Yes, to the onlooker who knows, the manœuvres are all very intensely interesting, and would be most amusing, if they were not all so grimly and terribly tragic.
And who is to blame for all this? Would it be suffered in Germany?
The law of libel, and a dozen other different Acts, are suspended over the head of the unfortunate man who dares to risk ridicule and speak the truth. Therefore, with my own personal experience of the utter incapability of the Commissioner of Metropolitan Police to deal with spies, or even to reply to correspondence I have addressed to his hopeless department, and to the still greater discourtesy and amazing chaos existing in his ruling department, the Home Office, I ask myself whether it is of any use whatever to trouble, or even exert oneself further in the matter? It is for my readers, the public themselves, to demand the truth. The public are assuredly not blind to the fact that air raids have been made upon us directed by spies.
I can only address these serious words to my circle of readers throughout the Kingdom, and to make my bow, assuring them that while they were being gulled and bamboozled by those whom they have so foolishly trusted, I have, at personal loss to myself—which need not be counted—done my level best to counteract the evil which Germany has spread in our midst.
And my only request is that, by my works, constant and earnest as they have been, I may be judged.
UNDER THE KAISER'S THUMB
By every subtle and underhand means in her power Germany has prepared for her supreme effort to conquer us.