GERMAN SPY SYSTEM.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 January 1917, Page 6

GERMAN SPY SYSTEM.

BRITAIN'S STRANGLE HOLD,

(By William Le Queux). That spies of Germany have been very active among us for the past ten years cannot be denied, but in this, the third year of war, Great Britain ntay certainly congratulate herself upon the possession of a very adequate and effective system of counter-espionage, and, indeed, upon having secured a veritable strangle-hold upon the enemy's spies. To the average man or woman the working of the Intelligence Departments of both branches of.the Services is shrouded in mystery, as it must obviously be.

The discovery of the "Spy's post office" in the Caledonian road, London, in 1913, was a most fortunate incident, because letters sent there from Germany to be re-forwarded to spies were intercepted and copied. This discovery gave us the clue to the, existence of a very remarkable state of affairs, and revealed the identity not only of the spies among us, but also showed that Germany military desperadoes had been despatched to England in humble guises, with special instructions to carry on certain sinister work, quite distinct from espionage. These Huns were raiders whose hope it was to strike, on the outbreak of war, sudden and deadly blows with explosives and by other means, with the object of crippling our naval and military organisation. For a time they constituted a very grave menace to our country What blows they actually struck cannot here be revealed. Certain disasters were, rightly or wrongly, uttributed to them.

LIFTING THE VEIL. As one who was in touch with the work of counter-espionage for several years before the war, I can testify as to how excellent was the staff, and how untiring their constant efforts. Fre-1 quently, when public opinion declared that "our police were of no use"—for in ignorance the public thought that the police were charged with such work —I begged those in authority to allow me to satisfy the minds of the people by lifting the veil just a little in order to show what was really in progress. But the decision was always in the negative. Personally, I think that when an outcry was raised in 1913 against spies, the public might have been shown that we were not exactly asleep as some speakers and writers would make out.

The "Spy's post office" was allowed I to proceed merrily for over a year, and 1 in that period much interesting correspondence passed through the cabinetnoir. Persons who were quite unsuspected were foujul to be agents of Germany, and the possession of a list of these gave the Intelligence Department a decided advantage on the outbreak of war, for some twenty or so dangerous persons were very quickly placed under lock and key. The secret agents of the Kaiser sent here as desperadoes to commit outrages were a horde which, at the time, could rot. be effectively gappled with. For that reason guards were set upen railways, waterworks, power stations, and such like. The-.very fact that the guards are now withdrawn is, surely, silent evidence of the effective measure? taken to combat Germany's evil machinations. Germany established a cankerworm. in England's heart, but happily this has been, in a very great measure, evushed out.

HOME OFFICE BUNGLING. Though so much excellent work has been done, it. is unfortunate that public opinion had been inflamed by the apathy of other departments of the State. For example, successive Home Secretaries have bungled very badly over the enemy alien question, and it was not before the people began to riot against the policy of apathy whicii was inviting disaster, and Lady Glenes!; held her great women's demonstration at the Mansion House, that the Cabinet c'juh! be brought to realise the great peril so apparent on every side. The screaming farce of the ex-flerman Consul Ahlers caused universal anger. This German official, who had been solemnly condemned to death for traitorous acts, was not only reprieved, but allowed vo hide his identity under an English name, s.nd entertain his brother Huns in a snug abode in a London suburb. At the mou.i.nt we had Germans in eve-y walk of life, and in all our public services. Indeed, in the first eighteen mouths of war, with the thousand and one examples of Mr. MeKenna's paternal leniency towards the enemy alien, of which the reader is too well acquainted by the comments oi the daily papers, it seemed tu the people as though the British Government actually protected the Hun. I happen to know full well that this feeling was, unfortunately, also growing among our Allies. As one who since lfiOG had had something to do with secret service among Great Britain's enemies, I can assure those who read these lines that although the Intelligence Services, directed' as they are by a nameless, but most astute official, to whom the 'highest credit will be given when peace is proclaimed, have done their level best to combat the German in our midst until six months ago they unfortunately did not receive such a hearty measure of support from the Home Department as might have been expected. Further, certain unfortunate ministerial statements bad been made in the and tiie Press before the war, which were.,in the light of subsequent events, proved to be not in accordance with fact/, Hence the man in thu street beSieved himself misled—as he undoubtcd!v was. POLITICAL JUGGLING.

Til tlie first year of war lie was as ninth liiHed by political juggling as was by the Kaiser, who, in that famous interview published on October 28, declared io us in those winning worils, •'My clearest wish is to live 011 tlie upst tejrins witib England. Have T ever oeen false to my word! Falsehood and prevarication are alien to my natuit. Vet, :at the same moment, England was swarming with his spies craftily endeavomng to plot our downfall! Indeed, the All-Highest One, wlien he went to the Guildhall to make a speech of friendliness, took his chief spy, Stemliauer, with him! Three months after the bursting of the war cloud the Home Office .sent a long and delightfully misinforming statement to the Press in which we were gravely assured that •'espionage has been made by statute a | military offence triable by eourt-mar-tial." As a matter of fact, the laws relating to espionage had been settled by the Hague Convention years before! in this statement wo"were also gravely assured that the action tat en by the authorities in arresting about thirty spies who had long been wxifculied was "bfiJjeved tohayfeto.oken -up the spy orgajiisatioii in this sosntry.." J Mouldmnyihing $ anow fi&l&lated to ! imfirt# ijfof^lUklisg&3 I

| WHO WAS THE TRAITOft ? A few months later Mr. Tennant, the Under-Secretary for War, rose in the Bouse of Commons and informed us tliati "every enemy alien is known, and is under constant police supervision." Such a statement did not improve the growing feeling of insecurity, and even if it was intended to place the enemy oil his guard, it was but a ciumsy ruse, fur there were at that moment thousands of the enemy in our midst allowed to roam at pleasure and p'ot against us—persons who were unregistered and unknown. So far, indeed, -from that statement being the truth, Sir P. Cooper, M.P., stood up in the House and boldly declared that there were aliens in every department of our public services, and that these persons were daily transmitting reports of our movements to Germany. Not a soul rose to contradict him. Why? Because the secrets, of our Budget had been known and published in Frankfort before they were known in the House of Commons. And again, a later and more glaring instance of the leakage of information to our encyiiies .was when the news of Lord Kitchener's tragic death was published in Berlin half an hour after it had reached London. Who was the traitor?

Further, the Home Secretary's recent figures were certainly not very reassuring, for he admitted that 110 fewer than 723.3 eneniy aliens had been granted certificates exempting them from intern ment. One wonders why? He also told us tlmt there were 1)355 male enemy aliens loose in London alone, while 371 male enemy aliens were still allowed to live in "prohibited areas!" One cannot help wondering these good Germans and Austrians had done to be grunted such a privilege, ard how many Englishmen to-day are living in prohibited areas in Germany. Naturally such admissions caused considerable anger, for it revealed the fact that the Intelligence Department was not receiving due support from the Home office. Fighting a crafty and unscrupulous foe, as we are, we should I surely not give them a single loophole.

LOOPHOLES STILL EXIST. Happily, few loopholes to-day exist, yet these few must be closed. We have a stranglehold upon German spies, and v.'c must retain it. In most districts in England the army of secret ageiits has been dispersed and broken, and the desperadoes are either repatriated, or are among the "20,000 civilian enemy aliens we bold to-day behind stout barbed wiie. \T)ie courts of internment have long ago discovered themselves to be a mere farce, for the Huri secret agent, a graduate of one of the spy schools in Leipzig, Friedetnau, or, elsewhere, is far too wily and his purse far too potent. Happily,. wo have learned a serious lesson. Germany intends to spring some big surprises upon us, and one of those big surprises was the sudden rising of an army of military desperadoes, who were to act at a given signal, destroy our communications, our shipping, and commit serious outrages in our arsenals and munition factories, but the schemes failed miserably, and Britain unquestionably remains master of the situation.