"We have been very humane up to now; we have not killed half the men we could; we have not destroyed half the towns it would have been easy for us to destroy," said to me a quiet-looking little man with gold-rimmed spectacles and a white beard, who has for years occupied a high position at the foreign office, "but if we ever manage to reach England in force we shall respect nothing. We shall fully justify that name of Hun which British papers seem so fond of giving us." This official, who belongs to a class of people who should really know how things are, is so blinded by hate for England that he cannot even detect the monstrosity of this statement. I always thought the spy mania in England exaggerated, but now I am absolutely persuaded that even those Englishmen who recognise this peril do not realise the lengths to which it goes. They have been suspecting waiters and servants, while the spies are in high social positions; they have contented themselves with searching the houses of German barbers and grocers whilst neglecting the heads who collect and forward to Berlin the information gathered by more humble satellites. It is very sad to have to say such things, but I think the most dangerous spies still in England are not Germans, whether naturalised or not, but are people belonging to neutral countries--even to countries actually fighting Germany--and subjects of Great Britain herself. I would not have written this if I was not sure of it; the diplomat from whom I got the information assured me that there are some English and French of both sexes who come regularly to Berlin or to frontier towns through neutral countries and have conversations with officials and then return. The restrictions as to luggage and passports, both in France and in England, are not half as severe as they should be; they are even slacker than at the beginning of the war. I know personally of a number of stolen American passports under the shelter of which German spies are now travelling, and an Italian Consul with whom I happened to travel a few days ago said he had discovered two fellows with false Italian passports almost perfectly imitated. In Berlin I heard people, well-informed people, saying that in every English town of importance, on every spot of strategical value on the British coast, Germany has got _a few friends_ keeping their eyes open and ready to receive an eventual German raid and to lend their friends as strong a hand as possible. * * * The first morning I woke up in Berlin I could not help feeling a bit nervous. The small hotel I had chosen in the Tiergarten was a few minutes away from the Kaiserhof theatre of my rather unpleasant adventures during my first war-time visit to Berlin.