The Defence of the Realm (160 page)

40
 ‘Report and Proceedings of a Sub-Committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence Appointed by the Prime Minister to Consider the Question of Foreign Espionage in the United Kingdom: First Meeting, Tuesday, 30th March, 1909', Oct. 1909, TNA CAB 16/8.

41
 
Security Service
,
p. 64
; cf. Stieber,
Chancellors' Spy:
a source to be treated with some caution.

42
 Edmonds, ‘Espionage in the time of peace', Jan. 1909,
pp. 22
–
32
, TNA KV 1/2.

43
 CID, ‘The Question of Foreign Espionage in the United Kingdom', 30 March 1909,
p. 2
, TNA CAB 16/18.

44
 Edmonds, ‘Espionage in the time of peace', Jan. 1909,
p. 24
, TNA KV 1/2. Stieber,
Chancellors' Spy
.

45
 ‘Report and Proceedings of a Sub-Committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence Appointed by the Prime Minister to Consider the Question of Foreign Espionage in the United Kingdom: First Meeting, Tuesday, 30th March, 1909', Oct. 1909, TNA CAB 16/8. In talks to new recruits early in the Cold War, the DDG, Guy Liddell, explained that ‘When visiting Berlin and Moscow and after his return, [Edmonds] gathered that the Germans had opened a section of their Intelligence Service to deal with England.' Guy Liddell diary, 1 Nov. 1950. The Liddell diaries for the Second World War are in TNA KV 4/185–194; extensive extracts have been published in West (ed.),
Guy Liddell Diaries
, 2 vols. The post-war diaries are in Security Service Archives.

46
 Boghardt,
Spies of the Kaiser
,
pp. 13
–
20
.

47
 Andrew,
Théophile Delcassé
,
pp. 284
–
5
. Hiley, Introduction to Le Queux,
Spies of the Kaiser
,
pp. xix
–
xx
.

48
 ‘Sir James Edward Edmonds',
Oxford DNB
.

49
 Kell wrote to Holt-Wilson soon after the war: ‘Old Edmonds wrote to me asking that we should take him on! I have not replied. I would not have minded, if I could be sure he was not
more
cranky than he was in the old days.' Security Service Archives.

50
 J. E. Edmonds, ‘Intelligence Systems: Germany', 9 Feb. 1909, IWM Kell MSS.

51
 Le Queux,
Spies of the Kaiser
. Le Queux identified closely with the narrator, Jacox, at one point taking over as the narrator himself; Patrick and Baister,
William Le Queux
,
p. 66
.

52
 Edmonds, Unpublished Memoirs, ch. 20, LHC Edmonds MSS III/5.

53
 Introduction by Sir Robert Gower MP to Sladen,
The Real Le Queux
,
p. xv
. Le Queux also persuaded Gower, though he can scarcely have persuaded Edmonds, that his own unpaid
‘Secret Service operations' exceeded ‘in their daring the most colourful adventures of his bravest fictional heroes'.

54
 Edmonds, Unpublished Memoirs, ch. 20, LHC Edmonds MSS III/5.

55
 ‘Report and Proceedings of a Sub-Committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence Appointed by the Prime Minister to Consider the Question of Foreign Espionage in the United Kingdom', Oct. 1909,
appendix no. 1
, case no. 26, TNA CAB 16/8.

56
 Edmonds, Unpublished Memoirs, ch. 20, LHC Edmonds MSS III/5.

57
 Lady Kell, ‘Secret Well Kept: an account of the work of Sir Vernon Kell',
p. 113
(unpublished manuscript, IWM).

58
 Its other members were the First Lord of the Admiralty, the Home Secretary, the Postmaster General, Lord Esher, the permanent under secretaries of the Treasury and the Foreign Office, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, the Director of Military Operations, the Director of Naval Intelligence, the Director of Military Training and Rear Admiral Sir C. L. Ottley.

59
 ‘Report and Proceedings of a Sub-Committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence Appointed by the Prime Minister to Consider the Question of Foreign Espionage in the United Kingdom', Oct. 1909, TNA CAB 16/8. Edmonds, Unpublished Memoirs, ch. 20, LHC Edmonds MSS III/5.

60
 Col. W. G. Simpson, ‘The Duties of Local Authorities in War Time',
Journal of the Royal United Service Institution
, LVIII (Jan. 1914),
pp. 5
–
30
; Gilbert Mellor, ‘The Status under the Hague Conference of Civilians Who Take up Arms during the Time of War',
Journal of the Royal United Service Institution
,
LVIII
(May 1914),
pp. 559
–
78
; Col. G. H. Ovens, ‘Fighting in Enclosed Country',
Journal of the Royal United Service Institution
, XLIX (1905),
pp. 524
–
46
.

61
 ‘Report and Proceedings of a Sub-Committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence Appointed by the Prime Minister to Consider the Question of Foreign Espionage in the United Kingdom: First Meeting, Tuesday, 30th March, 1909', Oct. 1909, TNA CAB 16/8.

62
 ‘Report and Proceedings of a Sub-Committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence Appointed by the Prime Minister to Consider the Question of Foreign Espionage in the United Kingdom', Oct. 1909,
Appendix 1
, case no. 10, TNA CAB 16/8. Untitled memoir by Melville, 31 Dec. 1917,
pp. 24
–
5
, TNA KV 1/8.

63
 Dr Nicholas Hiley was the first to discover the meaning of ‘TR ', ‘Tariff Reformer'and ‘Tiaria'.

64
 Mansfield Cumming diary, SIS Archives.

65
 Herbert Dale Long to Melville, 23 March 1909, TNA KV 6/47. The ‘party' refers to ‘Tariff Reform Party' (German intelligence). Only fragmentary records survive of the secret investigations of Herbert Dale Long at home and abroad, often on half-pay. On his early work for Melville, see Cook,
M: MI5's First Spymaster
,
pp. 148
–
9
. Dr Nicholas Hiley's research has shown that in 1911 Long was sent to Brussels to run an operation for Cumming (SS Bureau: General Organisation, TNA KV 1/53).

66
 ‘Report and Proceedings of a Sub-Committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence Appointed by the Prime Minister to Consider the Question of Foreign Espionage in the United Kingdom.
Appendix 1
: Cases of Alleged German Espionage which have been reported to the Director of Military Operations', Oct. 1909, TNA CAB 16/8.

67
 Ibid. Boghardt,
Spies of the Kaiser
,
p. 32
.

68
 ‘Report and Proceedings of a Sub-Committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence Appointed by the Prime Minister to Consider the Question of Foreign Espionage in the United Kingdom.
Appendix 1
: Cases of Alleged German Espionage which have been reported to the Director of Military Operations', Oct. 1909, TNA CAB 16/8.

69
 ‘Report and Proceedings of a Sub-Committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence Appointed by the Prime Minister to Consider the Question of Foreign Espionage in the United Kingdom: First Meeting, Tuesday, 30th March, 1909', Oct. 1909, TNA CAB 16/8.

70
 Brett (ed.),
Journals and Letters of Reginald Viscount Esher
, vol. 2,
p. 379
.

71
 ‘Report and Proceedings of a Sub-Committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence Appointed by the Prime Minister to Consider the Question of Foreign Espionage in the United Kingdom: First Meeting, Tuesday, 30th March, 1909', Oct. 1909, TNA CAB 16/8.

72
 Koss,
Lord Haldane
,
pp. 15
–
16
,
65
,
69
.

73
 ‘Report and Proceedings of a Sub-Committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence
Appointed by the Prime Minister to Consider the Question of Foreign Espionage in the United Kingdom: First Meeting, Tuesday, 30th March, 1909', Oct. 1909, TNA CAB 16/8.

74
 ‘Report and Proceedings of a Sub-Committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence Appointed by the Prime Minister to Consider the Question of Foreign Espionage in the United Kingdom: Second Meeting, Tuesday, 20th April, 1909', Oct. 1909, TNA CAB 16/8.

75
 Haldane also reported a meeting with ‘a member of the Russian government', who argued that, given the reinforcement of French and German defences, Germany must be tempted ‘by the possibility of successfully invading England'. ‘Report and Proceedings of a Sub-Committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence Appointed by the Prime Minister to Consider the Question of Foreign Espionage in the United Kingdom: Third Meeting, Monday, 12th July, 1909', Oct. 1909, TNA CAB 16/8.

76
 Edmonds, Unpublished Memoirs, ch. 20, LHC Edmonds MSS III/5.

77
 ‘Report and Proceedings of a Sub-Committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence Appointed by the Prime Minister to Consider the Question of Foreign Espionage in the United Kingdom', Oct. 1909, TNA CAB 16/8.

78
 Judd,
Quest for C
,
p. 72
.

79
 Le Queux to the Editor,
Manchester Guardian
, 4 Jan. 1910 (I am grateful to Dr Nicholas Hiley for this reference). For further evidence that Le Queux was aware of the founding of the Secret Service Bureau, see Hiley, Introduction to Le Queux,
Spies of the Kaiser
,
p. xviii
.

80
 The case of Lieutenant Siegfried Helm is an example of a private intelligence-gathering initiative by a German army officer (see below,
pp. 32
–
3
). The Nachrichten-Abteilung agent Paul Brodtmann, though not working for military intelligence, submitted several reports to the German military attaché in London (see above,
p. 18
).

81
 Memorandum re Formation of a S.S. Bureau [minutes of meeting on 26 Aug. 1909, approved by Sir Charles Hardinge, PUS at the Foreign Office, on 14 Sept. 1909], TNA WO 106/6292.

82
 ‘Conclusions of the Sub-Committee requested to consider how a secret service bureau could be established in Great Britain', 28 April 1909, TNA WO 106/6292.

83
 Lady Kell, ‘Secret Well Kept', chs 1, 2, IWM.

84
 Ibid.,
p. 110
.

85
 Kell's record of service notes that he was ‘Engaged by Col. Edmonds' as from 1 October 1909. Edmonds confirms his role in his Unpublished Memoirs, ch. 19,
p. 7
, ch. 20,
p. 5
; LHC Edmonds MSS III/4–5.

86
 Boghardt,
Spies of the Kaiser
,
p. 38
.

87
 Lady Kell, ‘Secret Well Kept', IWM.

88
 No such evidence of contact with Kell was discovered by the best and most recent biographers of Le Queux, Patrick and Baister. Nor has any evidence come to light in Security Service files.

89
 Lady Kell, ‘Secret Well Kept', IWM.

90
 Andrew,
Secret Service
,
p. 123
.

91
 Judd,
Quest for C
, ch. 1. For further detail on Cumming's appointment see Jeffery,
Official History of the Secret Intelligence Service
, part I.

92
 Mansfield Cumming diary; cited by Judd,
Quest for C
,
pp. 84
–
7
,
110
.

93
 Judd,
Quest for C
,
p. 87
.

94
 Mansfield Cumming, diary, 22 Oct. 1909.

95
 Kell, [Six-monthly report], April 1910–October 1910 [which begins by summarizing the work of the previous six months], TNA KV 1/9.

96
 See below,
p. 31
.

97
 Mansfield Cumming, typed note, 1 Nov. 1909, filed with diary; Judd,
Quest for C
,
p. 115
.

98
 Mansfield Cumming diary, 1 Nov. 1909; Judd,
Quest for C
,
p. 114
.

99
 Judd,
Quest for C
,
pp. 114
–
15
.

100
 Mansfield Cumming diary, 26, 30 Nov. 1909; Judd,
Quest for C
,
p. 119
.

101
 Security Service Archives.

102
 Judd,
Quest for C
,
pp. 151
,
155
.

103
 Mansfield Cumming diary, 17 March 1910.

104
 Ibid., 23 March 1910;Judd,
Quest for C
,
pp. 151
–
2
.

105
 Mansfield Cumming diary, 5, 6 April 1910, SIS Archives.

106
 Ibid., 28 April 1910.

107
 Ibid., 9 May 1910.

Chapter 1: ‘Spies of the Kaiser'

1
 The title used in some of Kell's progress reports.

2
 
Security Service
,
pp. 67
–
9
.

3
 Their names are identified in the Security Intelligence Service Seniority List and Register of Past and Present Members (December 1919) and some earlier lists. Few records of service survive for early staff.

4
 Commander B. J. Ohlson, RNR (who joined in May 1911), Major R. J. Drake (April 1912), Captain E. E. B. Holt-Wilson (December 1912), Captain F. B. Booth (January 1913), Captain M. Brodie (July 1913), Captain J. B. Fetherston (January 1914) and Lieutenant Colonel M. M. Haldane (April 1914). Major J. F. C. Carter joined on 4 August 1914. In addition, Captain Stanley Clarke served in the Bureau from January 1911 to November 1912, and Captain K. E. Lawrence from January 1913 to March 1914. Ohlson's position is somewhat unclear. According to staff lists, he was continuously employed by Kell's Bureau from May 1911 to November 1914. However, according to an interwar MI5 Who's Who, Ohlson returned to his previous employer, P&O, from May 1913 to May 1914. One possible explanation is that the P&O posting provided cover while he was working for Kell's Bureau.