When the time comes for us to strengthen the measures of police
protection (the most terrible poison for the prestige of authority),
we will artificially organize disorder or simulate the expression of
discontent with the aid of experienced orators. These orators will be
joined by sympathizers. This will give us the pretext for searches and
special restrictions which will be put in force by our servants among the
GOY police.
As most conspirators work as amateurs for the sake of chattering, we
will not disturb them until we see that they are about to take action;
but we will introduce in their midst secret service agents. It must be
remembered that the prestige of authority diminishes if conspiracies
against it are often discovered, for that leads to the presumption of the
weakness of the authority, or, what is worse, to the admission of its
own mistakes. You are aware that we have destroyed the prestige of the
ruling GOYS by frequent attempts made on their lives through our agents,
who were but blind sheep of our flock, easily moved, by a few liberal
phrases, to crimes, so long as they were of a political nature. _We have
forced the rulers to admit their own weakness by adopting open measures
of police protection, and thereby we have ruined the prestige of their
authority._
Our sovereign will be protected only by the most invisible guard, because
we will never allow any one to think that conspiracy might exist against
him which he is unable to combat and from which he has to hide himself.
If we were to allow this thought to prevail, as it prevails among the
GOYS, we would thereby sign the death warrant, if not of the sovereign
himself, then of his dynasty in the near future.
Observing strict decorum, our sovereign will use his power only for the
benefit of the people, but never for his own good or for that of his
dynasty. By strictly adhering to this decorum, his authority will be
respected and protected by his subjects; moreover, he will be worshiped,
because it will be known that upon his authority depends the well-being
of every citizen of the kingdom, and the stability of the social order
itself.
_To guard the sovereign openly is equivalent to an admission of the
weakness of his governmental organization._
Our sovereign, when amidst his people, will always appear to be
surrounded by a crowd of curious men and women, who will stand beside
him as though accidentally and will hold back the other people as
though through respect for order. This example will implant an idea of
self-restraint in others. If there be a person in the crowd trying to
present a petition, and working his way through the ranks, the person
nearest to him must take the petition and present it to the sovereign in
sight of the petitioner himself, so that all may know that the petition
presented has reached its destination and consequently that there exists
a control of affairs on the part of the sovereign himself. The prestige
of authority demands that the people should be able to say, “If only the
king could know it,” or, “The king will know about this.”
With the establishment of an official police guard the mystical prestige
of authority vanishes at once; with a certain amount of audacity, every
one considers himself superior to authority; the assassin realizes his
strength and only has to watch his opportunity to make an attempt against
an official. We preached differently for the GOYS, but we can see the
results to which open methods of protection have led them.
We will arrest criminals upon the first more or less well-founded
suspicion. Because of the fear of a possible mistake political criminals
should not be given the opportunity to escape; indeed towards political
crime we will show no mercy. If, in exceptional cases, it may seem
possible to allow the investigation of motives which have led to ordinary
criminal offences, there is no excuse for those who attempt to deal with
matters which no one can understand except the government. Moreover, not
even all governments are capable of understanding the right policy.