Fortunately for us, we are as a nation considered by the others to be
abnormally stupid, therefore easily to be spied upon. But it is not
always safe to judge entirely by appearances.
Our Ambassador at Constantinople some years ago had the appearance of
a cheery, bluff, British farmer, with nothing below the surface in
his character, and he was therefore looked upon as fair game by all
his intriguing rivals in Eastern politics. It was only after repeated
failures of their different missions they found that in every case
they were out-intrigued by this innocent-looking gentleman, who below
the surface was as cunning as a fox and as clever a diplomat as could
be found in all the service.
And so it has been with us British. Foreign spies stationed in our
country saw no difficulty in completely hoodwinking so stupid a
people; they never supposed that the majority of them have all been
known to our Secret Service Department, and carefully watched, unknown
to themselves.
Few of them ever landed in this country without undergoing the
scrutiny of an unobtrusive little old gentleman with tall hat and
umbrella, but the wag of whose finger sent a detective on the heels
of the visitor until his actual business and location were assured and
found to be satisfactory.
For years the correspondence of these gentry has been regularly
opened, noted, and sent on. They were not as a rule worth arresting,
the information sent was not of any urgent importance, and so long
as they went on thinking that they were unnoticed, their superiors
in their own country made no effort to send more astute men in their
place. Thus we knew what the enemy were looking for, and we knew what
information they had received, and this as a rule was not of much
account.
On August 4th, the day before the declaration of war, the twenty
leading spies were formally arrested and over 200 of their minor
agents were also taken in hand, and thus their organisation failed
them at the moment when it was wanted most. Steps were also taken
to prevent any substitutes being appointed in their places. Private
wireless stations were dismantled, and by means of traps those were
discovered which had not been voluntarily reported and registered.
It used to amuse some of us to watch the foreign spies at work on our
ground. One especially interested me, who set himself up ostensibly as
a coal merchant, but never dealt in a single ounce of coal. His daily
reconnaissance of the country, his noting of the roads, and his other
movements entailed in preparing his reports, were all watched and
recorded. His letters were opened in the post, sealed up, and sent on.
His friends were observed and shadowed on arriving--as they did--at
Hull instead of in London. And all the time he was plodding along,
wasting his time, quite innocent of the fact that he was being
watched, and was incidentally giving us a fine amount of information.
Another came only for a few hours, and was away again before we could
collar him; but, knowing his moves, and what photographs he had taken,
I was able to write to him, and tell him that had I known beforehand
that he wished to photograph these places, I could have supplied
him with some ready made, as the forts which they recorded were now
obsolete.
On the other hand, the exceedingly stupid Englishmen who wandered
about foreign countries sketching cathedrals, or catching butterflies,
or fishing for trout, were merely laughed at as harmless lunatics.
These have even invited officials to look at their sketch-books,
which, had they had any suspicion or any eyes in their heads, would
have revealed plans and armaments of their own fortresses interpolated
among the veins of the botanist's drawings of leaves or on the
butterflies' wings of the entomologist. Some examples of secret
sketches of fortresses which have been used with success are shown on
the following pages.
[Illustration: _This sketch of a butterfly contains the outline of a
fortress, and marks both the position and power of the guns. The marks
on the wings between the lines mean nothing, but those on the lines
show the nature and size of the guns, according to the keys below._]
[Illustration: The marks on the wings reveal the shape of the fortress
shown here and the size of the guns.
[Illustration: FORTRESS GUNS.]
[Illustration: FIELD GUNS.]
[Illustration: MACHINE GUNS.]
_The position of each gun is at the place inside the outline of the
fort on the butterfly where the line marked with the spot ends. The
head of the butterfly points towards the north._]
[Illustration: _A smart piece of spy-work. Veins on an ivy leaf
show the outline of the fort as seen looking west (Point of the leaf
indicates north.)_]
[Illustration: _Shows where big guns are mounted if a vein points to
them._]
[Illustration: _Shows "dead ground," where there is shelter from
fire._]
[Illustration: _Shows machine guns._]
[Illustration: _Here is another of the methods by which I concealed
the plans of the forts I made._
_First of all, I would sketch the plan as shown in the picture above
giving the strength and positions of the various guns as shown below:_
_A. Kaponiers with machine guns._
_B. 15 cm. gun cupola._
_C. 12 cm. guns cupolas._
_D. Q.-F. disappearing guns._
_E. Howitzer cupolas._
_F. Searchlight._]
[Illustration: _Having done this, I would consider the best method of
concealing my plans. In this case I decided to transform the sketch
into that of a stained glass window, and if you will carefully examine
the picture above you will see how successfully this has been done.
Certain of the decorations signify the sizes and positions of the guns.
These signs are given below, together with their meaning._]
[Illustration: 1. 15 _cm. gun._