[Gutenberg 61069] • German Spies in England: An Exposure

This book was published in 1915.

To the Reader:

From the outbreak of war until to-day I have

hesitated to write this book. But I now feel

impelled to do so by a sense of duty.

The truth must be told. The peril must

be faced.

Few men, I venture to think, have been

more closely associated with, or know more

of the astounding inner machinery of German

espionage in this country, and in France, than

myself.

Though the personnel of the Confidential

Department established at Whitehall to deal

with these gentry have, during the past six

years, come and gone, I have, I believe, been

the one voluntary assistant who has remained

to watch and note, both here and in Belgium

— where the German headquarters were es-

tablished — the birth and rapid growth of this

ever-spreading canker-worm in the nation's

heart.

I am no alarmist. This is no work of

fiction, but of solid and serious fact. I write

here of what I know ; and, further, I write

with the true spirit of loyalty. Though sorely

tempted, at this crisis, to publish certain docu-

ments, and make statements which would, I

know, add greatly to the weight of this book,

I refrain, because such statements might

reveal certain things to the enemy, including

the identity of those keen and capable officials

who have performed so nobly their work of

contra-espionage .

Yet to-day, with the fiercest war in history

in progress, with our bitterest enemy threaten-

ing us with invasion, and while we are com-

pelled to defend our very existence as a nation,

yet Spies are nobody's business !

It is because the British public have so long

been officially deluded, reassured and lulled

to sleep, that I feel it my duty to now speak

out boldly, and write the truth after a silence

of six years.

Much contained within these covers will

probably come as a complete revelation to

many readers who have hitherto, and perhaps

not unjustly, regarded spies as the mere

picturesque creation of writers of fiction. At

the outset, however, I wish to give them an

assurance that, if certain reports of mine —

which now repose in the archives of the

Confidential Department — were published,

they would create a very considerable sensa-

tion, and entirely prove the truth of what I

have ventured to write within these covers.

I desire, further, to assure the reader that,

since 1905, when I first endeavoured to

perform what I considered to be my duty

as an Englishman, I have only acted from

the purest patriotic motives, while, from a

pecuniary point of view, I have lost much by

my endeavour.

The knowledge that in the past, as now, I

did what I conceived to be but my duty to

my country, was, in itself, an all-sufficient

reward ; and if, after perusal of this book, the

reader will only pause for a moment and

reflect upon the very serious truths it con-

tains, then I shall have accomplished all I

have attempted.

We have, since the war, had a rude awaken-

ing from the lethargy induced by false official

assurances concerning the enemy in our

midst.