N.P. AS SPY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1389, 22 April 1915, Page 4

N.P. AS SPY.

HOW THE GERMANS MEANT TO INVADE ENG I, AND.

Sir Robert Baden-Powell, reveals himself in a rew aspect in his book, “My Adventures as a Spy,” just published.

There are, he tells us, three orders of spies—the “diplomatic,’’ the “military,” and the “field” — and in bis time “8.-P.” has acted as all three, in addition to foiling the manoeuvres of hostile agents. He says that years ago the British Government discovered that a loieign Power was preparing gun emplacements in Great Britain. He tells of German spies travelling through Kent to look at “old Roman ruins,” and he relates a plan for invading our shores devised by the Germans six years ago, and discovered by him from their spy exchange in Belgium. They intended to block the Straits of Dover with submarines, and to rush their transports across the North Sea to effect a lauding in Yorkshire.

“They bad in Germany nine embarking stations, with piers and platiorms, all ready made, and steel lighters for disembarkation purposes or for actual traversing of the ocean In case of line weather.

“The spies stationed in England were to cut all telephone and telegraph wires, and, where possible, to blow down important bridges and tunnels, and thus to interrupt communications and create confusion.

“Their theory was that if they could rush an army of even 90.000 men into Leeds, Sheffield, Halifax. Manchester and Liverpool without encountering great opposition in the first few hours, they could then establish themselves in such strength that it would require a powerful army to drive them out again. “Bringing a week's provisions with them, and seizing all the local provisions, they would have enough to sustain them for a considerable time, and the first step of their occupation would be to expel every inhabitant —man, woman and child—from the neighbourhood, and destroy the towns. Thus, within a few hours, some fourteen millions of people would be starving and wandering without shelter over the face of the country.”

A pretty plan, indeed i Sir Robert’s stories of his own adventures abroad are exciting reading. He has posed successfully as a botanist, a fisherman, and a wandering painter, and has bluffed his way to much useful knowledge. He explains how a harmless sketch of a butterfly may hide the plans of a fort, and how the seeker for information has to adopt disguises and use ingenious ruses.

The spy must be brave, and he must have almost infinite resource and tact. We aie apt to regard the Englishman as a bad hand at spydtg, but, according to “8.-P.,” our national reputation tor stupidity is of incalculable value to the secret service agent, and has given the War Office, the Admiralty, and the Foreign office many useful items of news.