Ernst was sent to seven years' penal servitude. "You are a mean, mercenary spy," said Mr. Justice Coleridge in sentencing him, "ready to betray your country to the enemy for money; equally ready, I dare say, to betray Germany to us for an increased reward." The case could not have been better summed up.
I will now pass on to the case of Armgaard Carl Graves, which is remarkable chiefly for its extraordinary sequel. Graves, who was arrested in Glasgow, had been receiving letters at the Post Office in the name of "John Stafford." When he was taken into custody a memorandum-book found in his pocket was found to contain a number of leaves gummed together at the open edges. When they were cut apart the police found groups of figures opposite German phrases, apparently constituting a code. In a pocket-case several more groups of figures were found, the number 271 being subtracted from each. That afterwards supplied the key to the code. There was also a note in German relating to a new gun under construction by Beardmore and Company, and three code telegrams from Amsterdam. There were also found a number of maps covering the Firth of Forth and the vicinity, and a bundle of cartridge cases, including two of the latest British Army pattern. The description of the new gun was said to be practically accurate, and it was also stated that Graves' code appeared to indicate every class of ship in the Navy, and also such strategic points as Scapa Flow, Moray Firth and Cromarty—the same code which is probably being used by the naval spies still amongst us to-day.
This code, used for the telegrams between the prisoner and his Continental correspondents, was, said counsel for the Crown, a very deadly one to be found in his possession. If the person utilising it were in a certain place on a certain day and found that mines were being laid, he would telegraph the figures 11,719 to 11,729. "He seems to be the ideal character for a spy," counsel added; "he has a very high intelligence, and is sociable, genial and affable, while his moral character is not of a very high standard." He was sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment. "Well—exit Armgaard Carl Graves," was the prisoner's only remark on hearing the decision.
Graves was sentenced on July 23rd, 1912. On June 7th, 1913, came the amazing announcement that he had been released. When, and why he was set at liberty, no one outside official circles knows; all the information given was that "Graves was released in due course of law, but there is no further information to give." Graves's own story was that he was released in order that he might join the British Secret Service, but this fact, and even the fact that he had been released, came to us from America. The sensational story of his release and subsequent adventures was published by the New York American in the following narrative:—
Armgaard Carl Graves, former secret agent in the German service, who was convicted of espionage in England last July and sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment, declares that shortly after his sentence he was released in order that he might join the British Secret Service.
He was sent to America, and there discovered that envoys of Germany and Japan had met in New York with the object of completing an anti-American agreement. He succeeded in making a copy of the document and cabling it to the British Foreign Office.
He never got any payment from England, however, so has decided to make the contents public. The agreement binds Germany not to interfere in a great Japanese scheme of colonisation in the South Seas.
Graves afterwards published a book in which he professed to give away many of the secrets of the German spy system. Information we have received from other sources shows that a great deal of the book is well founded, and it may well be that on the whole it is a fairly reliable exposure of German methods. But the last thing one should do is to trust or believe the spy!
According to Graves—whose account we should accept with considerable reserve—the heads of the departments of the spy-organisation in Berlin are all German officers, recruited from "the old feudal aristocracy." He declares that though they plan the work, they never execute it. "No active or commissioned officer," he says, "does Secret Service work." He shows, too, that whatever ethics they may hold about doing dirty work themselves, the German officers wash their hands entirely of the methods their subordinates may choose or find it necessary to adopt. One of them explained the matter to him in terms which admit of no misunderstanding. He said:—
We cannot afford to be squeamish. The interests at stake are too vast to let personal ethical questions stand in the way. What would be required of you in the first instance is to gain for us information such as we seek. The means by which you gain this information will be left entirely to your own discretion. We expect results.
It was also made clear to him that he had only himself to depend upon, and if he got into trouble he would get no help. "Be pleased to understand," was the official warning given at the first interview, "that this service is dangerous, and no official assistance could be given in any circumstances."
As to the agents employed in this work, Graves says the Personal Branch, the most important, is managed from the Wilhelmstrasse, the German Foreign Office, the Emperor in person, or his immediate Privy Councillor. He adds:—