Spies and Secret Service: The story of espionage, its main systems and chief exponentsGrant, Hamil
History
Spies and Secret Service: The story of espionage, its main systems and chief exponents
Grant, Hamil
Secret service; Spies
interned at or soon after the declaration of war.
"None of the men arrested in pursuance of the orders issued on August
4 has yet been brought to trial, partly because the officers whose
evidence would have been required were engaged in urgent duties in
the early days of the war, but mainly because the prosecution, by
disclosing the means adopted to track out the spies and prove their
guilt, would have hampered the Intelligence Department in its further
efforts. They were, and still are, held as prisoners under the powers
given to the Secretary of State by the Aliens Restriction Act. One of
them, however, who established a claim to British nationality, has now
been formally charged, and, the reasons for delay no longer existing,
it is a matter for consideration whether the same course should now be
taken with regard to some of the other known spies.
"Although this action taken on August 4 is believed to have broken
up the spy organisation which had been established before the
war, it is still necessary to take the most rigorous measures to
prevent the establishment of any fresh organisation and to deal with
individual spies who might previously have been working in this
country outside the organisation, or who might be sent here under
the guise of neutrals after the declaration of war. In carrying
this out the Home Office and War Office have now the assistance of
the Cable Censorship, and also of the Postal Censorship, which,
established originally to deal with correspondence with Germany
and Austria, has been gradually extended (as the necessary staff
could be obtained) so as to cover communications with those neutral
countries through which correspondence might readily pass to Germany
or Austria. The censorship has been extremely effective in stopping
secret communications by cable or letter with the enemy; but, as its
existence was necessarily known to them, it has not, except in a few
instances, produced materials for the detection of espionage.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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