"If a citizen or subject of a country or place invaded or conquered gives information to his own Government from which he is separated by the hostile army or to the army of his Government he is a _war traitor_ and death is the penalty of his offence." Thus, a Belgian resident in Brussels, during the German occupation, found sending information to the Belgian authorities in France, would be shot out of hand by the Germans, and they would be within their clear rights in shooting him. A more doubtful case would be that of an inhabitant of a district not yet occupied, who entered the war zone, obtained information, and, having sent it to his Government, returned home, only to be captured later when the enemy occupied the district. The view is generally held, though the Convention came to no very clear decision, that in such a case he could not be punished, as he was not supposed to belong to an occupied territory. Such a man owes no duty to the enemy, as in the case of an occupied territory, and once he has completed his mission, he is free. It should be noted that the nationality of a spy is not material; neutrals found guilty may be punished as though they were the enemy subjects. Many Chinese who spied for the Russians during the Russo-Japanese War were executed by the Japanese. One of them was a Chinese officer, and the Government of China demanded an explanation. The Japanese reply was quite unequivocal, and insisted on the right to punish spies, no matter of what nationality. As I have said, all nations spy in the interests of national self-preservation. It is not the _fact_ of German espionage that has roused the indignation of the civilised world against her. We have no feelings even of resentment against such men as Carl Lody, though, of course, we are entitled to protect ourselves against them. They owe us nothing, and they are clearly doing their duty in trying to help their country. What has aroused anti-German feelings--which are not likely to die out for many years--is the baseness of the German _method_: systematic "planting" of agents who, for years, have posed as the friends of those among whom they lived, yet have not hesitated to betray them in the first shock of war. Thousands of paid German spies have deliberately become naturalised Frenchmen, Englishmen, and Belgians, as a mere cloak for their efforts to betray the country of their adoption. Hundreds of thousands of Germans accepted for years as friends in this country, bearers even of British honours, have abused our hospitality, and added the vilest treachery to the blackest ingratitude. While posing as our friends, they have worked their best for our undoing, and--worse still--they have suborned and made traitors of poor men, to whom the lure of gold of this kind is simply that it is "not cricket," and for the false friend, not for the open enemy, the British people reserve their bitterest scorn and contempt. CHAPTER IX A REMARKABLE SPY