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.
Protocol No. XIX
Though we will not allow individuals to become involved in politics, we will, on the other hand, encourage the submission for the approval of the government of all petitions and reports containing suggestions and plans for bettering the condition of the people. This will bring to our knowledge the shortcomings or merely the fantastic aspirations of our subjects. These suggestions we will answer either by favorable action or by refusals proving the lack of intelligence and the errors of those who have submitted such suggestions.