The Secrets of the German War OfficeGraves, Armgaard Karl
History
The Secrets of the German War Office
Graves, Armgaard Karl
Germany -- Foreign relations -- 1871-1918
On the evening of April 10, I had just put on my evening clothes and
gone to the upstairs writing-room. I was awaiting a party of
gentlemen who were coming to dine with me in the hotel. There came a
"buttons" who announced:
"There's a gentleman downstairs to see you, Doctor."
A premonition stole over me. I knew that my guests would not have
sent for me to come down but would have been announced. I realized
that if I was going to be caught there was no avoiding it. Secret
Service makes a man a fatalist. I took the precaution, however, to
slip inside my dinner coat just under the arm, my little bag of
chemicals, so often handy in an emergency. Then I went downstairs,
one hand was thrust in my pocket, the other folded across my breast so
that I could snatch the little bag of chemicals in an emergency.
I had hardly reached the last step of the grand stairway when four big
plain-clothes men, pounced upon me. I had to do some swift thinking.
I could have flung the chemicals in their faces and escaped, but I
knew I could never get outside of the British Isles without being
caught--outside of Glasgow for that matter. Such resistance would
only incriminate matters still more, so I let my hand fall down to my
side. More for the fun of it than anything else, I guess, I got on my
horse and demanded to know what was the matter.
"You'll soon know," Inspector French declared.
It seems that a woman had just called me on the telephone and the
Inspector, hurrying to the wire, pretended that he was I and tried to
learn something.
He then ordered his men to search me and seemed amazed when they
couldn't find any six shooters, daggers or bombs. I was taken back to
my room and there he began going through my effects, and bundling them
up. I knew I was up against it; but I wasn't going to make it any
easier for them. I requested Mr. Morris, then manager of the hotel,
and another witness to be called into my room. These gentlemen were
kind enough to put down on paper a description of all my effects that
were being taken away by the police. I was extremely careful to see
that they noted and described all papers and written matters of any
kind. There are often produced in court documents that are not found
on a Secret Service agent at the time of his arrest. Inspector
French--I recall him as an uncouth, illiterate bungler who
subsequently tried to get a lot of publicity out of my arrest as if he
himself had detected the whole concern, instead of having it thrust
under his nose by the London chemical company--was preparing to ride
over me roughshod. I insisted that he read the warrant for my arrest
and with much grumbling he finally did so. It had been issued under
the Official Secret Act that had been rushed through the House of
Commons. I was charged with endangering the safeguards of the British
Empire.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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