If the Home Department, in its wisdom, bestirs itself in future and prosecutes dangerous aliens and spies, it is to be hoped that it will not endeavour to further mislead us by presenting such a lamentable spectacle as it has done in the case of Mr. Ahlers.
Surely this is not the moment when the Department should be engaged in trying to discover whether the German soldiery were guilty of any atrocities in Belgium. The futility of the latter I pointed out to Mr. McKenna in a letter I ventured to address to him at the Home Office on December 11th, 1914.
It ran as follows:—
"Sir,—Though seven days have now elapsed since my letter of December 3rd, I am still awaiting a reply, as I am anxious—in the interests of the public—to have an explanation of the matter to which it refers.
"I desire to point out to your Department—which, according to Mr. Aitken's letter to me of November 16th, is making an inquiry into allegations of outrages by German troops, and in which my aid is requested—that any further waste of public time and public money may be avoided if it will—as it no doubt can do if it wishes—obtain, through the proper channels, a copy of General von Bülow's Proclamation posted in Liége on August 22nd last. In this, the General in question declares in reference to the destruction of the town of Andenne:—
"'It is with my consent that the General had the whole place burned down, and about one hundred people shot.'
"In addition, three official reports of the Royal Belgian Commission, sent to me by His Excellency the Belgian Minister, are before me, and I have interviewed M. Carton de Wiart, Belgian Minister of Justice, regarding them.
"Further, I would point out that your Department might, with advantage, examine the proclamation of Field-Marshal Von der Goltz, and also Major Deckmann's poster published at Grivegnée.
"As these, no doubt, will be as available to you as they are to the public Press, perhaps your Department may obviate further waste of time by examining them.
"Meanwhile, I await, with anticipation, a reply to my letter of December 3rd."
Let us hope that the Home Department—if only responsible for German spies in London, as it is—will really rub its eyes and awaken, ere it is too late.
For five months the authorities had been continually warned by Lord Leith of Fyvie, and others, of spies who were detected in the act of signalling at night off the East Coast. The newspapers were flooded with correspondence on the subject, while I myself received more than a hundred letters asking me to urge the authorities to take up the matter, and deal with it.
On December 16th, Yorkshire had its first instalment of the fruits of the extraordinary manner in which this signalling has been permitted to continue, and the freedom given to spies. On the previous night it was noticed, by reliable observers, that the night signallers were specially active, and at eight o'clock next morning, the towns of Scarborough, Whitby, and Hartlepool were bombarded by German ships, resulting in over four hundred persons being injured, and over one hundred killed, including many women and children.
Information supplied by secret means to the German Navy had already enabled shells to be flung at Yarmouth, but here, as in the attack in Yorkshire, we have again very clear proof and evidence of spies. Indeed, already orders have been issued to shoot at sight anyone found signalling from the coast—but, alas! after so many innocent persons have lost their lives!
The daring adventure of the German ships show that they must have received information concerning the distribution of our Fleet.
According to the First Lord of the Admiralty, practically the whole fast cruiser force of the German Navy, including some great ships vital to their fleet and utterly irreplaceable, was risked for the passing pleasure of killing as many English people as possible, irrespective of sex, age, or condition, in the limited time available.