"The Special Intelligence Department ... was able in three years, from 1911 to 1913, to discover the ramifications of the German Secret Service in England. In spite of enormous effort and lavish expenditure by the enemy, little valuable information fell into their hands.... There is good reason to believe that the spy organisation, crushed at the outbreak of the war, has not been re-established.... How completely that system had been suppressed in the early days of the war is clear from the fact disclosed in a German Army Order--that on 21st August the German military commanders were ignorant of the dispatch and movements of the British Expeditionary Force, although these had been known for many days to a large number of people in this country." Such an attempt as this to lull us into a false sense of security was little short of criminal. If not from spies, asked a correspondent of the _Globe_, from whom did Germany obtain, in 1912, the very valuable information that oil was to be the sole source of motive power for the "Queen Elizabeth" (v. _Taschenbuch der Kriegsflotten_, January, 1913)? Certainly not from any English official source; for we were kept entirely in the dark as to this momentous change until the _Morning Post_ announced in July, 1913, that the battleship in question would consume liquid fuel only. Even minor details did not escape the notice of German spies during the period specified by Mr. McKenna. For instance, the _Taschenbuch_ for 1914 contains this statement:-- "'Hermes,' at present tender to air-craft, and as such only carries eight 6in. guns." Yet it was not until the "Hermes" had been sunk in the Channel by a German submarine, that any official statement was made as to how she had been employed and her armament reduced! Again, there is irrefutable evidence to show that German agents were ready waiting in France for the disembarkation of at least some details of the British Expeditionary Force, and the whole world knows that the German Emperor's insolent reference to Sir John French's Army was made _before August 21st_. Further evidence of the activity of German spies before and since the outbreak of the war is to be found in the following extract from a letter written by an English naval officer, and published in the _Times_ of November 20th under the heading, "In the North Sea":-- "Their (_i.e._, the Germans') submarines are outside even now, and it seems funny where they get their information. But, at any rate, they are well served, as they knew where the Fleet was when we were at Devonport, and we did not know ourselves." Taking all these facts into consideration, it is evident that the German spy system is more than a match for the Intelligence Division of the Admiralty War Staff. Steinhauer--the chief of German Espionage--was the author and inspiration of these "enormous efforts," and of the lavish expenditure of money.