GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND GERMAN SPIES IN ENGLAND AN EXPOSURE BY WILLIAM LE QUEUX AUTHOR OF "LYING LIPS," "FATAL THIRTEEN," "THE FOUR FACES," ETC. TORONTO THOMAS LANGTON 1915 _Printed in Great Britain_ CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE To the Reader 7 I. How the Truth was Hidden 11 II. The Kaiser's Secret Revealed 22 III. How the Public were Bamboozled 36 IV. Under the Kaiser's Thumb 57 V. How Spies Work 66 VI. Some Methods of Secret Agents 78 VII. Master-Spies and Their Cunning 93 VIII. The Spy and the Law 116 IX. A Remarkable Spy 138 X. Some Recent Cases 152 XI. 27,000 Aliens at Large in Great Britain 171 XII. How to End the Spy Peril 196 TO THE READER From the outbreak of war until to-day I have hesitated to write this book. But I now feel impelled to do so by a sense of duty. The truth must be told. The peril must be faced. Few men, I venture to think, have been more closely associated with, or know more of the astounding inner machinery of German espionage in this country, and in France, than myself. Though the personnel of the Confidential Department established at Whitehall to deal with these gentry have, during the past six years, come and gone, I have, I believe, been the one voluntary assistant who has remained to watch and note, both here and in Belgium--where the German headquarters were established--the birth and rapid growth of this ever-spreading canker-worm in the nation's heart. I am no alarmist. This is no work of fiction, but of solid and serious fact. I write here of what I know; and, further, I write with the true spirit of loyalty. Though sorely tempted, at this crisis, to publish certain documents, and make statements which would, I know, add greatly to the weight of this book, I refrain, because such statements might reveal certain things to the enemy, including the identity of those keen and capable officials who have performed so nobly their work of contra-espionage. Yet to-day, with the fiercest war in history in progress, with our bitterest enemy threatening us with invasion, and while we are compelled to defend our very existence as a nation, yet Spies are nobody's business! It is because the British public have so long been officially deluded, reassured and lulled to sleep, that I feel it my duty to now speak out boldly, and write the truth after a silence of six years.