BEATEN AT OWN GAME

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8178, 3 May 1919, Page 4 (Supplement)

BEATEN AT OWN GAME

HUN SPIES OUTWITTED IN EVERY DIRECTION. DEPARTMENT THAT KEPT SECRETS AND GAINED ENEMY 3 Not the least of the many ironies if vhe war has been Lite outwitting in every direction of the rmich-vaunted and elaborate German spy system by our directorate of special intelligence. Bri-gadier-General G. K. Cockerill, the new Coalition Unionist member for Reigate, who has been Director of Special Intelligence for four and a halt years and also Deputy Director ot Military Intelligence, has just disclosed some secrets in a farewell message to the staff, yvhich numbers more than 6,000 persons. He states: —“The detection and conviction of enemy spies has been your primary business. It is satisfactory to note that ■n most cases the arrest of the spy has followed quickly on his entry into this country. You have been, in point of fact, the chief agency in preventing the leakage of naval and military information. To mention but a few instances of your success, the withdrawal from Gallipoli, the construction of “tanks,” the preparations for the offensive at Cambrai, and also for the recent coun-ter-offensives which destroyed the German armies, were all known to numbers of people in this country but were concealed from the enemy. There is, 1 am informed on the best authority no evidence that enemy submarines have ever received information, of the departure of .shipping from British ports. Thanks largely to your efforts, no act 1 of destruction or incendiarism has been committed by enemy agents in this country. This is the more remarkable when the number of enemy aliens at large is considered. You have obtained information of incalculable value to the Naval Intelligence, the Military Intelligence, and the War Trade Intelligence Departments. In the opinion of the Minister of Blockade your work has contributed in a very large degree to the satisfactory working of the blockade and, so far as the suppression of enemy trade is concerned the information provided bjv you has been the most valuable acquired from any source during the war as a means of DETECTING ENEMY MERCHANDISE. carried as neutral goods tin neutral ships. It will interest you to know that in practically every case of contraband which has been or is about to be brought before the Prifze Court, the evidence on which the Crown relies lias been furnished by you. The significance of this statement wiil be better appreciated when it is added that the estimated value of prize cargoes, exclusive of ships, is over £30,000,000. You have, moreover, stopped enemy remittances to the value cf about £70,000,000, and you have completely destroyed the enemy's oversea communications so far as they were vulnerable Through your essential assistance in preventing speculative transactions m raw' materials, controlling prices, and estimating available supplies of vital war commodities, you have saved the country vast sums, amounting, in the case of a single transaction, to £1,500,000, and at a moderate estimate, approximating in the aggregate to £2OC{OOO,OOO. Evlen mere profitable than the monetary vsJue of your services in this connection lias been the elimination of speculative contractors from Allied business and the consequent security that wa: material ordered would be forthcoming on the due date. Even this statement does not exhaust the catalogue of your services. One small section, not content with closing certain channels of enemy propaganda, has kept others open for the express purpose of distributing British propaganda in enemy .covers on which the postage lias been paid by the enemy. Military material suitable for our own propaganda has been collected, prepared and distributed by balloons' on the Britsli fronts. 'Tribute to the starting effectiveness iof your work in this connection has been paid by the chief of the German General Staff himself, who in a recent order made specific reference to certain leaflets, all cf which were prepared in and distributed under arrangements made by the Directorate of Special Intelligence. I am conscious that there sre many other activities of the Directorate that I have not touched upon. Important decisions ‘have oeen given >n the realm of military international law; much trouble has been taken in the selection of intelligence personnel for the field, and investigations demanding technical qualifications of a high order have been conducted. As typical examples I may mention the highly skilled work of the staff of the chemical laboratory in connection with secret inks; of the photographic and code experts, and of tiie professor of uncommon languages. Much of the work lias been so secret th.it no referonae to it is even yet permissible.”