Young Germans have been often known to serve in British business
houses without salary in order to "learn the language"; they took care
to learn a good deal more than the language, and picked up many other
things about trade methods and secrets which were promptly utilised
in their own country. The importance of commercial spying is that
commercial war is all the time at the bottom of Germany's preparations
for military war.
Carl Lody, a German ex-officer, was recently tried in London by
court-martial and shot for "war treason"--that is, for sending
information regarding our Navy to Germany during hostilities. ("War
treason" is secret work outside the zone of war operations. When
carried on within the zone of operations it is called spying or
"espionage.") Carl Lody's moves were watched and his correspondence
opened by the counter-spy police in London, and thus all his
investigations and information were known to the War Office long
before he was arrested.
The enormous sums paid by Germany for many years past have brought
about a sort of international spy exchange, generally formed of
American-Germans, with their headquarters in Belgium, and good prices
were given for information acquired by them. For instance, if the
plans of a new fort, or the dimensions of a new ship, or the power of
a new gun were needed, one merely had to apply and state a price to
this bureau to receive fairly good information on the subject before
much time had elapsed.
At the same time, by pretending to be an American, one was able to get
a good deal of minor and useful information without the expenditure of
a cent.