British Secret Service During the Great War

by Nicholas Everitt

Asking the Prize Court on June 5th, 1916, to condemn the Swedish vessel Hakan, of Gothenburg, with her cargo of 3,238 barrels of salted herrings, the Attorney-General, Sir F. E. Smith, alleged that the fish were intended for Germany. Writing from Lübeck to Gottfried Friedrichs, fishmongers, of Altona, said the Attorney-General, a member of the firm of Witte & Co., their forwarding agents, said: "We have prohibited the export of herrings from Norway, but our firm has obtained a licence to export 50,000 tons. We hope to sell 75,000 tons this winter, so there is plenty of work."

Sir Samuel Evans: How many herrings in 50,000 tons?

The Attorney-General: My assistants and confederates inform me that there are about 450,000,000 herrings. It is a conservative estimate.

These are official figures published by the Netherlands Statistical Department on May 20th, 1916; such great assistance rendered to Germany is more serious owing to the fact that Germany's gain has been our loss.

Foodstuffs Sent From Holland, in Tons.

(Covering the months January to April.)

Eggs—		1914.	1916.
	To Germany	3,101	11,825
	To Britain	2,733	557
Fish—
	To Germany	21,337	29,378
	To Belgium	—	—
Meat—
	To Germany	4,156	30,621
	To Britain	25,460	555
Potato Flour	and its products—
	To Germany	13,991	43,861
	To Britain	8,831	5,520
Coffee—
	To Germany	17,429	39,684
Cocoa Powder—
	To Germany	598	3,302
	To Britain	2,155	1,437
Butter—
	To Germany	4,010	10,237
	To Britain	1,387	33
Cheese—
	To Germany	4,120	25,437
	To Britain	5,624	407

One has only to cast the eye down these figures to see what Holland means as a depôt for Germany's food.

During the first four months of 1916 Holland had imported by consent of Great Britain 432,702 tons of cereals. No less than 283,792 tons were re-exported from Holland and consequently did not go into home consumption there; 272,630 tons of this went over into Belgium. It is important, also, to note that of the cereals imported 102,722 tons of maize were included in the total. Most of this maize was used for fattening pigs, which were eventually slaughtered and sent to Germany.

This abundance of pig food allowed by us to be consumed by the Dutch pigs in fact enabled the Dutch to fatten the immense supply which they sent over to Germany. The meat figures given above must be read in the light of this fact.