BEHIND THE LINES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 1210, 7 January 1925, Page 6

BEHIND THE LINES.

SPIES AMONG BRITISH TROOPS. DANGEROUS PROPAGANDA. Major-General Seely, who was a member of a British Conservative Government not long ago, and aiierwards saw active service in France, tells of the part which spies played in the German push of li>lß. Seditious propaganda, ho declares, played a great part in the success which attended the great German attack in March, 1918. For weeks before the attack fell agents were going about behind the Allies' lines. The cunning part of it was that, owing to the great difficulty in subverting the loyal British soldiers, they would always assure their hearers that it was the soldiers in another part of the lines on the right or the left of them who had all agreed to do this on the day. GREAT CONFUSION. These agents were in various disguises, and were provided with large sums of money, and in spite of tue greatest vigilance on the part of the staff, although some were caught, a large number remained undetected until the attack. When the attack fell on tho dawn of a misty morning on March 21 numbers of spies dressed in British uniform went about ordering tho troops to retire. One dressed as a staff officer came up to the commander of one of my batteries and gave him a definite order from divisional headquarters to retire at once. Fortunately, this stout-heart-ed officer suspected him and refused to retire. Other spies were running about telling the transport drivers, labour •battalions, and everyone they could find that such and such a brigade or division on the right or the left had retired en masse and that their only chance of safety was to clear out as fast as they could. It was here that the seditious propaganda bore its full fruit. Men thought tho thing had happened, as it had been foretold, and they greatest confusion ensued. In spite of this our men put up a wonderful light against overwhelming numbers.