having received such orders he could not disobey them. By Lord Roberts's advice ho wrote'"The Invasion of England." But-it did riot wake the public, and tho then Prime' Minister, Mr. Campbell Baiinennan, denounced him as a scaremonger. According to The Hague Convention, a "spy", could only exist >u a'war area; as Great Britain was not in that area, technically speaking, there could' be no "spies" here. The German system was the most , marvellous ever conceived. Were he . permitted to reveal one quarter of the knowledge he possessed concerning it lie was sure it would create a sensation in that rooni. But if ho did so it would reveal to the enemy what must not be given away, because we are at war. There were two centres in Germany where spies are trained, for .a spy to be successful must be cloverexpert iii photography, in observation, and in the drawing up of reports. Most of tlicso people became naturalised. The head of tho system for the last fivo years had spout £750,000 (i year in' Great Britain ■ s .alow}* ■. Pjr, pals.

£50,000, and he thought wo must believe it had done marvellously on such a small sum. Curious Point Needing Explanation. There was a very curious fact .that ' needed explanation. The question would probably be asked, though to-day was not the time to ask it, why was Colonel Macdona the head of the department, at the outbreak of th©' war, relieved of his post? He made no comment. But that was the officer who knew everything about the service, who bad worked everything; yet the ; 'his presence was wanted he was. sont ■ to the front! In the course of.-, the lecturer's investigations he had made . many interesting' discoveries: The first district-in England to which he turned was the south-eastern corner.- He found that in-a certain area there lived and was still living a man. of the Dresden Army Reserve, and in that samo district they were all Dresden men: in the next district they were all Leipsic men; in tho next, including Newhaven, all men of Hanover; and 1 so on right through the country. And the sectional officers -were from the same parts of Germany as the spieß, who' wore mostly little tradesmen—harbors, clock makers, or hotel managers. They, be-' came good churchgoers, apparently quiet, well-disposed folk, subscribing to local charities, • and worminc themselves into . tho good graces of their neighbours. Thoy were visited periodically by. Germans, who were ostensibly commercial travellers, but who in reality were sectional officers .who collected the- reports and/paid the spies. They were, not paid very well. Small men in the villages got £l 'a week or 305., others £3, sectional officers about £5 a week; they knew people who got £1000 a year, 'even £3000... What tho financial spies got theydid not:know. ■ Germans Too.Clever. Mentioning cases in which their espionage had achieved no advantages, Mr. le Queux said the Germans were very, anvious to secure a certain naval code book, and also the mobilisation scheme; for East In each case a traitor was conveniently found, and the-documents reached Berlin. ( But in neither case was it the. right information. (Baughtor.) We should never belieye'it was only the man. speaks with a German accent who is>a spy. There, was. the case, of Frederick:: Aaolphhs Gould, ' a John Bull to the very; core, .tat-, who :rieceived: six : years'penal servitude for' 'supplying the 'Germans', with'.'secret's from. Chatham.' . The Night-Signalling System.' ■ Recently,' w;ithin the last few'weeks; lie had been investigating night signalling .in the South of. England, - in- the counties of Sussex, Surrey, and Kent; Accompanied by two officers of the , naval air section he spent - eighteen consecutive nights .on the ; hill tops in those countries. They saw sigl -nailing; it was in code, but they were ablo to understand the-messages, and they replied to them; (Applause.) One. evening in . the message the: letter . "H" and the-figure. ''s'' repeatedly occurred. It puzzled them very much, but the -next morning.it: was perfectly -clear. At the hour, they recoived that 'signal,there had been five hostile'aeroplanes over.Dunkirk..: Those had come.from the sea, 'probably-from a submarine, ' had been picked on the coast, and-sent : right through England, because' the same-signals .that were seen'in the county, of Surrey were - sent, and read by watchers.on.the kvkout, as far north, as Benvick-on-Twet^!. : They' discovered," too, that. these very signals' within a ' few:.. minutes were k'noiivn in the obscure cafes'.in London 1 where Germans congregated. -' 'All this . signalling had something :to do with 1 hostile aircraft;' and ho. was quite certain that one day the signal would he given- of: a complete' Zeppelin fleet oyer ] ; London, 1 , and at this moment, if we were not very careful to in.te'rn them all, ' the aliens, 19,000 or so, in London J would create a tremendous p'anio and ': disast-or. ... •" •■'' A Clever Scheme. , Having given instances to support his opinion that, the female spy, is far ! more daiigerous than the male spy, M-rl j le Queux came to the question,' How , can spies communicate with: Germany?/ . They did it,,' he said, by many-ways, | hut ho was not porniitted to reveal j very 'much. : For ; a long , time . past: s there had been a mystery about ad- . vertisomehts .in cipher: inserted in the r .most. obscure newspapers"-' in Great Britain ; the key was at last ,'supplied . jirough tho French. Secreff Service. The ' words ."10ve,".. "bricks,"; and; .' 'Maud"., frequently ocburred:in these advertise- : ments, but .these words - meant-some- '. thing /very difEerent." '. When-the:d(Mr | to, Holland .'.was closed—rit';> was'. :.kept ' open i.: far' too long,, a-s',',/' the. ' lecturer .^demonstrated—another Amys- !' tery started.- In -■' the; ' mails !. going to Holland two or three days a ' there was found a., new' pair- of • lau.v s' gloves. They were closely eV : nmined and tested, but' nothing\was [ .^covered—except' that every pair of 1 these .gloves was perfumed differently. 1 They now knew what .' the perfume's i meant. Rose meant "Look .in such : 'a,' c "paper," lilac "Look' in another," and " so on. Of : .course, large numbers of ' papers went to Holland, in the ordi- " nary wrappers, and it was impossible - to censor every newspaper. . They would ■ all agree that this was-a very -interest-' ■: ing means 'ijof-communication..,., > Intern Them All. In conclusion, the lecturer suggested |. to the authorities, two or .'three things!', One was'that a strict , search' should be ' made in the ■ religious institutions in . England for concealed ammunition and nrmaiucnts.' Wo should, i never -finish !Ss,. spy peril; until 'every alien was.interned, -'naturalised or unnaturalised, rich or poor. (Cheers.) It was ' useless ■ to tinker with, the question ■ any longer. ' We should: do exactly what the Tsar " did.' The Tsar saw that:.the-Germans • 'had: spread, over the land a network of. 1 spies. When war began; b'y ono stroke of tho pen lie-sent all women;and;chU--5 dren : back, to 'ho interned ■ everybody, naturalised arid unriatural- . ised, and he ordered the property v of-, \ all enemy aliens to be sold by public auction.;. The consequence was -that tol day you could buy in Russia a big fac--5 tory iii'thorough going order. -and its i machinery, for the price of , th©'bricks - and mortar, He would- not suggest , anything ' unjust against honest natu- ) ralised 1 Germans. ; There > were manv a Germans amongst us who had brought- . up their chilcben as Englishmen, and it i would be a. grave '-'injustice to snt<srn , them; but he,-would intern them;: and i then ■ allow these good Germans to come, - not Tfefore the Home. Secretary ■ Oiap- > pily, we.had a new one now), but apt peal before a British jury, who would t not do tlicm any injustice. ■