THE BOLO HUNT

Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 23, 26 January 1918, Page 9

THE BOLO HUNT

A POWERFUL NETWORK OP

INTRIGUE

(By "B." in the London Daily Mail.)

At no time since the war began have German agents been so busy in England as at the present time. Events are hurrying to a crisis in all belligerent countries. It k now or never with the German agents. If they wish to justify their existence and their pay they must act.

England is, if anything, more alive to' the danger of the German agents than she was three years ago, . when plenty of stupidly good-natured people were to be found to deny the suggestion that German agenta could—if they existed—do any harm.

In three years the lid has been lifted a little from the seething pot of Germanism in thi« country. Something has been seen of German intrigue in trade and finance, something of German spy organisation, something of German agency in Pacifism and industrial unrest. The pity it that the Government has not seen fit to take the lid right off and allow the odour of the unsavoury stew to ri«e. I want to make a strong plea for more publicity and more energy in the Govern-, ment'e hunt for "Bolo"—the military and naval spy, the poisonous "agent," the soft-voiced Pacifist, the amateur Lenin, and the Hun trader. In the secret archives of the Home Office and the War Office there is material to set the country ablaze with indignation. Why not publish it? As a, counterblast to the poisonous doctrine of Pacifism I can imagine nothing better than the evidence submitted to the Home Office in the appeals againßt the internment of men and women shut up under Regulation 14 B. The country would then know the type of man whose first instinct, when, arrested and interned as a dangerous friend of Germany, is to appeal frantically to the Pacifist group in the House of Commons for evidence ac to his "moral and religious" character 1. It may be remarked, by the way, that these astute gentlemen very rarely-respond to the cordial invitation extended to them to give evidence in support of their "friends."

Energy, of a sort, is shown by the Home Office and War Office whenever it can be proved that an enemy agent 1 has placed himself within the grip of the law. But what is wanted is more [ energy on the part of the Government, | a plain intimation from those in authority that they will stop at nothing and spare no feelings. i BETTER RECORDS NEEDED. I would suggest, as a beginning, that card indexes should be prepared showing : All persons residing in Great Britain who had accounts with the German and Austrian banKs in this country;

All who have deposited claims against the enemy on account of property or investments in Germany, Austria, Rumania, Serbia, and Greece; and

All who are registered at Somerset He use as shareholders in companies owned or controlled by directors of enemy origin.

No one who has studied this question of Boloism in relation to Pacifism and attempts to secure a separate peace with. any of the belligerents can doubt for a moment that financial and property interests are the mainstay and driving force behind it. If the card indexes suggested here were prepared and collated with existing card indexes showing the names of all known Pacifists, agitatois, unofficial strike leaders and revolutionaries, amazing "coincidences'" would appear. It might be found possible to explain many an unsolved myßtery. It might then be discovered why certain groups and individuals are actively supporting every movement, secular, religious, or industrial, calculated to disturb and disrupt this country or to separate her from her Allies-

I have in mind, as I write, many of the letters which have reached the Daily Mail since Mr. Lloyd George told the country to "Beware of Boloism!" Much of this correspondence has dealt with strange figures flitting across the pages of our war history, men from the ends of the earth who have come to England armed with credentials from the East and the South. These birds of passage are well provided with money, and the acquaintances they seek are to be found among muddle-headed enthusiasts who believe that the Hun can be tamed by words and bound by paper. I note a man who is a Turk in Smyrna, an Englishman in London, a Greek in Greece^ and a soldier of fortune everywhere. He makes his home in an hotel owned by a naturalised German and managed by a German Swiss, His acquaintances are those who have friends in the high places of international finance. Caring for none of these things, he can always find a man and a cheque for a good cause, j OFFICIALS' "PET" HUNS. Such a man is probably searching for useful information. He will find a good deal of it lying ready to hand as soon as ■he strikes the right circle of acquaintances. Germany is still strongly entrenched in the business and social life of London. It is a curious fact that more treason is talked by those who have German friends than by the Anglo-Ger-man colony. They have a muddled idea that they are being " loyal" to their friends and relatives when they uphold the view that " England is as much to blame as Germany." From this- it is an easy step to gossiping about naval and military matters, and talking of things which ." Germany would give a great deal to know."

Men and women who were educated in Germany or spent their holidays in that country before the war are often flagrantly oro-German. Among these are the permanent Civil servants who are responsible for keeping in Government departments so many clerks and secretaries of enemy origin. They are of the • tribe who look upon this as ''a civil war." They usually have a pet Hun in their circle of acquaintances. He is generally "so clever," "so much more 'intelligent than the average English young man." One good lady purred these things sweetly over the telephone the other day. Her sympathy for her pet Hun was dispelled by a few home truths about the man's family. Proofs were offered that his father had stolen workmen from a British firm which had sent 135 out of 150 men to the war; that a clever brotherhad been active in stirring up strikes and fomenting labour troubles; that an amiable sister had . consorted with women who burned churches; that, in short, the family history indicated a coterie of aliens, anti-British, German, and Hunnish to the last degree. If the real Bolos who are acting for Germany are. to be discovered or rendered harmless their friends and sympathisers in Government offices, schools, churches, and other places in which they are able lo influence opinion must be curbed. "Plenty of evidence has accumulated that there' is too much loose and dangerous talk among these people and too much inclination to hold out a friendly hand to others who think with them, no matter what their antecedents or business may be in this country.