SECRET SERVICE ORGANISATIONS, COMPARISONS, AND INCIDENTALS
ESPIONAGE IN PAST AGES--MODERN BRITISH SECRET SERVICE FOUNDED,
1910--POSSIBLE IMPROVEMENTS--COMPARISONS--JEALOUSIES OF BIG
DEPARTMENTS--EXAMPLES OF RECKLESS EXTRAVAGANCE--BUSINESS MEN
WANTED--ECONOMIES IN THE SECRET SERVICE--BUNGLING
INCOMPETENCE--IMPASSIVENESS OF THE FOREIGN OFFICE--GERMAN WAR
METHODS--FRENCH AND DUTCH SECRET SERVICE--MILITARY INTELLIGENCE,
B.C.--RISE AND DEVELOPMENT OF GERMAN SECRET SERVICE--THE EFFICIENCY
OF SCOTLAND YARD--DETAILS OF GERMAN FOREIGN PROPAGANDA AND
EXPENDITURE--BRITISH SECRET SERVICE, ITS COST AND
FRUGALITIES--MAJOR HENRI LE CARON--NATHAN HALE--SIMILITUDE OF THE
LIFE OF A SECRET SERVICE AGENT.
Not until the reign of Henry VII. and the days of the great Cardinal
Wolsey do we hear speak of organised systems of Secret Service. Cromwell
encouraged the department, whilst Charles II. seems to have arranged
grants for its continuance equivalent to £500,000 per annum. Pitt was a
firm supporter of the service, and Canning is said to have paid £20,000
for the treaty of Tilsit.
In earlier times, British Intelligence Agents were attached to the
Chancelleries of our Ministers abroad, as is the case to-day with nearly
every nation, except our own. Remuneration was given commensurate with
the risks and service. But from the 'sixties the pay diminished and the
department faded away from being an asset of much general valuable
utility.
The present British Secret Service Department was founded about 1910 by
an officer, a man of untiring energy, pluck, and perseverance, who has
rendered noble service and willing sacrifice. Since its initiation this
department seems to have been harassed, attacked, and shot at by petty
jealousies, which, during the agony of the crisis of war were ignoble
and contemptible in the extreme. An observer behind the scenes can
therefore admire the more the men who ignored this and worked on,
unheeding all, with but a single thought, and that the welfare of their
King and Country.
England never seems to have had any real organisation for Secret Service
propaganda which can compare in thoroughness with the German effort. It
has had no schools of instruction, nor does it send its members to
specialise in any particular branch. It is an unwritten rule of the
department that a naval or a military officer must be at the head of
every branch or sub-division of any importance; and the service of
civilians or of those from other professions than the Navy and the Army
is neither sought nor welcomed, however capable or however clever the
persons available may be. The exceptional civilian is soon made to feel
this. Whether the idea is to instil discipline, or to impress upon the
newcomer the superiority and importance of the right to wear a uniform,
it is difficult to imagine. The main work of the department, however, is
on a par with the collection of evidence, the unravelling of secret
mysteries, and the study and handling of character--which any man of the
world would have probably at once concluded was more fitted to the
controlling influence of experienced Criminal and Commercial
Investigators rather than to long-service officers who have been
strapped to their stool by strict disciplinary red-tapeism from their
teens upwards. Admitted that officers must be at the top of the Service
to direct the information required, and to deal with it when obtained,
nevertheless for the direction and control of ways and means of its
attainment, the financial part, both inside and out, the selection of
the executive staff, the tabulation of facts collected, and
correspondence, a member of the Government of some standing and with
experience of this class of work should be commissioned as special
Minister in full control of the department; because its importance to
the State cannot be overstated or exaggerated.
Not only should this department have, as near its chief as possible, a
man who has had an extensive experience of active criminal and
commercial affairs, but he should also, if possible, be one who has
specially qualified himself in the commercial world as a _thoroughly
efficient business man_.
It may perhaps be added that it is by no means the only Government
department which has suffered acutely for want of an efficient business
man on its directorate.
So far as office work is concerned, a Service officer may understand
book routine and discipline, but when it comes to rock-bottom business
this war has produced overwhelming proof that a Service officer is lost
against an efficient business man. Speaking broadly, the former has no
idea of the general value of things, or of the worldly side of the
business world. How can it be expected of him? He is trained, specially
trained, in his profession, which has naught to do with the struggle of
the money-makers. He is not accustomed to rub shoulders with the man in
the street, whilst there are thousands of minor details which he would
probably ignore when brought to his notice, but which a business man
would recognise as floating thistledown showing the direction of the
wind. The business man knows that a knowledge of his fellow-man is the
most valuable knowledge in the world. He is not saddled with fastidious,
obsolete forms of etiquette, the waiting for the due observance of which
has cost millions of pounds sterling and thousands of much more valuable
lives. He is not tied down to the cut-and-dried book routine, probably
unrevised for years, which it is an impossibility to keep thoroughly
up-to-date.
He is not afraid of the wrath of his immediate superior officers, which,
unless being an officer himself he could modify or smooth it over, might
put on the shelf for ever all chance of his future success in life. He
is not shackled with incompetents whom he dared not report or remove
because they hold indirect influences which might be moved to his
disadvantage. He is not hampered by the importunities of
brother-officers who are pushed at him continually by place-seekers, or
by feared or favoured ones. He is not handicapped by the jealous spite
of machination of other departments, because an efficient business man
will have none of this from anyone, whether above or below him. Should
it arise, he eradicates it root and branch at first sight, which an
ordinary Service officer is generally utterly powerless to do; nor dare
he dream of its accomplishment.
It is the existence of this terrible canker-worm of jealousy, false
pride, petty spite, or absurd etiquette, which in the past has gnawed
into the very vitals of our glorious Services, sapping away much of
their efficiency and undermining future unity, which always tends to
turn victories into defeats or colossal disasters. It is devoutly to be
hoped that this world-war will level up the masses and kill and for ever
crush out of our midst this hydra-headed microbe, the greatest danger of
which is that on the surface it is invisible.
Members of the Secret Service knew all along that the War Office and the
Admiralty were like oil and water, because they would not or could not
mix.[5] If one required anything of importance from the War Office it
might have blighted the hopes of success to have blurted out that one
came from, or was a member of, the Admiralty, and _vice versâ_. These
two mighty departments never seemed to work in harmonious unity. Hence,
whenever Jim had business at the War Office he advisedly concealed that
he had any interest in the Admiralty; and whenever he was at the
Admiralty he denied all connection with the War Office. It saved so much
friction and avoided so much unnecessary formality, trouble, and delay.
That this friction was bad for the country, detrimental to the
shortening of the war, and most expensive to the taxpayer, goes without
saying; but perhaps the fault lay with our system, which permits so many
men over sixty years of age to remain in, or to be suddenly placed into
positions of such terrible responsibility and such colossal and
continual accumulation of work; men who hitherto had had a slack time
and who perhaps had hardly ever been contradicted or denied in their
lives; men who constantly demonstrated to those around them that their
dignity and self-importance must be admitted and put before almost every
other consideration; men who ought to have taken honorary positions and
not for a single hour kept from the chair of office more efficient and
younger officers; men who knew only the old routine, who were long past
their prime, and who were consistent upholders of the greatest curse
that ever cursed our island Kingdom--the Red-tapeism of the
Circumlocution Office.
Volumes could be filled with examples of the pernicious results arising
because this country has not adopted modern and up-to-date methods.
Volumes could be written to prove the reckless waste and extravagance
that has been allowed to run wild and caused by our not providing for a
department having a Minister of Conservation and Economy. Volumes could
be written to prove that if jealousies could be stamped out, false
dignity crushed, and red-tapeism abolished, our nation would rise far
above the heads of all other nations in the world, and our taxpayers'
burdens, both now and in the future, would be materially reduced.
Although thousands of examples could be given it is submitted that for a
book of this description an example from two or three departments should
be sufficient to illustrate the argument.
FROM THE ADMIRALTY.
Some time in the autumn of 1915, two fields were acquired by the
Admiralty at Bacton, on the Norfolk coast, for use as an aviation
ground. In order to give a sufficiently large unbroken and even surface
for aeroplanes, it was deemed necessary to level a hedge-bank of
considerable length, dividing the fields in question.
Within a few miles of these fields were stationed a thousand soldiers,
who were chafing at and weary with the monotony of their daily routine,
an unvaried one for over a year. The majority of these men would have
welcomed the acceptance of such a task as this. But follow the events
which happened, and it is proved convincingly that some silly,
ridiculous reason prevented any approach, by those who sit in Chairs at
the Admiralty to those who sit in Chairs at the War Office, to utilise
this unemployed labour, or to save the nation's pocket in so simple a
matter.
The expenditure of money seemed to be of no consideration whatsoever,
although the House of Commons was at this particular period shrieking
for economy in others, which they were quite unwilling to commence
themselves; whilst the Prime Minister (Mr. Asquith) addressed a great
economy speech to the massed delegates representing 4,000,000 organised
workers at Westminster on December 1st, 1915. So a contract was offered
and entered into with a civilian to do the work. Owing to Lord Derby's
scare-scheme system of recruiting instead of National Service (which
ought to have been enforced immediately after the Boer War, as pressed
by Lord Roberts and others), the unlucky contractor lost most of his
young men and was quite unable to get more than a very few old men who
were past the age of strenuous labour. His job progressed so slowly that
the Admiralty realised the work might not be finished for months and
months to come if permitted to continue on the then present line.
What was it that prevented the Admiralty, on this second occasion of
necessity, from approaching the War Office, or even one of the officers
in command of the thousands and thousands of troops stationed in
Norfolk, a few of whom could and would gladly have completed the work in
a few hours without a penny extra expense to the country?
Instead of incurring any possible suspicion of an obligation from the
War Office, an appeal was made to the newly-formed City of Norwich
Volunteers for their men to put down their names for this work. That
loyal, energetic, and patriotic body of Englishmen, which was drawn
from all ranks of society, although working at their various vocations
all the week, immediately acquiesced, without stopping to reason why,
and agreed to go to Bacton the next ensuing Sunday.
The distance from Norwich to Bacton is twenty miles, but the nearest
station is about three miles from the fields in question.
By reason of the War Office having taken over control of the railways,
these men could, by a simple request from the Admiralty to the War
Office, have been provided with free travelling passes. They had
expressed their willingness to walk the remaining three miles of the
journey, do the work gratuitously (although quite unaccustomed to any
such rough manual labour), find their own rations, and walk the return
three miles to the station afterwards. Such, however, was not
acceptable, nor permitted.
At North Walsham, five miles from the aerodrome site, at least a
thousand troops were stationed. They were provided with motor vehicles
capable of travelling thirty miles per hour. A few of these vehicles
could have carried the whole party from North Walsham station to the
fields in under half an hour; or they could have fetched them from
Norwich in about an hour. But no; such an arrangement might incur the
obligation of a request and a compliance.
_So the Admiralty arranged to send some of their own motor lorries from
Portsmouth to Norwich in order to convey this small party of civilian
volunteer-workers twenty-one miles to the job_.
It was said that five lorries were ordered, but only three were sent.
They were of the large size, extra heavy type, which cannot, with
general convenience, travel at a speed beyond ten miles an hour--if so
fast; whilst their petrol consumption might be estimated at about a
gallon per hour. They arrived at Norwich on Sunday morning November
28th, 1915, apparently after several days on the road. They took part of
the small party of enthusiasts to Bacton, who worked all through the
Sabbath; whilst other Admiralty motor-cars were ordered specially over
from Newmarket which took the remainder of the party to and from the
job.
The three lorries avoided London, thus the full journey of each must
have approximated 500 miles.
Consider: the running expenses of a private two-ton motor-car would not
be less than a shilling a mile; compare the petrol, oil consumption, and
wear and tear. It is thus not difficult to estimate this absurdly
unnecessary and recklessly extravagant waste of the taxpayers' money;
and all because of some ridiculous personal prejudices, or of the sacred
cause of red-tapeism; or the possible touching of some false sentiments
of dignity or hollow pride, assumed by those who sit on Chairs on one
side or the other of Whitehall, and who direct the details of war
expenditure.
FROM THE WAR OFFICE.
Every Englishman must deeply regret the memory of countless examples of
reckless waste, incompetent management, and riotous extravagance which
particularly marked the first two years of the war; and which, alas,
appeared much more flagrantly in connection with the Army than with the
Navy.
During the progress of the war groans arose in this strain from every
county. The Yorkshire £10 to £15 tent-pegs case, as recorded in the
Press, December 18th, 1915, was never denied.
A motor trolley accidentally smashed about half a score of tent-pegs at
---- camp. Instead of replacing them at the cost of half a crown or
less, the C.O. ruled that a report must be drawn up and submitted to the
War Office requesting a new supply of pegs. In due course the answer
arrived saying: "Loose pegs could not be sent, as they were only
supplied with new tents, but a new tent would be sent, value £150, _with
the usual quantity of pegs_." Which course in all seriousness was
actually adopted.
* * * * *
In June, 1916, a chimney at a Drill Hall in the town of Lowestoft on the
east coast required sweeping, and an orderly suggested to the
commanding officer that he should employ a local man residing a few
doors away, who offered to undertake the job efficiently at the modest
outlay of 1s. But the commanding officer was shackled body and soul in
red-tape bonds. Following his duty he reported the matter to
headquarters. Further particulars were required and given and in the
course of a few days the army chimney-sweep arrived, did the work and
departed. _He came from and returned to Birmingham_, and stated that his
contract price was 10d. The third-class return fare from Birmingham is
26s. 7d. It probably meant two days occupied at an expense which could
not have been much less than 30s. A total of £2 16s. 7d., plus payment,
postages, paper and possible extras, to _save 2d._ and to do a local man
out of a 1s. job in a town admittedly ruined by the unfortunate
exigencies of the war!
FROM THE HOME OFFICE.
The Leicester correspondent of the _Shoe and Leather Record_, wrote on
February 25th, 1916:
"The Government have intimated, through the medium of the usual official
document, that they are willing to receive tenders for twenty-four emery
pads, the total value of which would be one shilling and four pence. The
tender forms are marked 'very urgent' and firms tendering are warned
that inability of the railway companies to carry the goods will not
relieve contractors of responsibility for non-delivery.
"The goods are presumably intended for the Army boot-repairing depôts,
but in view of the admitted 'urgency' it will, I think, strike most
business men as strange that there is not an official connected with
this branch of the service possessing sufficient authority to give the
office boy sixteen pence with instructions to go and fetch the goods
from the nearest grindery shop.
"Up to the time of writing I have not heard which local firm has been
fortunate enough to secure this 'contract.'"
* * * * *
After this gigantic tussle of titanic races is over and the bill of
costs has to be met, perhaps the nation will realise the cry, that for
some years past has been lost like a voice crying in the wilderness--_We
want business men_: business men in all Government departments which
have to handle business matters. England's colossal financial
liabilities, pyramided up during recent years, are practically all
traceable to her lack of efficient business men in her business
departments.
In the Navy, in the Army, in the Transport, in the supplies, and
throughout, let the head of each department be chosen from a member of
its body, if believed best so to do; but let the business side thereof
be presided over by an efficient and fully-qualified business man--a man
who knows the purchasing power of a pound; more important still, who
knows how hard it is to earn one. The men entrusted with such
responsible positions should have full responsibility placed upon their
shoulders; they should be highly paid and they should be free to act
without being tied down by the fetters of "the book," by red-tape
precedents, and by the counter-consents of so many others who in nine
cases out of ten are men of no previous business training nor
qualification concerning the majority of details which they are called
upon to handle.
Recent Army and Naval administration, as the public have seen, requires
little further comment here. The hundreds of thousands of pounds
absolutely squandered in surplus rations, billeting, pay, and transport,
etc., should have impressed the minds of observers in a manner that this
generation is never likely to forget. A business man in each department,
with a free hand to economise and arrange its details, in a
business-like way, would have saved the country the salaries paid to
them ten thousand times over, with a gigantic surplus to spare.
The British Intelligence Department probably suffered least of any in
this respect. Its actual managing chief never wasted a shilling where he
could personally see a way of saving it. To my knowledge he never
overpaid anyone, whilst he was not at all adverse to using the
persuasive argument of patriotism, in order to get a mass of useful work
done for nothing at all. To quote an instance. It was the case of a man
who, at his country's call, had sacrificed an income of considerably
over £1,000 per annum, together with all his home and business
interests, and who in the chief's absence had accepted a thankless and a
dangerous task on the active foreign executive at a remuneration less
than he had been paying a confidential clerk.
The chief on his return to office did not hesitate to ask him to waive
altogether his remuneration, and to pay out of his own pocket
twenty-five per cent. of his personal travelling expenses in addition!
Loyally he agreed, and for months he thus served, although those in
authority above him showed no sign of appreciation or gratitude
afterwards for the sacrifice.
If other Government departments were half as careful over their
expenditure as the Secret Service, the British public would not have
much cause to find fault nor even to grumble. But what hampered its
efficiency, and was neither fair, nor politic, nor economic, was the
policy of the Foreign Office, which permitted others, in no way
whatsoever connected with the Service, or with the Intelligence, to
interfere (during 1914 and 1915) with its work and with members of its
executive both at home and abroad. This was not the worst of it. Not
only was the organisation of a whole and important branch of the
department on two occasions brought to a complete standstill, owing to
the interference of one vainly conceited incompetent who had collected a
string of high-sounding qualifications behind his name, but he caused
money to be scattered in thousands where hundreds, and probably tens, or
a little judicious entertaining, would have been more than sufficient.
If these monies were debited to the Secret Service Department, such a
wrong ought to be righted. In due course the colossal indiscretions of
this interfering bungler involved matters in such a dangerous tangle
that he apparently lost his head, and for a period of time was quite
inaccessible for business. On recovery he coolly announced that he
should wash his hands entirely of all Secret Service affairs. Imagine
the feelings of the patient chiefs of the Foreign Secret Service
Department. They had silently sat for months watching the efforts of
their captured staff hampered at every turn whilst they were
persistently building up a sound, practical, useful organisation, which
a fool and his folly overturned, like a house of cards, in one day. They
had been actually stopped from controlling the movements of their own
men, yet they were responsible for their pay and their expenses; whilst
possibly they had had a heavy load of extravagant outside expenditure
heaped upon their department without any equivalent advantage. They had
been compelled to endure this indignity, because, as Service officers,
they dared not, for the sake of their then present position and possibly
their future, openly remonstrate or criticise, or even report the bare
facts concerning the all-too-palpable incompetence of this somewhat
Powerful Gentleman who had insisted on poking his officious and
inefficacious nose into a department which did not concern him, and the
existence of which it was his loyal duty to ignore.
Without a word of complaint (except to members of his executive, to whom
his language was as emphatic as it was sultry), our good old managing
chief set to work afresh. Within a couple of months he had straightened
out the line, when, to the astonishment of all concerned, the old enemy
appeared once more upon the scene. Moved either by jealousy, or by
vindictive spite at the success which followed where he had failed, he
again attacked the department by hitting at individual members of its
actively working executive! Remember, England was at war at the time;
thus a more unpatriotic action could hardly have been conceived. Yet the
Foreign Office, although impressively advised of the wrong-doing and the
probable consequences, either dared not or would not trouble itself to
investigate the details of the matter.
Yes, verily, my friends, _suppressio veri_ has much to answer for. It is
well for some of those who sit in high offices that a rigid censorship
and secrecy was maintained throughout the war; or the very walls of
England might have arisen in fierce mutiny.
Mr. Le Queux touches the point in his book on "German Spies in England,"
page 92:
"We want no more attempts to gag the Press, no evasive speeches in the
House, no more pandering to the foreign financier, or bestowing upon him
Birthday Honours: no more kid-gloved legislation for our monied enemies
whose sons, in some cases, are fighting against us, but sturdy, honest,
and deliberate action--the action with the iron hand of justice in the
interests of our own beloved Empire."
Whilst Burnod--"Maxims de Guerre de Napoléon"--quotes: "It is the
persons who would deceive the people and exploit them for their own
profit that are keeping them in ignorance."
Napoleon's greatness was achieved by employing only the best men
obtainable for positions of the highest responsibility. His most
important officer in the Secret Service Department seems to have been a
German, by name Karl Schulmiester, who drew the princely salary of
£20,000 per annum. Proved efficiency was the little Corsican's only
passport.
Germany has learnt well from this lesson. Soldiers, sailors, and
business men waged her war. Not a lawyer or professional politician took
part in it except in the trenches. Germany entrusted the administration
of her affairs to experts. Blue blood, patronage, and reputation carried
neither weight nor meaning. It was ruthless, but it was business--it was
war. The magic of a great military name did not save Lieutenant-General
Helmuth von Moltke from dismissal from the Head of the German staff when
the Kaiser was convinced of his inefficiency. Vice-Admiral von Engenohl,
Commander-in-Chief of the High Canal Fleet, had to retire in favour of
Admiral von Pohl owing to failures; whilst the septuagenarian father of
bureaucrats, Dr. Kuhn, had to vacate finance in order to make way for
the professional banker, Dr. Helfferich, who although quite unknown to
distinction was appointed Chancellor of the Imperial Exchequer.
From the very commencement, Germany appointed experts over each
department of her colossal war machine--_expert business men_. Every
solitary industry which has aught to do with war-making was linked up
with the Government. By way of example there was a Cotton Council, a
Coal Advisory Board, a Motor and Rubber Committee, a Chemical Committee,
etc., etc.
That able journalist, Mr. F. W. Wile, has proved again and again by his
articles that war is and always has been a scientific business with
Germany. He argues that there is nothing hyperphysical or mysterious
about the successes she achieved. They were essentially material. German
soldiers are not supermen, or as individual warriors the equal to those
of many other nations. Their victories have been due to a chain of very
obvious and systematic circumstances: to organisation, strict
discipline, thoroughness, and far-sighted expert management; in other
words, making a business of their business and employing therein only
business men who know the business.
Apologising for this partial digression from the main subject matter,
the French Secret Service of modern times has been principally conducted
on the Dossier principle, which came to light in the Dreyfus affair. In
the present war this system has seemingly been of little practical
value, and France has had to depend almost entirely upon her Allies for
foreign intelligence work. Eighteen months after the war commenced her
foreign Secret Service department was said to have practically closed
down for want of finances, so far as the north of Europe was concerned.
Harking back to before the South African War, we find that Paul Kruger,
the late President of the South African Republic, was a great believer
in an efficient up-to-date Secret Service department, and vast sums were
expended by him with little, if any, inquiry or vouching. Messrs. D.
Blackburn and Captain W. Waithman Caddell, in their book on "Secret
Service in South Africa," record how Tjaard Kruger, a son of the
President of the Transvaal Republic, who was for a short time Chief of
the Secret Service Bureau, paid £2,800 in one afternoon in 1906, out of
the many thousands of pounds in gold coinage which he always kept in his
office, to casual callers only, to men who came accredited by some
person in authority as being able to supply valuable information.
Tjaard Kruger was succeeded in office by a most clever and interesting
celebrity, Dr. Leyds, Secretary of State, who was the only man who made
the department a success. He showed the unfailing tact of the born
diplomat. He was a great reader of character and formed a pretty
accurate estimate of a person in a surprisingly short time. He conducted
his affairs so delicately and diplomatically that he won universal
esteem and the staunchest and most loyal adherents. He would hand over
disagreeable work to a subordinate so gracefully that it gave the
impression that he was relegating the work, not because it irked him,
but because he had found a man more capable than himself--the man whom
he had long sought.
Dr. Leyds' letters of instructions to his agents were clear, precise,
and exacting, and provided for every possible contingency; yet had they
fallen into the hands of the unauthorised they would have conveyed
little. These letters bespoke the diplomat. They would have come safely
out of an investigation by a committee of suspicious spy-hunters.
When he required to "draw" any person he would instruct his agents to
ascertain carefully that person's tastes, habits, prejudices, and
amusements. These he would study to the minutest trifle, and by skilful
play upon a weakness, or by the evidence of a similar taste, he would
successfully penetrate to the most exclusive and jealously guarded
sanctum sanctorum.
Mr. Hamil Grant is an author who may be congratulated upon his
carefully-compiled work, entitled, "Spies and Secret Service," which
contains the history of espionage from earliest times to the present
day. He shows how the practice was used by Joshua, David, Absalom, and
the mighty warriors whose deeds of valour are recorded in the Old
Testament. He quotes Alexander Mithridates, the King of Pontus, who
made himself the master of twenty-five languages and spent seven years
wandering through countries he subsequently fought and vanquished. He
traces developments from Alexander the Great, who lived 300 years before
Christ and was the first known to start secret post censorship; from
Hannibal, who could never have crossed from Andalusia over the Pyrenees
and the Alps into the plains of Piedmont to fight the battle of Trebia
(218 B.C.) without the assistance he received from the intelligence
scouts who preceded him. He points out how Cæsar and the great generals
who conquered Europe invariably used scouts and intelligence agents. He
quotes Napoleon's admission of indebtedness to Polyænus for original
strategic ideas of espionage; whilst he has much to say in proving that
no war of either ancient or modern times was successful without it.
His most interesting chapters are those dealing with the rise of the
Prussian empire, which he claims to have been built almost entirely upon
such an unenviable foundation. The author has taken the liberty of
quoting somewhat numerous extracts as follows:
"The Modern System of espionage seems to have been originally
conceived by Frederick the Great of Prussia and subsequently
elaborated into a kind of National Philosophy by writers like
Nietzsche, Treitschke and Bernhardi. But a nation which is ruled as
if it were a country of convicts actual or potential cannot fail
inevitably to develop in a pronounced degree those symptoms of
character and predisposition which land its converts in the
correction institutions where they are most commonly to be found.
"Baron Stein, a well-known statesman of the Napoleonic period, was
responsible for the practical application of the theories in the
philosophy of Frederick the Great. He was followed by the
celebrated Dr. Stieber, who had the handling of millions of pounds
at his discretion and whose character had all those elements which
were associated with the criminal who operates along the higher
lines. He was a barrister, born in Prussia in 1818, and he first
curried favour with the officials by persuading his friends and
relations to enter into illegal acts in order that he might betray
them for his own advantage. The German word _stieber_ seems
appropriate; in our language it means sleuth-hound. In appearance
he represented an inquisitor of old. His eyes were almost white and
colourless, whilst there were hard drawn lines about his mouth.
With subordinates he adopted the loud airs of a master towards
slaves. In the presence of high authorities he was self-abasing and
subdued, with a smile of deferential oiliness and acquiescence,
with much rubbing of hands.
"He seemed to have commenced Secret Service work with a standing
salary of £1,200 a year, in addition to which he received side
emoluments. He organised an internal and external service with
complete independence from all other official bodies, subsidised by
full and adequate appropriations from Parliament. His system was
thorough. He commenced by spying into the privacies of the Royal
family and Court and Government officials, Army and Naval officers,
and everybody of the slightest importance, down to the labourers'
and the workmen's organisations. In a very few years his nominal
salary had risen to £18,000, but about 1863, in spite of his having
been honoured with every German decoration conceivable, he was for
a couple of years suspended from office, during which period he
organised the Russian Secret Police.
"With Stieber's assistance, Bismarck struck down Denmark in 1864,
Austria in 1866, and France in 1870. Even Moltke, the great
Prussian organiser of victory, was astonished and astounded at the
vast amount of valuable military information by which Stieber had
facilitated the rapid advance of his armies.
"As a preliminary journey into France in 1867, Stieber appointed
1,000 spies, within the invasion zone, with head centres at
Brussels, Lausanne, and Geneva; and on his return he handed over to
Bismarck some 1,650 reports which contained full military and
original maps of the French frontiers and the invasion zone. Year
by year this army of spies was increased, until in 1870 Stieber
had between 30,000 and 40,000 on his pay-roll.
"In 1867 an attempt was made on the life of Alexander the Second of
Russia when on a visit to Paris in order to create a closer
Franco-Russian Alliance, which dastardly act was planned by Stieber
in order to be frustrated by him. When the assassin was tried for
his life the jury were bought by Prussian gold to acquit the
accused in order that the two nations could be kept apart and the
object of the journey thereby frustrated, but whether it was the
fertile brain of Bismarck or Stieber who planned the scheme of the
plot will never be known.
"In 1870 Stieber boasted that he controlled the opinions of some
eighty-five writers in the French daily and weekly newspapers,
furthermore that he had paid sympathisers on the Austrian, Italian,
and English Press in addition.
"By 1880 Stieber and Prince Bismarck had extended their organised
system materially as well as personally, which can be seen in the
present day network of railway lines and stations controlled solely
for militarist uses rather than for the development of the country;
whilst the funds demanded yearly from the Reichstag for Secret
Service work increased proportionately.
"No one but a native of Prussia was allowed to hold any responsible
position in Prussia, yet in 1884 there were 15,000 Germans or
semi-foreigners serving on the French railways, all of them more or
less in the employ of the German Espionage Bureau and prepared to
destroy the plant, the lines, the buildings, and to paralyse French
mobilisation at the word of command.
"In addition to this, Stieber's plans embraced upheavals in all
industrial classes.
"It was German gold which instigated and carried through the
Dreyfus agitation, also the Association Bill which brought about
the disestablishment of the Church of France and the so-called
Agadir incident in the spring of 1911, which coincided so
remarkably with the devastating strikes in Great Britain.
"It is a cry of the Fatherland that every good citizen is required
to pay taxes, build barracks, and shut his mouth.
"The recent agitations in Ireland and practically all the strikes
in England have been indirectly supported by German gold; to which
the circulation of the extraordinary manifesto in August, 1914, was
also directly traceable. £4,000 was used for the purposes of the
French Railway Strike of 1893; in the same year a local
subscription of £48 was raised for a bootmakers' strike at Amiens,
whilst an alleged sympathetic £1,000 was sent from Frankfort.
"The English suffragettes are also said to have received thousands
of pounds from unknown sources which in reality were German.
"Stieber died in 1892, possessed of over £100,000.
"As a part of his deep-rooted policy multitudes of Germans were
sent to France, England, and elsewhere to establish small
businesses, practically every one of which was subsidised by the
German Secret Service Office; as also were German clerks and others
who could obtain positions giving access to information of any
value. Stieberism practically demoralised the entire German nation,
whilst it inoculated its poison into other European countries in
such a manner that their energies and sound judgment seem to have
been paralysed in more ways than one.
"Stieberists follow the same creed as Jesuits, 'All is justifiable
in the interests of the future of the Fatherland.'
"Major Steinhauer succeeded Stieber, and the present Secret Service
Bureau of Berlin was in his hands when this war started. He also
was a past master in the art of organisation. The entry into
Brussels of 700,000 men without inconvenience or mishap was
practically entirely due to his organisation. Over 8,000 spies had
been placed on the various routes between Aix-la-Chapelle and Saint
Quentin, whilst those in the Belgian capital had some two or three
years previously actually worked out on paper the billets and
lodgings for all those troops in advance.[6]
"The ordinary German Secret Service agent started with a salary of
£200 a year and 10s. a day expenses, with a bonus for each job to
an unlimited amount. Whilst abroad or on any matter of delicacy,
out-of-pocket allowances were increased to £2 a day, but 33% of all
current monies owing was kept back as a safety-valve until he left
the service.
"Amongst the members were to be found Princes, Dukes, Counts,
Barons, Lawyers, Clergymen, Doctors, Actresses, Actors, Mondaines,
Demi-Mondaines, Journalists, Authors, Money-lenders, Jockeys,
Printers, Waiters, Porters; practically every class of society was
represented.
"The remuneration cannot be considered high when compared with the
dangers undertaken, and since no official countenance was ever
given (nor indeed expected) on the part of the agents once one of
them fell into the hands of the enemy, the game was far from being
worth the worry and strain it entailed.
"The training and examination before efficiency was reached were
far more difficult than our cadets would have to pass at Woolwich
or Sandhurst, or even officers for a staff college appointment."
The head offices of the German Secret Service Department, which was
presided over by the Kaiser himself, were situated in Berlin at
Koenigergratzerstrasse No. 70. So far as callers were concerned the same
routine was followed as at our War Office and Admiralty: the portals
were guarded by commissionaires who kept records of every visitor, with
such particulars as they could gather. Army or Naval officers were in
charge of all departments. They planned the work, but they never or very
rarely executed it. The secretaries and general assistants were all
civilians. No Ambassadors, Ministers, secretaries of legation, envoys,
plenipotentiaries, consuls, or recognised officials were permitted to
interfere in any way with the work of this department, although they
undoubtedly gave it every material assistance whenever they could.
History has clearly proved this. No jealousies or acts of favouritism to
relatives and the nominees of indirect influences were countenanced.
For such an offence the very highest in office would at once be deposed
and punished, whilst there was no appeal to a Parliament, Congress,
Chamber of Deputies, or political newspapers, against the Kaiser's
decision. He was not only the supreme head of what he himself described
as "My army of spies scattered over Great Britain and France, as it is
over North and South America, as well as the other parts of the world,
where German interests may come to a clash with a foreign power," but he
took a very keen interest in their individual work. Efficiency and
obedience only counted in his estimation.
The persons selected for this work were specially trained in preparation
for the prospective tasks ahead of them. For days, weeks, and months, as
the case may be, they were grounded in topography, trigonometry,
mechanics, army and naval work; with a mass of detail which might be of
service, possibly when least expected. Their studies embraced visits to
the big Government construction works and yards; they were made familiar
with all necessary knowledge concerning war-ships, submarines,
torpedoes, aircraft, guns and fortifications; silhouettes of vessels;
uniforms of officers; secret surveys of interesting districts; signals,
codes, telegraphs and multitudinous other matters which the
thorough-going German considered absolutely essential to the training of
an efficient Secret Service agent.
Mr. Le Queux, to whom all honour is due for his persistent and patriotic
efforts in unmasking German spies, their systems and organisations in
this country, corroborates Mr. Hamil in recording that the German Secret
Service dates back to about 1850, when an obscure Saxon named Stieber
began the espionage of revolutionary socialists, from which original
effort the present department originated. Also that the work was
fostered under the royal patronage of Frederick William, the King of
Prussia, which guarded it against anti-counter plotting from both
militarism and police, and which permitted it to grow and flourish until
it ultimately became the most powerful and feared department of the
State. In August, 1914, with an income approximating £750,000 per
annum, the agents of the German Secret Service extended all over the
world, organised to perfection as are the veins and arteries
perambulating the flesh and tissues of a man's body.
Herr Stieber's present-day successor, Herr Steinhauer, also seemed to
enjoy the full confidence of His Majesty the Kaiser. He was then between
forty and fifty years of age, charming in manners, excellent in
education and of good presence. This officer of the Prussian Guard is
well known throughout the capitals of Europe. He has collected
information concerning every foreign land which is almost incredible. He
had maps of the British Isles which in minute detail and accuracy
surpass our own Ordnance Survey. The Norwegian fiords were better known
to German navigation lieutenants than to the native pilots and fishermen
who daily use them. These are facts which practical experts in many
countries have seen put to successful tests since the world-war started.
For some years Mr. Le Queux made it his hobby to follow up the movements
of German spies in England. He collected information of value and
importance which he says he placed in the hands of our Government
officials, but that our Government departments were so hopelessly bound
up and entangled by red-tapeism that for years his communications and
warnings fell upon ears that would not listen, eyes that would not see,
brains that would not believe, and hands that would not act.
The late Lord Roberts, who devoted his life to his country, referred to
this in the House of Lords some ten years before the present war, but
the Liberal and Radical politicians scoffed and laughed at him; as they
did when he urged other reforms so sound, so urgent, and so necessary
for our very existence. Now prayers are offered for the dead who never
would have died had these warnings been accepted in time.
German espionage in England has been worked from Brussels, the chief
bureau being situate in the Montagne de la Coeur; whilst Ostend and
Boulogne were favoured rendezvous for those engaged in the work and the
go-betweens.
Large English towns and counties were divided into groups or sections.
In each were selected numerous acting agents who received small
periodical payments for services rendered. Such sections acted under the
supervision of a Secret Service agent, the whole system being visited
from time to time by agents higher up in the service, who paid over all
monies in cash, collected reports, and gave further instructions. The
favourite cloak or guise to conceal identity was usually that of a
commercial traveller.
It is a great pity that full reports of various trials of German spies
captured in England have not been permitted to be made public in the
Press, passing, of course, under a reasonable censorship which would
have deleted only such parts as referred to matters affecting the safety
of the realm. The scales would then perhaps have fallen from the eyes of
our fatuous and blinded public. And many another secret enemy who was,
or had been, working throughout the war, would have been reported and
laid by the heels; as well as many a noble life spared which has fallen
through such short-sighted folly.
If the public are under the impression that the great round-up of over
14,000 German, Austrian, and foreign spies so actively at work in
England at the outbreak of war, and within a few weeks thereof, was due
to our Secret Service Department, it is labouring under a great
delusion. The credit for this exceedingly valuable work is due to the
energy, zeal, and intelligence of Scotland Yard, backed up by thoroughly
efficient police officers throughout the country, which force is without
doubt the finest in the world.
Our censorships are also separate departments run on their own lines and
quite apart from any direct control from the Secret Service.
On January 7th, 1916, Mr. J. L. Balderston, the special correspondent of
the _Pittsburg Despatch_, U.S.A., published data he had collected in
Europe showing that German propaganda had been carried on with feverish
energy in eighteen neutral countries, two of which had been won over at
a cost of £19,000,000, and one lost after a vain expenditure of
£10,000,000. During the first eighteen months of war, Germany had spent
no less than £72,600,000 to foster intimidation, persuasion, and
bribery, in conjunction with her colossal Secret Service system.
The following extract gives the estimated expenditure in each country
where German agents were at work:
United States £15,000,000
Turkey 14,000,000
Italy 10,000,000
Bulgaria 5,000,000
Greece 4,000,000
China 4,000,000
Sweden 3,000,000
Roumania 3,000,000
Persia 3,000,000
Spain 3,000,000
Holland 2,000,000
Norway 1,600,000
Denmark 1,000,000
Switzerland 1,000,000
Argentine 1,000,000
Brazil 1,000,000
Chili 600,000
Peru 400,000
-----------
Total £72,600,000
-----------
The moderation of the estimate that only £15,000,000 has been spent in
influencing the United States, a figure half or one-third of that often
mentioned in America, is also characteristic of the other estimates, all
of which are probably too low, since they deal only with expenditures
which have been traced or have produced observable results, such as
harems for Persian potentates, or palaces for Chinese mandarins, or
motor-cars for poor Greek lawyers who happen to be members of Parliament
on the King's side.
It should also be noted that no attempt is made here to deal with the
German system of espionage in hostile countries, or with the organised,
but of course secret, attempt to sow sedition among the subjects of
Great Britain, France, and Italy, in India, South Africa, Egypt,
Tripoli, and Tunis.
To the German Government, the stirring up of trouble in the dependencies
of her enemies is an aim of perhaps equal importance with that of
winning over neutrals to be actively or passively pro-German.
Returning to the actual work of the English Secret Service agents, it
is soon noted that any ordinary British Service officer of a few years'
standing is a marked man in whatever society he may find himself. His
bearing and mannerisms invariably give him away. There may be
exceptions, in which he can disguise himself for a time, but that time
will be found to be much too short. There are, of course, in the Service
many officers who are different from the ordinary standard, men whose
veins tingle with the wanderlust of the explorer or adventurer, or who
are of abnormal or eccentric temperament; men who generally hold
themselves aloof from the fashionable society vanities, which in the
past have been dangled too much and too closely round our
stripe-bedecked uniforms to be good for efficiency. But even with these
men, after they have been a few years in the Service, they find that
their greatest difficulty is to conceal that fact. It should be
unnecessary to add that for the particular work which is under
discussion it could hardly be considered an advantage for anyone to
start out labelled with his profession and nationality. What ruled Rome
so successfully in olden times should have taught the world its lesson;
namely, a triumvirate.
In this particular venture, a naval man, a military man, and a civilian
strike one as a good combination to be allotted to a given centre of
importance. A paradoxical coalition abroad, in that it should ever be
apart and yet together; each should know the other and yet be strangers;
each should be in constant touch with the others' movements and yet be
separated by every outward sign. The duties of Service men should be
limited to those of consulting experts, whilst specially selected and
trained individuals should be employed to carry out active requirements.
In some places and in some instances Service men can undertake executive
work better perhaps than anyone else could do; but these opportunities
are limited. Perhaps they may almost be classed as the exceptions which
prove the rule.
There seems to be an unwritten rule in the British Secret Service that
no one should be engaged for any position of any importance below the
rank of captain. In the head office it was a saying: "We are all
captains here." And it may be assumed that every officer so engaged in
the Intelligence also ranked as a staff officer.
Most people have an idea that the pay in the British Secret Service is
high, even princely. On this they may as well at once undeceive
themselves; the pay is mean compared with the risks run, yet officers
are keen on entering the B.S.S., as it is known to be a sure
stepping-stone to promotion and soft fat future jobs.
Germany was said to vote about £750,000 per annum to cover direct Secret
Service work, in addition to £250,000 for subsidising the foreign Press;
£1,000,000 each year in all. Yet certain members of the House of Commons
grudgingly and somewhat reluctantly gave their consent to the £50,000
originally asked for at the end of 1914 by the English Secret Service
Department.
The actual amounts voted and expended on English Secret Service work are
shown hereunder.
_Year ending 31st March._ _Grant._ _Expended._
1912 £50,000 £48,996
1913 50,000 48,109
1914 50,000 46,840
1915 110,000 107,596
1916 400,000 398,698
1917 620,000 593,917
1918 750,000 740,984
1919 1,150,000 1,207,697
1920 200,000 (_not known_)
How much of the money was actually available for direct Secret Service
work, and how much may have been diverted into other or indirect
channels (_exempli gratia_--the Liberal solatium of £1,200 per annum to
Mr. Masterman for perusing foreign newspapers)[7] is not known; nor has
the government allowed any explanation to be given.
Mr. Thomas Beach, of Colchester, Essex, whose identity was for so many
years and so very successfully concealed under the pseudonym of Major
Henri le Caron, and by whose energies the United Kingdom was saved the
loss of many millions of money and many thousands of lives, proves, from
so far back as the year 1867 and for the twenty-five years following,
during which period he was employed in the Secret Service of the British
Government and stultifying the popular fiction which associates with
such work fabulous payments and frequent rewards, that "there is in this
service only ever-present danger and constantly recurring difficulty;
but of recompense a particularly scant supply."
At the conclusion of his somewhat interesting volume "The Recollections
of a Spy," he complains bitterly of the meanness and cheese-paring
methods of the British Government: "On this question of Secret Service
money I could say much. The miserable pittance doled out for the purpose
of fighting such an enemy as the Clan-na-Gael becomes perfectly
ludicrous in the light of such facts as I have quoted in connection with
the monetary side of the dynamite campaign." After quoting the vast sums
used by the enemy he adds: "How on earth can the English police and
their assistants in the Secret Service hope to grapple with such
heavily-financed plots as these on the miserable sums granted by
Parliament for the purpose?... Some day, however, a big thing will
happen--and then the affrighted and indignant British citizen will turn.
The fault will be the want of a perfect system of Secret Service,
properly financed.... Imagine offering men in position a retainer of £20
a month with a very odd cheque for expenses thrown in! The idea is
ridiculous. I have heard it urged that the thought of Secret Service is
repugnant to the British heart, wherein are instilled the purest
principles of freedom. The argument has sounded strange in my ears when
I remembered that London, as somebody has said, is the cesspool of
Europe, the shelter of the worst ruffians of every country and clime.
America is called the Land of the Free, but she could give England
points in the working of the Secret Service, for there there is no
stinting of men or money."
What a contrast were the life and actions of this man to Nathan Hale,
one of the heroes of the American War of Independence, who said: "Every
kind of service necessary for the public good becomes honourable by
being necessary. If one desires to be useful, if the exigencies of his
country demand a peculiar service, its claims to the performance of that
service are imperious."
When caught and sentenced to be shot he exclaimed:
"I only regret that I have but one life to sacrifice for my country."
Throughout the period that I was connected with the B.S.S. there were
constant difficulties about money. Had not my personal credit been good,
which enabled me to raise large amounts almost everywhere I happened to
travel, I, or my colleagues, might have been stranded again and again.
It was nothing unusual for appeals to be made to me to act as banker and
Good Samaritan until long-deferred payments eventually arrived.
In the early days most of the B.S.S. agents travelling abroad seemed to
labour under the same difficulty: a shortage of funds and overdue
accounts wanting payment. It may not have been any fault of, but merely
an eccentricity of, our good old managing chief; be that as it may,
impecuniosity never bothered me. Some of the others got very angry about
it, whilst their irritation increased as their banking accounts became
more heavily overdrawn.
So far as actual pay went, a B.S.S. man drew the equivalent to his
ordinary army or naval pay, with nothing over for rations or extras. He,
however, returned a list of his travelling expenses and hotel bills
which were agreed to be refunded each month. If he were a married man,
he had to pay his wife's and his family's expenses out of his own
pocket, should it be necessary for any of them to accompany him, which
often absorbed the whole of his pay and a good bit above it. If he
entertained anyone with a view to drawing out some point of useful
intelligence, it would be passed in general expenses, provided the
outlay was exceedingly moderate. But the members of the executive with
whom I came in contact were inclined to be of the parsimonious type,
much too much afraid to spend a sovereign, either because they could not
really afford it, or for fear they would never see it back again. Their
entertaining was conspicuous by its absence, which necessitated a rather
heavier drain upon my pocket and upon my good nature. It had at times to
be done, and someone had to do it; that someone was nearly always
myself. The Chief preached economy at all times and he religiously
practised it. It was paradoxical in that if a big amount was wanted for
some exceedingly doubtful purpose no limit seemed to be made; the
wherewithal was almost certain to be forthcoming to meet the demand. But
the loyal Britisher who came along to help the Service and his country
in her hour of need, who freely and ungrudgingly offered to sacrifice
everything he possessed in order to serve, who worked for nothing or
practically nothing, and who perhaps paid a good part of his own
expenses, received an absurdly small remuneration and little if any
thanks; most certainly he never received a line in writing from anyone
in high authority to express his country's gratitude.
Those who sit in chairs in Whitehall take their regular fat salaries and
periodical distinctive honours as a matter of course. They are the men
who watch the wheels revolving. They collect and hand over results, the
fruit garnered in by others working in the twilight which shades their
individuality. With the Powers-that-be these men (the gentlemen who sit
in chairs) are ever in the official limelight, whilst the reckless,
devil-may-care workers over the horizon, the men who carry their life in
their hands and who go right into the lion's den to collect facts and
data which often mean success or defeat in battles raged elsewhere, or
who manipulate and pull the strings on the spot, seem to be ignored and
forgotten. The secrecy of the Service is so absolute that no mention of
the way their work is accomplished may be made. The cloak of mystery is
drawn so completely over the whole department that no matter what
sacrifice a member may make for his country's sake, no matter what
bravery he may have exhibited in almost every instance alone and
unsupported, probably in an enemy's domain as one man facing a host of
his country's enemies, his deeds are unrecorded, unhonoured and unsung.
Whilst he is in the Service he is merely a cypher, a unit, an atom. When
he has left it he is hardly remembered as once a member. What of it? He
only did his duty. Now he is out of the Service he is no longer
interesting, he ceases to exist. The big wheel of life continues to
revolve. The B.S.S. Department is but a very minute little wheel which
cogs into the larger machinery of State in its own respective corner. As
the rim of this very minor wheel comes up from the dark recesses of the
working world and the separate cogs become revealed, those in authority
who sit watching each and every cog, upon the stamina and reliability of
which so much depends, from time to time find one that cannot stand the
strain, because it is hurt or damaged, either in body, or in mind, or in
fortune. It is at once removed. We are at war. Sentiment is dead and
buried, except with the weak, who in life's battles are crushed and
accordingly find themselves forced to the wall. Any cog believed to show
signs of weakness is instantly extracted, and those who sit and watch
the wheels revolve seek another piece of tougher and believed to be
better material which may come to hand, and which they force into the
vacant space created. For a second perhaps the discarded hard-used cog
is looked at with admiration for past and valued service when knowingly
driven at highest pressure; or with regret at having to part with such a
tried and trusted friend; then it is hurled into outer darkness, on to
the scrap-heap of broken and forgotten humanity. The new cog is pushed
in and hammered home, it is smeared with the grease of experience, and
the wheel continues its monotonous revolution.
Such is a good similitude of the short and exciting life of a Secret
Service agent.
FOOTNOTES:
[5] "So far from co-operating, the Army and the Navy were rival
purchasers of aircraft."--Mr. Ellis Griffith, House of Commons, February
16th, 1916. See also Air Defence Debate in House of Commons, March 22nd,
1916. At Hull, which was under military control, it was rumoured that a
certain naval officer, in command of a small warship lying in the Humber
at the time of one of the first of the Zeppelin raids, was
court-martialled because he fired at and hit one of the Zeppelins whilst
it was bombarding the town, without having first received an order from
the Military permitting him to do so. Annals of Red-tapeism, June, 1915.
[6] This fact refutes the theoristic argument that Germany was forced at
the eleventh hour to invade Belgium.
[7] Reports of House of Commons.