THE PERIL OF THE ENEMY ALIEN
"_Every enemy alien is known, and is now under constant police
surveillance._"--Mr. Tennant, Under-Secretary for War, in the House of
Commons, March 3rd.
One of the gravest perils with which the country is still faced is that
of the enemy alien.
Notwithstanding all that has been written and said upon this most
serious question, Ministers are still content to pursue a shuttlecock
policy, in which there is very little satisfaction for any intelligent
patriot.
Each time the subject is brought up in the House of Commons there is
an apparent intention of the Government to wilfully throw dust into
the eyes of the public, and prevent the whole mystery of the official
protection afforded to our enemies being sifted to the bottom. A
disgraceful illustration of this was given on March 3rd, when Mr.
Joynson-Hicks moved:
"That in the opinion of this House it is desirable that the whole
administration of the Acts and Regulations concerning aliens and
suspected persons should be centred in the hands of one Minister, who
should be responsible to the House."
The debate which followed was illuminating. Sir Henry Dalziel, who
is strongly in favour of a Central Board to deal with spies among
us--a suggestion I made in my recent book "German Spies in England,"
as a satisfactory solution of the problem--said, in the course of a
splendid speech, that the Government knew that, at the present moment,
there was a settled spy-system, and there was no use denying it. As
the _Daily Telegraph_ on the following day pointed out, that there is
such a system is almost as natural an assumption as that the enemy
possesses an army service organisation or a Press censorship. I have
already pointed out, in various books I have written, that systematic
espionage is, and has been for many years, a most cherished part of
German war administration, developed with characteristic thoroughness.
The question is whether that department of the enemy's activity has, or
has not, been stamped out as regards this country; and it would be idle
to pretend that there is any public confidence that it has been stamped
out.
There is an absence of vigour and an absence of system about the
dealing with this source of danger, and I maintain that the national
safety requires the taking of this matter more seriously, and the
placing of it upon a satisfactory footing. The Government admitted
that, on March 3rd, _seven hundred male enemy aliens_ were living in
the East Coast prohibited area, and we know that arrangements for their
control are so futile as to leave, quite unmolested, some individuals
whose known connections expose them to the highest degree of suspicion.
Of one such notorious case, Mr. Bonar Law--who cannot, surely, be
accused of spy-mania--declared that he would as soon have allowed a
German army to land as allow the person in question to be at large in
this country. How the arrangement has worked in another particular
case was exposed in some detail by Mr. Butcher. The lady concerned is
closely related to more than one of those in power in Germany. Her
case was reported to the War Office. The War Office called upon the
General Officer commanding in the Northern District to take action. He
requested the police to make inquiries, and the Chief Constable of the
East Riding subsequently reported, "strongly recommending" the removal
of the lady from the prohibited area. The General accepted this advice,
and an order was made for her removal on January 25th. It was never
executed; and on February 7th it was withdrawn.
Such is one illustration of the utter hopelessness of the present state
of affairs. And yet, in face of it, Mr. Tennant, Under-Secretary for
War, actually rose and made the definite assertion _that every enemy
alien was known and constantly watched_!
Could any greater and more glaring official untruth be told?
Is every enemy alien known, I ask? Let us examine a case in point, one
in which I have made personal investigation, and to the truth of which
a dozen officers of His Majesty's service, and also civilians, are
ready to testify.
Investigations recently made in certain German quarters in London,
notably in the obscure foreign restaurants in the neighbourhood of
Tottenham Court Road, where men--many of them recently released from
internment-camps--and women meet nightly and toast to the Day of
Britain's destruction, revealed to me a startling fact. Here, posing
as an Italian and a neutral, I learnt facts regarding the movements
of German aircraft long before they were known either to our own
authorities or to the Press. For several weeks this fact, I confess,
caused me considerable thought. Some secret means of communication
must, I realised, exist between the enemy's camp and London, perhaps by
wireless, perhaps by the new German-laid cable, the shore-end of which
is at Bacton, in Norfolk, and which, eighteen months ago, in company
with the German telegraph-engineers, I assisted to test as it was laid
across the North Sea to Nordeney. In the archives of the Intelligence
Department of the War Office will be found my report, together with a
copy of the first message transmitted by the new cable from Norfolk to
Germany, a telegram from one of the Kaiser's sons who happened to be in
Scotland at the time, and addressed to the Emperor, which read: "Hurrah
for a strong navy!"--significant indeed in the light of recent events!
I was wondering if, by any secret means, this cable could be in
operation when, on the afternoon of February 23rd, an officer of the
Naval Armoured Car Squadron called upon me and invited me to assist in
hunting spies in Surrey. The suggestion sounded exciting. Signals had
been seen for a month or so past, flashed from a certain house high
upon the Surrey hills. Would I assist in locating them, and prosecuting
a full inquiry?
Within half an hour I was in a car speeding towards the point where
mystery brooded, and which we did not reach till after dark. A
gentleman living three miles across the valley, whose house commanded
full view of the house under suspicion--a large one with extensive
grounds--at once placed a room at our disposal, wherein we sat and
watched. In the whole of these investigations I was assisted by an
officer who was an expert in signalling and wireless, a signaller of
the service, two other officers equally expert in reading the Morse
code, while I myself have qualified both in Morse and wireless, and
hold the Postmaster-General's licence.
On the previous evening an all-night vigil had been kept, and messages
had been read, but I only here record my own experiences of this
exciting spy-hunt. On reaching our point of vantage I learned that
suspicion had first been aroused by a mysterious and intense white
light being shown from a window in the country mansion in question,
which was situated upon so strategic a point that it could be seen very
many miles in the direction of London. And there, sure enough, was the
one brilliant light--at all other windows of the house the blinds being
drawn--shining like a beacon all over the country. It had shone first
at 6.30 p.m. that night, and, as I watched, it showed till 6.48, when
it disappeared. After three minutes it was shown till 7.30 exactly,
when suddenly it signalled in Morse the code-letters "S.M." repeated
twice, and then disappeared till 9 o'clock, when again the same signal
was made. The light remained full on for ten minutes, and was then
suddenly switched off.
This was certainly remarkable. The officers with me--all experts in
signalling--were unanimous as to the two letters, and also to their
repetition. These signals, I learned, had been seen times without
number, but until the smart young officer who had called upon me had
noticed them, no action had been taken.
Having established that mysterious signalling was really in
progress, I set forth upon further investigation. Taking my own
signalling-apparatus, a very strong electric lamp with accumulators
and powerful reflectors, which would show for fifteen miles or more,
I got into the car with my companions--who were eager to assist--and,
having consulted ordnance-maps and compass, we went to a spot high-up
in an exposed position, where I anticipated the answering light from
the mansion might be seen.
We found ourselves in a private park, upon a spot which, by day,
commands an immense stretch of country, and from which it is said that
upon a clear day the Sussex coast can be seen. Here we erected our
signalling-apparatus and waited in patience. The night proved bitterly
cold, and as the hours crept slowly by, the sleet began to cut our
faces. Yet all our eyes were fixed upon that mysterious house which had
previously signalled.
For hours we waited in vain until, of a sudden, quite unexpectedly from
the direction of London, we saw another intense white light shining
from out the darkness. For a full half-hour it remained there, a beacon
like the other. Then suddenly it began winking, and this was the
code-message it sent:
"S.H.I.S. (pause) H. 5. (pause) S.H.I.S.F. (pause with the light full
on for two minutes). I.S. I.E. (pause) E.S.T. (light out)."
Turning my signal-lamp in its direction, I repeated the first portion
of the mysterious message, and then, pretending not to understand,
asked for a repetition. At once this was given, and, with my
companions, I received it perfectly clearly!
Sorely tempted as I was to signal further, I refrained for fear of
arousing suspicion, and, actuated by patriotic motives, we agreed at
once to prosecute our inquiry further, and then leave it to "the proper
authorities" to deal with the matter.
Through the whole of that night--an intensely cold one--we remained on
watch upon one of the highest points in Surrey, a spot which I do not
here indicate for obvious reasons--and not until the grey dawn at last
appeared did we relinquish our watchfulness.
All next day, assisted by the same young officer who had first noticed
the unusual lights, I spent in making confidential inquiry regarding
the mysterious house and elicited several interesting facts, one
being that the family, who were absent from the house showing the
lights, employed a servant who, though undoubtedly German--for, by a
ruse, I succeeded in obtaining the address of this person's family in
Germany--was posing as Swiss. That a brisk correspondence had been kept
up with persons in Germany was proved in rather a curious way, and by
long and diligent inquiry many other highly interesting facts were
elicited. With my young officer friend and a gentleman who rendered
us every assistance, placing his house and his car at our disposal,
we crept cautiously up to the house in the early hours one morning,
narrowly escaping savage dogs, while one adventure of my own was to
break through a boundary fence, only to find myself in somebody's
chicken-run!
That night was truly one of adventure. Nevertheless, it established
many things--one being that in the room whence the signals emanated was
a three-branch electrolier with unusually strong bulbs, while behind
it, set over the mantelshelf, was a mirror, or glazed picture, to act
as a reflector in the direction of London. The signals were, no doubt,
made by working the electric-light switch.
The following night saw us out again, for already reports received had
established a line of signals from a spot on the Kent coast to London
and farther north, other watchers being set in order to compare notes
with us. Again we watched the beacon-light on the mysterious house. We
saw those mysterious letters "S.M."--evidently of significance--winked
out in Morse, and together we watched the answering signals. All the
evening the light remained full on until at 1.30 a.m. we once more
watched "S.M." being sent, while soon after 2 a.m. the light went out.
In the fourteen exciting days and nights which followed, I motored many
hundreds of miles over Surrey, Sussex, and Kent, instituting inquiries
and making a number of amazing discoveries, not the least astounding of
which was that, only one hour prior to the reception of that message
on the first evening of our vigil--"H. 5"--five German aeroplanes
had actually set out from the Belgian coast towards England! That
secret information was being sent from the Kent coast to London was
now proved, not only at one point, but at several, where I have since
waited and watched, and, showing signals in the same code, have been at
once answered and repeated. And every night, until the hour of writing,
this same signalling from the coast to London is in progress, and has
been watched by responsible officers of His Majesty's Service.
After the first nights of vigilance, I had satisfied myself that
messages in code were being sent, so I reported--as a matter of
urgency--to the Intelligence Department of the War Office--that
department of which Mr. McKenna, on March 3rd, declared, "There is no
more efficient department of the State." The result was only what the
public might expect. Though this exposure was vouched for by experts in
signalling, men wearing His Majesty's uniform, all the notice taken of
it has been
_War Office,
Whitehall,
S.W._
27th February 1915.
_The Director of Military Operations presents his compliments to_ Mr.
W. Le Queux, _and begs to acknowledge, with thanks, the receipt of his
letter of the_ 25th inst. _which is receiving attention_.
a mere _printed acknowledgment_--reproduced above--that my report had
been received, while to my repeated appeals that proper inquiry be made
I have not even received a reply!
But further. While engaged in watching in another part of Surrey on the
night of March 3rd, certain officers of the Armoured Car Squadron, who
were keeping vigil upon the house of mystery, saw some green and white
rockets being discharged from the top of the hill. Their suspicions
aroused, they searched and presently found, not far from the house in
question, a powerful motor-car of German make containing three men.
The latter when challenged gave no satisfactory account of themselves,
therefore the officers held up the car while one of them telephoned to
the Admiralty for instructions. The reply received was "that they had
no right to detain the car!" But, even in face of this official policy
of do-nothing, they took off the car's powerful searchlight, which was
on a swivel, and sent it to the Admiralty for identification.
This plain straightforward statement of what is nightly in progress
can be substantiated by dozens of persons, and surely, in face of the
observations taken by service men themselves--the names of whom I will
readily place at the disposal of the Government--it is little short
of a public scandal that no attempt has been made to inquire into the
matter or to seize the line of spies simultaneously. It really seems
plain that to-day the enemy alien may work his evil will anywhere as
a spy. On the other hand, it is a most heinous offence for anybody to
ride a cycle without a back-lamp!
It will be remembered that in Norfolk it has been found, by Mr.
Holcombe Ingleby, M.P. for King's Lynn, that the Zeppelin raid on the
East Coast was directed by a mysterious motor-car with a searchlight.
Therefore the apathy of the Admiralty in not ordering full inquiry into
the case in question will strike the reader as extraordinary.
This is the sort of proceeding that gives force to the contention
of those supporting the motion of Mr. Joynson-Hicks in the House of
Commons, that the whole matter of spies ought to be placed in the
hands of a special authority devoted to it alone, and responsible to
Parliament. As things stand, the country is certainly in agreement with
Mr. Bonar Law in believing that the Government "have not sufficiently
realised the seriousness of this danger, and have not taken every step
to make it as small as possible." Most people will agree with Mr. John
S. Scrimgeour, who, commenting upon the shuffling of the Government,
said:
"Let the Press cease from blaming the strikers. Also let 'the men in
power' cease from their censuring, for very shame. Can I, or any man
in the street, believe that we are 'fighting for our lives' while
the enemy lives contentedly among us? Read the debate, and take as
samples mentioned therein--'Brother of the Governor of Liége,' 'German
Financial Houses,' and 'Baron von Bissing.' Don't make scapegoats of
these working-men, or even of the non-enlisting ones, while such is
the case. Neither they, nor any one else in his senses, can believe
in the seriousness of this 'life struggle' while the above state of
things continues. It is laughable--or deadly."
The Intelligence Department of the War Office--that Department so
belauded by Mr. McKenna--certainly did not display an excess of zeal in
the case of signalling in Surrey, for, to my two letters begging that
inquiry be made as a matter of urgency, I was not even vouchsafed the
courtesy of a reply. Yet I was not surprised, for in a case at the end
of January in which two supposed Belgian refugees, after living in one
of our biggest seaports and making many inquiries there, being about
to escape to Antwerp, I warned that same Department and urged that
they should be questioned before leaving London. I gave every detail,
even to the particular boat by which they were leaving for Flushing.
No notice, however, was taken of my report, and not until _three days
after they had left for the enemy's camp_ did I receive the usual
_printed acknowledgment_ that my report had been received!"
That night-signalling has long been in progress in the South of England
is shown by the following. Written by a well-known gentleman, it
reached me while engaged in my investigations in Surrey. He says:
"The following facts have been brought to my notice, and may be of
interest to you. In the first week of October six soldiers were out on
patrol duty around Folkestone looking for spies--always on night-duty.
"One night they saw Morse signalling going on on a hill along the sea
outside Folkestone. The signalling was in code. They divided into two
parties of three, and proceeded to surround the place. On approaching,
a shot was heard, and a bullet went through the black oilskin coat of
one man (they were all wearing these over their khaki). They went on
and discovered two Germans with a strong acetylene lamp, one of them
having a revolver with six chambers, and one discharged, also ten
spare rounds of ammunition.
"They secured them and took them to the police station, but all that
happened was that they were shut up in a concentration camp! This
story was told me by one of the six who were on duty, and assisted at
the capture."
To me, there is profound mystery in the present disinclination of
the Intelligence Department of the War Office to institute inquiry.
As a voluntary worker in that department under its splendid chief,
Col. G.W.M. Macdonogh--now, alas! transferred elsewhere--my modest
reports furnished from many places, at home and abroad, always received
immediate attention and a private letter of thanks written in the
Chief's own hand.
On the outbreak of war, however, red-tape instantly showed itself,
and I received a letter informing me that I must, in future, address
myself to the Director of Military Operations--the department which is
supposed to deal with spies.
I trust that the reader will accept my words when I say that I am
not criticising Lord Kitchener's very able administration. If I felt
confident that he, and he alone, was responsible for the surveillance
of enemy aliens in our midst, then I would instantly lay down my
pen upon the subject. But while the present grave peril continues,
and while the Government continue in their endeavour to bewilder
and mislead us by placing the onus first upon the police, then, in
turn, upon the Home Office--which, it must be remembered, made an
official statement early in the war and assured us that there were no
spies--then upon the War Office, then upon the Admiralty War Staff,
while they, in turn, shift the responsibility on to the shoulders of
the local police-constable in uniform, then I will continue to raise my
voice in protest, and urge upon the public to claim their right to know
the truth.
This enemy alien question is one of Britain's deadliest perils, and
yet, by reason of some mysterious influence in high quarters, Ministers
are straining every muscle to still delude and mislead the public.
These very men who are audacious enough to tell us that there are no
German spies in Great Britain are the same who, by that secret report
of the Kaiser's speech and his intention to make war upon us which I
furnished to the British Secret Service in 1908,[1] knew the truth,
yet nevertheless adopted a policy that was deliberately intended to
close the eyes of the British public and lull it to sleep, so that, in
August, our beloved nation nearly met with complete disaster.
But the British public to-day are no longer children, nor are they in
the mood to be trifled with and treated as such. The speeches made
by Mr. McKenna in the House of Commons on March 3rd have revealed to
us that the policy towards aliens is one of untruth and sham. The
debate has aroused an uneasiness in the country which will only be
restored with the greatest difficulty. To be deliberately told that
the Intelligence Department of the War Office is cognisant of every
enemy alien--in face of what I have just related--is to ask the public
to believe a fiction. And, surely, fiction is not what we want to-day.
We want hard fact--substantiated fact. We are not playing at war--as
so many people seem to think because of the splendid patriotism of the
sons of Britain--but we are fighting with all our force in defence of
our homes and our loved ones, who, if weak-kneed counsels prevail, will
most assuredly be butchered to make the Kaiser a German holiday.
That public opinion is highly angered in consequence of the refusal
of the Government to admit the danger of spies, and face the problem
in a proper spirit of sturdy patriotism, is shown by the great mass
of correspondence which has reached me in consequence of my exposures
in "German Spies in England." The letters I have received from all
classes, ranging from peers to working-men, testify to an astounding
state of affairs, and if the reader could but see some of this flood
of correspondence which has overwhelmed me, he would realise the
widespread fear of the peril of enemy aliens, and the public distrust
of the apathy of the Government towards it.
Surely this is not surprising, even if judged only by my own personal
experiences.
HOW THE PUBLIC ARE DELUDED!
_The "Times," February 17th_
The Secretary of the Admiralty makes the following announcement:
Information has been received that two persons, posing as an officer
and sergeant, and dressed in khaki, are going about the country
attempting to visit military works, etc.
They were last seen in the Midlands on the 6th instant, when they
effected an entry into the works of a firm who are doing engineer's
work for the Admiralty. They made certain inquiries as to the presence
or otherwise of anti-aircraft guns, which makes it probable that they
are foreign agents in disguise.
All contractors engaged on work for H.M. Navy are hereby notified with
a view to the apprehension of these individuals, and are advised that
no persons should be admitted to their works unless notice has been
received beforehand of their coming.
_The "Times," March 4th_
Mr. Tennant, Under-Secretary for War, during the debate in the
House of Commons upon the question of enemy aliens, raised by Mr.
Joynson-Hicks, said he could give the House the assurance that every
single enemy alien was _known_, and was _at the present moment_ under
constant police surveillance. He wished to inform the House and the
country that they had at the War Office a branch which included
the censorship and other services all directed to the one end of
safeguarding the country from the operations of undesirable persons.
It would not be right to speak publicly of the activities of that
branch, but it was doing most admirable service, and he repudiated
with all earnestness the suggestion that the department did not take
this matter of espionage with the utmost seriousness.
Let us further examine the facts. Mr. McKenna, in a speech made in the
House of Commons on November 26th on the subject, said: "The moment the
War Office has decided upon the policy, the Home Office places at the
disposal of the War Office the whole of its machinery." On March 3rd
the Home Secretary repeated that statement, and declared, in a retort
made to Mr. Joynson-Hicks, that he was not shirking responsibility, as
_he had never had any_! Now, if this be true, why did Mr. McKenna make
the communiqué to the Press soon after the outbreak of war, assuring us
that there were no spies in England, and that all the enemy aliens were
such dear good people? I commented upon it in the _Daily Telegraph_ on
the following day, and over my own name apologised to the public for
my past offence of daring to mention that such gentry had ever existed
among us. If Lord Kitchener were actually responsible, then one may ask
why had the Home Secretary felt himself called upon to tell the public
that pretty fairy-tale?
Now with regard to the danger of illicit wireless. Early in January
1914--seven months before the outbreak of war--being interested in
wireless myself, and president of a Wireless Association, my suspicions
were aroused regarding certain persons, some of them connected with an
amateur club in the neighbourhood of Hatton Garden. Having thoroughly
investigated the matter, and also having been able to inspect some of
the apparatus used by these persons, I made, on February 17th, 1914, a
report upon the whole matter to the Director of Military Intelligence,
pointing out the ease with which undesirable persons might use
wireless. The Director was absent on leave, and no action was taken in
the matter.
A month later I went to the Wireless Department of the General Post
Office, who had granted me my own licence, and was received there with
every courtesy and thanked for my report, which was regarded with
such seriousness that it was forwarded at once to the Admiralty, who
have wireless under their control. In due course the Admiralty gave
it over to the police to make inquiries, and the whole matter was, I
suppose--as is usual in such cases--dealt with and reported upon by a
constable in uniform.
Here let me record something further.
In February last I called at New Scotland Yard in order to endeavour to
get the police to make inquiry into two highly suspicious cases, one
of a person at Winchester, and the other concerning signal-lights seen
north-east of London in the Metropolitan District. I had interviews
with certain officials of the Special Department, and also with
one of the Assistant Commissioners, and after much prevarication I
gathered--not without surprise--that no action could be taken _without
the consent of the Home Office_! How this latter fact can be in
accordance with the Home Secretary's statement in the House of Commons
I confess I fail to see.
But I warn the Government that the alien peril--now that so many civil
persons have been released from the internment camps--is a serious and
growing one. The responsibility should, surely, not be placed upon,
or implied to rest upon, Lord Kitchener, who is so nobly performing a
gigantic task. If the public believed that he was really responsible,
then they, and myself, would at once maintain silence. The British
public believes in Lord Kitchener, and, as one man, will follow him to
the end. But it certainly will not believe or tolerate this see-saw
policy of false assurances and delusion, and the attempt to stifle
criticism--notably the case of the _Globe_--of which the Home Office
have been guilty. There is a rising feeling of wrath, as well as a
belief that the peril from within with which the country is faced--the
peril of the thousands of enemy aliens in our midst--most of whom are
not under control--together with the whole army of spies ready and
daily awaiting, in impatience, the signal to strike simultaneously--is
wilfully disregarded. Even the police themselves--no finer body of men
than whom exists anywhere in the world--openly express disgust at the
appalling neglect of the mysterious so-called "authorities" to deal
with the question with a firm and strong hand.
Naturally, the reader asks why is not inquiry made into cases of real
suspicion reported by responsible members of the community. I have
before me letters among others from peers, clergymen, solicitors,
justices of the peace, members of city councils, a well-known
shipowner, a Government contractor, Members of Parliament, baronets,
etc., all giving me cases of grave suspicion of spies, and all
deploring that no inquiry is made, application to the police being
fruitless, and asking my advice as to what quarter they should report
them.
All these reports, and many more, I will willingly place at the service
of a proper authority, appointed with powers to effectively deal
with the matter. At present, however, after my own experience as an
illustration of the sheer hopelessness of the situation, the reader
will not wonder that I am unable to give advice.
Could Germany's unscrupulous methods go farther than the scandal
exposed in America, in the late days of February, of how Captain
Boy-Ed, Naval Attaché of the German Embassy at Washington, and the
Kaiser's spy-master in the United States, endeavoured to induce the
man Stegler to cross to England and spy on behalf of Germany? In this,
Germany is unmasked. Captain Boy-Ed was looked upon as one of the
ablest German naval officers. He is tall and broad-shouldered, speaks
English fluently, and in order to Americanise his appearance has
shaved off his "Prince Henry" whiskers which German naval officers
traditionally affect. When he took up his duties at Washington he
was a man of about forty-five, and ranked in the German navy as
lieutenant-commander. But his career of usefulness as Naval Attaché,
with an office in the shipping quarters of New York, has been
irretrievably impaired by the charges of Stegler, whose wife produced
many letters in proof of the allegation that the attaché was the
mainspring of a conspiracy to secure English-speaking spies for service
to be rendered by German submarines and other German warships on the
British side of the Atlantic.
The plot, exposed in every paper in the United States, was a low
and cunning one, and quite in keeping with the methods of the men
of "Kultur." Mrs. Stegler, a courageous little woman from Georgia,
saw how her husband--an export clerk in New York--was being drawn
into the German net as a spy, and she stimulated her husband to give
the whole game away. To the United States police, Stegler, at his
wife's suggestion, was perfectly frank and open. He exposed the whole
dastardly plot. He stated that Captain Boy-Ed engineered the spy-plot
that cost Lody his life, and declared that in his dealings with the
attaché the matter of going to England as a spy progressed to a point
where the money that was to be paid to his wife for her support while
he was in England was discussed. Captain Boy-Ed, Stegler went on to
say, agreed to pay Mrs. Stegler £30 a month while he was in England,
and furthermore agreed that if the British discovered his mission and
he met the fate of Lody, Mrs. Stegler was to receive £30 a month from
the German Government as long as she lived!
Stegler said he told his wife of the agreement to pay to her the amount
named, and that she asked him what guarantee he could give that the
money would be paid as promised. At that time Mrs. Stegler did not know
the perilous nature of the mission that her husband had consented to
undertake. When Stegler reported fully to his American wife, and she
got from him the entire story of his proposed trip to England, she,
like a brave woman, determined to foil the conspiracy. Captain Boy-Ed
was not convincing regarding the payment to her for the services of
her husband as a spy by the German Government for life, and she told
her husband that the German Government would probably treat Captain
Boy-Ed's promise to pay as a "mere scrap of paper." Having been urged
to study the recent history of Belgium, Stegler confessed that he had
his doubts. Finally he resolved to reveal the existence of a plot to
supply German spies from New York.
Could any facts be more illuminating than these? Surely no man in
Great Britain, after reading this, can further doubt the existence of
German-American spies among us.
There is not, I think, a single reader of these pages who will not
agree with the words of that very able and well-informed writer who
veils his identity in the _Referee_ under the _nom-de-plume_ of
"Vanoc." On March 14th he wrote:
"This is no question of Party. I am not going to break the Party
truce. In the interests of the British Empire, however, I ask that
a list of all the men of German stock or of Hebrew-German stock who
have received distinctions, honours, titles, appointments, contracts,
or sinecures, both inside or outside the House of Commons, House of
Lords, and Privy Council, shall be prepared, printed, and circulated.
Also a list of Frenchmen, Russians, and Colonials so honoured. It is
also necessary for a clear understanding of the spy-question that
the public should know whether it is a fact that favoured German
individuals have contributed large sums to political Party funds
on both sides, and whether the tenderness that is shown Teutons or
Hebrew-Teutons decorated or rewarded with contracts, favours, or
distinctions is due to the obvious fact that if dangerous spies
were not allowed their freedom Party government would be exposed,
discredited, and abolished."
This is surely a demand which will be heartily supported by every one
who has the welfare of his country at heart. Too long have we been
misled by the bogus patriotism of supposed "naturalised" Germans, who,
in so many cases, have purchased honours with money filched from the
poor. "Vanoc" in his indictment goes on to say:
"The facts are incredible. I know of one case of a German actually
employed on Secret Service at the War Office. This German is the son
of the agent of a vast German enterprise engaged in making munitions
and guns for the destruction of the sons, brothers, and lovers of the
very Englishwomen who are now engaged most wisely and energetically
in waking the country to a sense of the spy-peril that lurks in our
midst. The British public does not understand a decimal point of a
tithe of the significance of the spy-peril. Nonsense is talked about
spies. Energy is concentrated on the little spies, who don't count.
Much German money is wasted on unintelligent spies. The British
officers to whom is entrusted the duty of spy-taking, if they are
outside the political influence which is poisonous to our national
life, are probably the best in the world. The big spies are still
potent in control of our national life."
Are we not, indeed, coddling the Hun?
Even the pampering of German officers at Donington Hall pales into
insignificance when we recollect that, upon Dr. Macnamara's admission,
£86,000 a month, or £1,000,000 per year, is being paid for the hire of
ships in which to intern German prisoners, and this is at a time when
the scarcity of shipping is sending up the cost of every necessity! The
Hague Convention, of course, forbids the use of gaols for prisoners
of war, yet have we not many nice comfortable workhouses, industrial
schools, and such-like institutions which could be utilised? We all
know how vilely the Germans are treating our officers and men who
are their prisoners, even depriving them of sufficient rations, and
forbidding tobacco, fruit, or tinned vegetables. With this in view, the
country are asking, and not without reason, why we should treat those
in our hands as welcome guests. Certainly our attitude has produced
disgust in the Dominions.
How Germany must be laughing at us! How the enemy aliens in certain
quarters of London are jeering at us, openly, and toasting to the
Day of our Downfall, I have already described. How the spies among
us--unknown in spite of Mr. Tennant's amazing assertion--must be
laughing in their sleeves and chuckling over the panic and disaster
for which they are waiting from day to day in the hope of achieving.
The signal--the appearance of Zeppelins over London--has not yet been
given. Whether it will ever be given we know not. All we know is that
an unscrupulous enemy, whose influence is widespread over our land,
working insidiously and in secret, has prepared for us a blow from
within our gates which, when it comes, will stagger even Mr. McKenna
himself.
With the example of how spies, in a hundred guises, have been found in
Belgium, in France, in Russia, in Egypt, and even in gallant little
Serbia, can any sane man believe that there are none to-day in Great
Britain? No. The public know it, and the Government know it, but the
latter are endeavouring to hoodwink those who demand action in the
House of Commons, just as they endeavour to mystify the members of the
public who present reports of suspicious cases.
The question is: _Are we here told the Truth?_
I leave it to the reader of the foregoing pages to form his own
conclusions, and to say whether he is satisfied to be further deluded
and mystified without raising his voice in protest for the truth to
be told, and the spy-peril to be dealt with by those fully capable of
doing so, instead of adopting methods which are daily playing into
Germany's hands and preparing us upon the altar of our own destruction.
I have here written the truth, and I leave it to the British public
themselves to judge me, and to judge those who, failing in their duty
at this grave crisis of our national history, are courting a disaster
worse than that which overtook poor stricken Belgium.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: For a full report of this astounding speech see "German
Spies in England," by William Le Queux, 1915.]