SPIES I'VE MET IN ENGLAND.

Bush Advocate, Volume XXI, Issue 256, 3 May 1909, Page 3

SPIES I'VE MET IN ENGLAND.

By Mr William Lc Quex (Pearson's

Weekly)

The subject ■Msj-j-.German spies in England is £ue #*.' which I have long taken a very grent interest.

The British public lias never yet fully realised l-.cw crer-mn is our country by foreign spies, and the peril involved.

It is part of the Englishman's creed to jeer at those who -speak of spies, because, as he bluntly puts ; t we have nothing to conceal. In this, tho "man in .the street" is making a fatal error. PHOTOGRAPHED OUR PROPOSED NAVAL BASE. We have as much, and far more, to -conceal than they have in Germany, where to photograph or pry within three miles of a fortress means that you will quickly be inside it. Now, to prove to my own satisfaction Low easy it is for a spy i;o investigate our defences, I went, a, short time ago to Rosyth, and with a camera, photographed the v whole of the proposed naval- base from a dozen different points. ' This I did in actual sight of clerks and officials working in the corrugated-iron offices on the

spot! , % Further, I took out a six-men ordnance map, and marked in additional details.

I also took from a small boat a set of photographs of the caissons of the Forth Bridge, which will, no doubt, be destroyed .by the invader when "the day" comes

I made enquiry into the situation of each of the 200 odd telegraph wires that Tun through North Queensferry. Further, I photographed the forts a* Bahneny, and Inverkeithing, as well as those at Inchkeith. And nobody challenged me ! Indeed, a local" policeman actually assisted me in gathering information, though he did not know me from Adam. ,

/Have I really met any spies in England? Yes, I have!

For the past four years I have been busy .investigating cases of alleged spies and on more than one occasion I have watched, their movements. With my friend, Major Alfred J Reed, who lives near Perth, and who had the coiirage the other day to make a stirring speech descriptive of the work of the German spy in England, I have made a-spec-ial, study of the espionage system. Five years ago the French General Staff were very busy in England, but to-day they have retired in favor of the emissaries of the Secret Police of Berlin; who are actively collecting data for the German General Staff ■■n view',, of the coming dash on our shores. Here, in London, there lives a man, a. well-known ; and highly-respected German, who is head of the whole brigade of .travelling "agents"— men who go up and down out country, and have knowledge of every foreigner in the pay of Germany. SPIES DISGUISED AS BANDSMEN. The actual spy is seldom a German. He is generally an Italian, a Frenchman, or a harmless, law-abiding and industrious Swiss. He is welcomed, and taken to the Englishman's bosom. He moves in every walk of life; he may be a f at ; moneylenger or a talkative hairdresser, a lean musician in a theatre orchestra, or an Hinerant bandsman. <

And, speaking of bandsmen, I met there personally not long ago, young fellows hailing from the Fatherland, who had just been giving the back

streets of Leeds a musical treat ; but, at the same time, had been carefully investigating the quickest means by which the water supply of that city could be cut off ! /

And one of these enthusiasts, only a month ,ago, in /a cafe on the Alster. in Hamburg, actually boasted to me that he and his friends had carefully mapped out the water-maius of Bradford, Birmingham, and of the whole of, the East-end of London!

A year ago I was acqxiainted with two of these inquisitive gentry, who lived at Epping, and were very busy amplifying the ordnance maps. However, after the speech in the House of Commons of my friend, Colonel Lockwood, the member for Epping, they suddenly made themselves scarce. •

Spies are actively at work in Glasgow, where they are* at this moment investigating the defences of the Clyde ; at Chatham, where" it is known that they have agents in the dockyard trying to obtain the secrets of the "transmitting room" of oiir newest battleships; at Portsmouth, and all along- the Essex and Suffolk coasts.

Yet the public close their eyes to the survey these spies are openly carrying out in view of "The Day," as it is known in the German Army.

An attempt was made to secure all the confidential data I had collected before writing my forecast, "The Invasion of- 1910," £nd, when that failed, I was "on three separate occasions threatened with a violent death if I dared to publish the book, or expose the 'German plans !

I sent the letters of the spies to Scotland Yard, where they were handed over to the special branch of the Criminal .Investigation Department.

ACCURATE HAPS WIN A BATTLE

During my secret investigations into the presence of spies in this country I have had, sometimes, to keep queer company, but you will xmderstand that it would not do to talk too freely about my experiences, as the spies don't know me, or that I know them. . The information our possible foes possess about us is positively astounding." Lately I had in my hand a sheet of a six-inch ordance map of the country around Wybourne, in Norfolk, an;d the details written in upon it by the spy were such as were absolutely amazing, even to me, who know the thoroughness of their methods.

And yet to mention spies in England is generally to bring down ridicule on one's head. "We have nothing to conceal," people say. Haven't we? It is of vital importance that our , offensive and defensive resources should' be kept secret, as anyone but a fool knows that accurate maps and information: are half the battle to an enemy. Are not we English like the ostrich burning its, head in the sand at the sign of approaching danger? ■ .