GERMAN SCHEME

Waikato Times, Volume 84, Issue 13188, 31 May 1915, Page 6

GERMAN SCHEME

SIR R. BADEN-FCWELL'S DISCLOSURES. I.ieiitenant-Coueral Sir l'obort BadenPowell lias hitherto been known as Prince of Scouts end a first-rate soldier. In a hook hi' has published he, ior the first rime, reveals himself in the role of spy ,and in using that word one may well (.dl attention ty the author's observation that a spy is "not mwssnrih a I>a• ■ 1 and despicable lellow. lie is often both clever and brave." Sir Holier! throws a light on Cornian methods and intent ions. He shows with indisputable evidence the amazing network oi espionage in which Cermany song!;: to surround all her possible enemies, and he •liscloses also in full detail a Cerman plan tor the invasion oi England. It wa.s part of the duty of the diplomatic agents to stir up sedition abroad in peace' tune, with a view to create trouble in war, and to inform the Cerman Covornment of the state of reeling in the foreign countries where they worked. Their failure in Egypt. India, South Africa, and Ireland has been manifest. And ihey wholly miscalculated Ihe attitude and resources of the Overseas Dominions. But with her "tactical agents" Cermany has been more successful. They did their business well. Foundations for gun cmplacements were secretly built in good positions all over Belgium and France. On this matter Sir l'obert speaks with the best authority. It leads him to his first story of his own experience in secret investigation. Some years ago a report came to the War Office that a foreign Power was making gun empaleoments in a position which had not before been suspected of being of military value, and they were evidently going to use it for strategical purposes. He (Sir Hobert) was sent to see whether the report was true, and he went to stay with a friendly farmer in the neighbourhood. He went out shooting every day among the partridges and snipe which abounded there. Ho very soon found what he wanted. Officers were in the neighbourhood taking angles and measurements, accompanied bv workmen, who were driving pegs into the ground and marking off lines with taues between them.

As lie passed with his gun in his hand, bag on shoulder, and- dog at heel, they paid no attention to him. and front the neighbouring hills he was able to watch their proceedings. When they went away to their meals or returned to their quarters he went shooting over the ground they had left, and if he did not get a big bag of game, at any rate lie had a good collection of drawings and measurements of the plans of the forts and emplacements which they had traced out on the ground. • Although they afterwards planted trees all over the sites to conceal the forts within tlicm, and put up buildings in other nlaccs to hide them, he* and the English officers knew perfectly well where the emplacements were and what were their shapes and sizes. It seems that the enormous sums which the Fatherland devoted to secret service led to the formation of an international spy exchange, whose members were largely Ainerican-Oermans, and whose headquarters wore in Belgium. For a given price they were prepared to get and supply information on any subject. By pretending to be an American, Sir Uobort got his information without any expenditure. This was the sensational disclosure that was made to him of the Cerman conquest of England: The Cerman idea then—sonic six years ago—was that they could, by means of mines and submarines, at any time block the traffic in the British Channel in the space of a few hours, thus holding our homo fleets in their stations at Spithead and Portland. With the Strait of Dover so blocked, they could then rush a fleet of transports across the North Sea from Cermany to the East Coast of England, either East Anglia or, as in this plan, in. \ orkshire. They had in Cermany nine embarking stations, with piers and platforms till ready made, and steel lighters for disembarkation purposes or for actual traversing of the ocean in case of fine weather.

Tlicy bad taken the average of the weather for years past, and had come to (lie conclusion that July 13 is, on an average, the finest day in the year, hut tlieir attempt uould lie timed, if possible, to fall on a Rank Holiday, when communications were temporarily disorganised. Therefore the nearest Hank Holiday to July 13 would probably be that at the beginning of August; it was a coincidence that the present war broke out on that day. 1 be spies stationed in England were to cut all telephone and telegraph wires, and, where possible, to blow down important bridges and tunnels, and thus to interrupt communications and create confusion. The idea of landing on the coast of orkshire was based on the following reasons : They do not look upon London as strategically the capital of England, but rather upon the great industrial centres ol the North .Midlands, where, instead ol 0,000,000, there are more like 14.Oi>0,(100 of people assembled in the numerous cities and towns, which now almost adjoin each other across that part of the country. I heir theory was that it they could rush an arniv ol oven 90,000 men into Leeds, Sheffield, Halifax, Manchester, and Liverpool without encountering great opposition in the first few hours, they could there establish themselves in such strength that it would require a* powerful army to drive them out again. At first glance it seems too fanciful a plan to commend itself to belief, but in talking it over with German officers Sir Robert- found they fully believed in it as a practical proposition. They themselves enlarged on the idea of the use that they would thus make of the civil population, and foreshadowed their present brutality bv explaining that when war came it would not be made with kid gloves. The meaning of tlieir commands would be brought home to the people by shooting down civilians it necessary, in order to prove that they were in earnest, and to force the inhabitants through terror to comply with their requirements. In ''field spying," which he regards as an essential part of scouting, Sir Robert says that the English Army is

behind that of other nations. He mentions a met that has been previously reported—that Steinbauer, the Cerman sqy, whose name and activities figured prominently in a recent espionage case, was attached to the Kaiser's stall' when his Imperial Majesty last visited this country as the truest of the King at the opening of the Queen Victoria .Memorial.