"Over There" with the AustraliansKnyvett, R. Hugh (Reginald Hugh)
History
"Over There" with the Australians
Knyvett, R. Hugh (Reginald Hugh)
World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, English
Man is by instinct and tradition a hunter, and there is no sport so
thrilling as man-hunting, especially if the hunted be a menace to
society, and more especially if he be a spy that threatens the safety
of yourself and comrades. There is also in this branch of intelligence
service an appeal to the clash of wits that holds fascination for the
keen mind. The German spy system is not more clever than our own, but
has been more carefully organized and much longer in operation. He
spies also on friend and neutral, while we only use this back-door
method of gleaning information from an enemy. The word, too, has
associations that are ugly, and I fancy that our spies do not boast of
their service, but spy-hunting is a service that has no taint, and
there is much satisfaction both to the conscience and intellect in
routing out the underground worker who, for "filthy lucre," would sell
the blood of his fellow man. The traitor and the spy have in all ages
been rightly considered as foul beings who poison the air and whose
touch contaminates. In Germany alone is the spy given honor which is
fitting in a country which has substituted _Expediency_ for _Honor_ and
_Plausibility_ for _Truth_, on whose throne is a maniac, and where
_Conscience_ has been unseated by _Pride_, and _Reason_ displaced by
_Method_.
Germany's espionage of her neighbors has been in existence so long, and
so much time and money have been expended on it that we must prepare
for its reassertion after the war even in countries where it has been
for a time suppressed. Its hands have been cut off, but the plotting
brain and the murderous heart of the system still persist and will be
used after the war to rehabilitate the trade of Germany under many
disguises, and will also seek, through appeal to our pity for a fallen
nation, to lull us into slumber, until the claws and fangs of
militarism have grown again.
We are so new in the game that our methods in spy-hunting are clumsy,
and we frequently give warning to the brains of the system to seek
cover when we strike at its puppets. By arresting the agents of the
German master spy we cut off his activity for a time but allow him to
spread his ramifications in other directions, and the first knowledge
we have that he has sprung to life again is by the destruction of
property and loss of life that ensue. It would sometimes pay us to
give these agents more and more rope, keeping them under observation
until we can strike at the centre and heart of all this plotting. When
we have enough evidence against one of these agents for a death penalty
we should allow him to purchase his life by betraying his master, and
as these agents only serve for hire and know not what loyalty is, they
are always ready to turn king's evidence if the price offered be high
enough. Of course, they should not be given their liberty again, but
segregated like the carrier of a contagious disease.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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