The Spy Who Painted the Queen Read Online Free Page B

newspaper’s correspondence, telephone calls and telegrams be closely monitored, adding in a sinister manner, ‘I do not wish to be an alarmist, but I know what I am writing about.’
    The Times , commenting on the plethora of reports coming from around the country and the large number of letters it had received from the public, advised, ‘The duty of the public is a simple one. It is to report to the police wherever they think there is justification for such a step. A watchful public will form an excellent adjunct to the already hard worked police and the Special Police Force.’ With advice such as this, from such an august source, was it surprising that spy fever and fear of foreigners gripped the nation throughout the war?

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C ENSORS , C OUNTER - SPIES
AND A S USPECT
    T HE OUTBREAK OF war saw the creation of two other, highly effective, defensive and intelligence-gathering organisations. The monitoring of telegrams and letters, as advocated by the anonymous Times correspondent, began as soon as the war started. During the Boer War there had been extensive interception of telegrams round the world, and though the organisation responsible for this had been wound up, the necessary machinery still existed to restart it. Cable censorship began immediately, as the War Office had a plan and officers in place to carry out the work. The British had realised at the start of the war that control of information was going to be vital. Their first act of the war was to signal the Post Office cable ship Alert , standing by off the German coast, to grapple, cut and reel up the German transatlantic cables, thus forcing the Germans to use neutral cables, which ran through London and could be intercepted. Among the countries that had no cable system of their own was Holland, which was obliged to use the British-controlled lines, as were the other neutral countries in northern Europe. The elimination of key radio transmitters such as the German one in Togoland also helped force the Germans to use neutral cables or their own powerful transmitters in Germany, which could, of course, be picked up by anyone who knew the frequency. Naval Intelligence soon set to work breaking German ciphers, which they managed to do with great success.
    During August 1914, censorship was introduced on all post to and from Holland and Scandinavia. Communication with family and friends in enemy countries was not actually banned and censorship rules relating to harmless social communications with alien enemies were simple. Provided they were sent through the normal mail via an intermediary in a neutral country, against whom nothing was suspected, communications were allowed to pass abroad. A note on the subject on De László’s file (which has been crossed out) does make the point that, ‘This course avoided undue hardship and provided HM Government with a lot of useful information.’ The official report on postal censorship states that, gradually, from scraps picked up in individual letters, it was possible to build up a picture of which men were being called up, details of where units were posted, information on troop morale, casualties, details of how German ships in distant waters received supplies, information on new submarines and, from postal censorship sources alone, the writing of a ‘Who’s Who’ of the German Naval Zeppelin Service with biographies of most of its officers. Letters sent through suspect intermediaries were thoroughly scrutinised by the censorship staff and, unless they were clearly utterly harmless, were stopped from going forward.
    Business letters and transfers of money were also allowed to pass, provided they were licensed by the Board of Trade or Treasury and sent through an unobjectionable intermediary. The chief postal censor received copies of all licences issued under the Trading with the Enemy legislation so that any correspondence could be checked against the current list of licences.
    In August 1917, arrangements were