German Spies in England: An Exposure

by William Le Queux

"With the extraordinary intelligence system which Germany organised in this country long before the war, no doubt they had certain advantages which they ought not to have even of this kind.... If he were to harbour a suspicion it would be that the most formidable people were not aliens, but probably people of British nationality who had been suborned.... He wishes he were sure that when really valuable and dangerous pieces of information were given they were not given by people of our own nationality, but some of the information which had been given, could only have been given by people who had access to it because they were British. His belief was that we had had very little of this kind of thing, but that we had some, and that it was formidable he could not doubt. In seeking these sources of communication with the enemy it was desirable to go about the search in a scientific way, and to cast suspicion where it was most likely to be founded."

Such a contribution to the spy question was really very characteristic. It, however, came ill from one whose legal confrère was, at that moment, being referred to in the House of Commons as having a German chauffeur who had been naturalised after the war broke out, and had gone for a holiday into Switzerland! Switzerland is a country not in the Antarctic Ocean, but right on the border of the land of the Huns in Europe, and the Lord Chief Justice, according to Mr. Asquith at the Guildhall, is in close association with Cabinet Ministers in these days of crises.

Perhaps, as a correspondent pointed out, it never struck our Lord Chancellor that the Lord Chief Justice's "now-British" chauffeur might—though I hope not—have gone through Switzerland into Germany, and might, if so disposed, quite innocently have related there information to which he had access, not only because he was British, but because he was in the service of a highly-placed person. Or, perhaps, he did realise it, and his reference to information given by persons of British nationality was a veiled protest against the action of some of his colleagues—against that other who also has a "now-British" chauffeur, or to a third, whose German governess, married to a German officer, left her position early in November, but has left her German maid behind her. Perhaps he did not know these things, or he would also have known that other people may have access to information, not because they are British, but because they are in the employ of British Cabinet Ministers.

Hitherto, the security of our beloved Empire had been disregarded by party politicians, and their attendant sycophants, in their frantic efforts to "get-on" socially, and to pile up dividends. What did "The City" care in the past for the nation's peril, so long as money was being made?

In the many chats I had with the late Lord Roberts we deplored the apathy with which Great Britain regarded what was a serious and most perilous situation.

But, after all, were the British public really to blame? They are discerning and intelligent, and above all, patriotic. Had they been told the hideous truth, they would have risen in their masses, and men would have willingly come forward to serve and defend their country from the dastardly intentions of our hypocritical "friends" across the North Sea, and their crafty Emperor of the volte-face.

It is not the fault of the British public themselves. The blame rests as an indelible blot upon certain members of the British Government, who now stand in the pillory exposed, naked and ashamed. The apologetic speeches of certain members of the Cabinet, and the subdued and altered tone of certain influential organs of the Press, are, to the thinker, all-sufficient proof.

In the insidious form of fiction—not daring to write fact after my bitter experiences and the seal of silence set upon my lips—I endeavoured, in my novel "Spies of the Kaiser" and other books, time after time, to warn the public of the true state of affairs which was being so carefully and so foolishly hidden. I knew the truth, but, in face of public opinion, I dared not write it in other fashion.

Naturally, if the Government jeered at me, the public would do likewise. Yet I confess that very often I was filled with the deepest regret, and on the Continent I discussed with foreign statesmen, and with the Kings of Italy, Servia, Roumania and Montenegro in private audiences I was granted by them, what I dared not discuss in London.

Our national existence was certainly at stake. Lord Roberts knew it. He—with members of the Cabinet—had read the Kaiser's fateful words which I have here printed in the foregoing pages, and it was this knowledge which prompted him to so strenuously urge the peril of our unpreparedness until the outbreak of war.