Part 5 (2/2)
Have you lost your wits, that you believe all the ridiculous lies published against the Germans in the Jingo papers?
Have you forgotten how the English treated the Boers?
Have you forgotten 'ninety-eight?
Have you forgotten the Manchester Martyrs?
Have you forgotten the K.O.S.B. murders?
Have you forgotten that the Future lies in your hands?
Have you forgotten that England's difficulty is Ireland's opportunity?
G.o.d save Ireland!
Thus the _agent provocateur_ at his very worst. Germany has confessedly set out to make war by ”all the violent means at her command,” but not by violent means alone. Such work as this placard makes evident, though, shows plainly how Germany has mistaken the temper of a people, for the Munsters and the Irish Guards have given their answer to the questions put. The flagrant error and waste of effort is like that of Von Holeben, who, when German Amba.s.sador to America, strove to stir up strife between America and England until his efforts became common talk in Was.h.i.+ngton, and Berlin was forced to recall the blunderer. Yet more efforts of the same kind have been made in America since the outbreak of war, and at least one highly placed German official has received definite notice from Was.h.i.+ngton that he must either stop his work of sowing discord or leave the country.
These are but instances. The whole history of Syndicalism, the whole history of setting cla.s.s against cla.s.s in the case of industrial unrest, and of Irish disturbances in recent years, point to some influence working independently of the rights and betterment of the cla.s.ses concerned in the agitations. In the case of Ireland, we may a.s.sume that the majority of Irish patriots have the best interests of their countrymen at heart; but the placard of which the contents are quoted above never emanated from any Irish patriot; it was a definite and ineffectual attempt to stir up the worst pa.s.sions of which humanity is capable in the hour of England's greatest need, at a time when all Irish patriots were voicing unity and support to their Government, whether they were Home Rulers or Orangemen--the action of Ireland has proved that. In the case of working men's unions, the action of the men themselves has always been to a definite end, both in England and in France; to the end that they might obtain better conditions of life, just laws to govern their work, and the elemental rights of man. But, in addition to these things, there have been of late years agitators who would claim for the working men of the two countries that Germany had most cause to fear, not only the rights of their cla.s.s, but a right to disregard the rights of all other cla.s.ses, and take absolute power into their hands at a signal from some leader. Efforts have been made to induce men to strike for little, for nothing; to cause them to render a whole country powerless by their action, and to do indirect injury to themselves. Such action as this points to the working of a force not necessarily beneficial to the workmen themselves, but certainly inimical to the country to which the workers happen to belong. And, always keeping in mind Stieber and the debas.e.m.e.nt of aim he has brought on his own country, together with the fact that industrial unrest is in the first place a German product, we may say that coincidence does not account for all the Syndicalist efforts that have been contemporary with rumours of war.
CHAPTER ELEVEN.
STEINHAUER'S WORK.
The trials of Schulz, Graves, and others who have made appearances in the British criminal courts recently--or comparatively so--showed us the spy at work in extricating information; they demonstrated one phase, and a dangerous phase at that, of the business. No recent trial, however, has proved of such importance in connection with a study of the system as that of Ernst, which, quite apart from the doings of the accused man, shows the work of Steinhauer, the Potsdam director of the fixed agent, or ”post office,” as the fixed spy is designated in the slang of espionage. Since the case of Ernst is still _sub judice_ at the time of writing, only the bare official report can be given, at least as regards the conduct of the accused; but even with this limitation there is more to be learned from the case of Ernst and his alleged doings than from any other recent case, for the allegations of the prosecution involve evidence as to the headquarter office at Potsdam managed by Steinhauer, who supervises the working of the fixed agent as well as that of travelling spies and secret-service headquarter methods--evidence which is sufficiently plain and complete to substantiate all the statements made as regards the foreign work of the German secret service in the course of this book.
Karl Gustav Ernst, hairdresser, of Caledonian Road, Islington, was first charged on August 4, 1914, with contravening the Official Secrets Act with a view to his being dealt with under the Aliens Restriction Act.
He denied knowledge of the charge against him, which he described as ”ridiculous,” and, after remand, was ordered deportation. Conveyed to Brixton prison, to await a suitable opportunity for his being sent to Germany, he appealed to the Home Office for release. His appeal included claims to the effect that he was absolutely innocent of any crime, that he had nothing whatever to do with the Official Secrets Act, and that, since the police had produced no doc.u.ments in court, they had evidently discovered nothing of an incriminating nature at his place in Caledonian Road, where he _had carried on business as a hairdresser for sixteen years_, with a Pentonville official among his customers.
Inquiries proved the truth of a claim that he made to the effect that he was a British subject, which rendered it impossible to detain him under the Aliens Restriction Act. He was consequently released, and rearrested outside the prison gates as a spy on the country in which he had voluntarily become a citizen by means of naturalisation. The charge against him now is that is he traitor as well as spy.
His position with regard to the original charge and sentence of deportation is worthy of note. For sixteen years he had been in business in Caledonian Road; that is to say, he had resided in his place for such a length of time that there were no grounds for suspicion against him on the part of the inhabitants of the district. He was a part of the life of the place, almost an old inhabitant, when his doings rendered him worthy of the notice of the police. This is characteristic of the fixed agent in French centres, as already stated here.
On September 28, 1914, the present case was opened against Ernst by Mr Bodkin, who appeared for the Director of Public Prosecutions at Bow Street Police-Court. The charge was to the effect that Ernst had ”obtained and communicated, and attempted to obtain and communicate to one Steinhauer, certain information calculated to be useful to an enemy.”
Mr Bodkin stated that the prisoner first came under the suspicion of the authorities in October of 1911, and it was evident that from then until January of 1914 he had been a spy in the pay of the German secret service. The man who was practically Ernst's master was one Steinhauer, a member and organiser of the German secret service, whose name had figured in practically every espionage case investigated in this country for the past three or four years.
Acting under Steinhauer's orders, the prisoner was alleged to have been deputed to accomplish certain duties which fell under two heads. In the first place, it was alleged that he was to receive from Steinhauer, who was located in Germany, letters enclosed in envelopes which gave them the appearance of ordinary business communications, and to post them in England to various members of the organisation. In the second place, it was alleged that he was to make inquiries on his own account with regard to persons and places which, in the opinion of Steinhauer, would be useful to the German secret service. His salary consisted of out-of-pocket expenses and a retaining fee of one pound a month, which, when Ernst pointed out the risk attaching to what he was doing, and the importance of his work, was increased to one pound ten s.h.i.+llings a month. Mr Bodkin stated that ”the system was perfectly well-known from the commencement in 1911, and the hairdresser's shop in Caledonian Road was accordingly kept under observation.”
The observation included the opening of letters addressed to the accused, which were traced and the tracings filed before delivery of the originals to Ernst. There were included among these letters a large number of communications from Germany, chiefly from Potsdam, and Ernst himself sent many communications to Potsdam and Berlin. His letters were posted in different districts of London, while the letters coming from Germany to him were written on English note-paper and enclosed in English envelopes, which the prisoner had forwarded to Steinhauer for use--in one instance the paper and envelopes had been sent as ”samples,”
the package being so weighty that Steinhauer had to pay excess postage at the other end. By opening both outgoing and incoming correspondence the authorities were placed in possession of a ma.s.s of valuable information as regards not only Ernst, but also other members of the system in England.
For the purpose of the correspondence with Ernst, Steinhauer was alleged to have adopted the alias of ”Mrs Reimers,” and Ernst himself, the prosecution stated, changed his name from time to time, having letters addressed to his shop as to ”J. Walters, care of K.G. Ernst,” and sometimes to ”W. Weller.” These two names were the prisoner's own suggestion to Steinhauer. The latter sent letters not only to Ernst himself, but also missives to be forwarded to various places, including Chatham, Sheerness, and Portland Harbour. These letters were opened by the authorities under powers which they possessed for dealing with such cases, and tracings were taken before the letters were delivered.
Ernst was requested by Steinhauer to find out all that he could about certain persons named, on the ground that they were connected or believed to be connected with the Intelligence Department of the War Office. One of the firms upon which he was called to make inquiries and report had an office in the City opposite to the office occupied by the late Captain Stewart, who figured in the German courts in an espionage case, and subsequently was imprisoned in a German fortress. In one of the envelopes sent to Ernst by Steinhauer were two letters, one of which was addressed to a British sailor, and the other to a German located at Portland Harbour. Further, the prosecution alleged, Ernst was in constant communication with persons named Kruger and Krumer, in connection with espionage work, while one of his letters referred to a magazine article which described the defences of the East Coast.
Another letter contained reference to the espionage case against Parrott, which took place in the autumn of 1912. After January of 1914, Steinhauer requested Ernst to make inquiries about a person living in Somerset, and to this Ernst replied that he could not spare the time to do so, though he had previously gone up to Sheffield on business of a similar nature.
Here, with the taking of some formal evidence, the first hearing of the case closed, and at this point Mr S.Y. Tilly, who had been retained for the defence of the prisoner, said that if he had been in possession of the information outlined by Mr Bodkin it would have made a difference in his procedure in the case. He had been a.s.sured by the prisoner and the prisoner's friends that Ernst was a perfectly straightforward British subject: but, in the circ.u.mstances revealed by Mr Bodkin's statement, he felt compelled to withdraw from the case.
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