MI5 in the Great War

by Nigel West

  Meyer was watched and it was ascertained that he had tried to start in different ways of business and eventually it became known that he and his wife had opened a shop at 199 Regent Street. This was the International Corset Company which was formed on 2 September 1912, and of which the directors, Paul Rosenberg and Hermann Hertz, lived at Cologne. A HOW for the Regent Street address was taken out from 7 April to 20 April 1914.

  Meyer was arrested and searched on 8 August but there was nothing incriminating and no evidence against him. He was interned and at one time it was proposed to send him to Germany to counteract the German press campaign against atrocities to prisoners of war, but MI5 stopped this. Eventually he was released on grounds of ill-health. Madame Meyer continued the business till July 1916, when she left Regent Street and want to work as a blouse-maker. Carl Meyer was repatriated in January 1918 and on his way home, he despatched a telegram to his wife. This was the occasion of fresh instructions dealing with communications of released prisoners of war.

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  Robert Arthur Blackburn, of 37 Jenkinson Street, Liverpool, was born in 1896. Early in 1914 he made one trip as an ordinary seaman on a steamer of the Elder-Dempster Line. Then he was employed by his father to help in managing a common lodging-house at 121 Islington.

  He seems to have been an impressionable youth, who excited his imagination with reading. As a result he wrote offering his services to the German embassy in London and received in reply a letter from Berlin, signed Leo Sirius, enclosing questions about defences and ship-building on the Mersey. These he answered and was paid £2 and received a further letter in July. His attempts at spying had not given satisfaction to his employers. The letter of June had been posted via Klunder, so HOWs were taken out for correspondence to Blackburn and Sirius. It was ascertained that Blackburn had never been in Cammell Laird’s employ.

  Blackburn was arrested on 10 August and charged with having sent valuable information concerning the Mersey defences to a German in Berlin. He was committed for trial and the case came up on 28 October. Blackburn pleaded guilty and described how he had entered into relations with the Germans but declared that he had given them no information that was not in some way or other accessible to the public. He was sentenced to two years’ confinement in a borstal institution.

  While Blackburn was awaiting trial, the Liverpool Post Office intercepted a letter that came for him from Belfast and was couched in terms that showed the writer had tried to get secret information about ship-building in that port. In connection with this letter the Royal Irish Constabulary arrested a man named George Hopley and handwriting tests justified their action. But although enquiry in England brought evidence that Hopley had been in touch with persons at Liverpool and Manchester, there was no proof beyond the existence of the letter that he had been conspiring with Blackburn; Hopley was therefore merely charged with having communicated notes calculated to be useful to an enemy. As there is no record of what happened, it is probable the charge was either dropped or not proved.

  Almost at the same time information was received from a supposed friendly German in America that there must be a big gang of German spies at Preston and that any correspondence marked Sirius was suspect. The Chief Constable of Preston could obtain no verification of the existence of such a gang and the postmaster reported that no article marked Sirius had passed through the post. In May 1916 a letter came for an Indian lodging at 121b Islington and at the suggestion of the postman, who remembered this had been a spy address, some enquiry was made. It was ascertained that twenty-one Indians, formerly ship’s firemen but at that time engaged at the Oil Cake Mills, were living in the lodging-house, but the police found no cause for suspicion.

  After Blackburn’s release he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps. MI5, on consultation, had left the decision to the recruiting authorities; they would have preferred, however, that Blackburn should have joined the labour battalion. A report from his commanding officer was asked for but does not seem to have been sent.

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  Frederic Sukowski was unknown to MO5 until 23 July 1914 when he was arrested on the afternoon of 3 August 1914 for suspicious movements in the neighbourhood of shipbuilding yards in Newcastle. He was making notes on a map. He had in his possession a map of England giving distances by road, rail and air, two measuring gauges, a paper with the names of shipbuilding firms in Newcastle and district, South Shields, Sunderland, Hartlepool, Hull, etc.

  MO5 were informed of the arrest and telegraphed that the Attorney-General’s fiat was to be applied for. The man was remanded and there the file ends. A note made by Major Drake in his file states that he was held under a Deportation Order.

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  August Reichwald was Krupp’s general agent in England. On 31 July, Herr Frielinghuis, one of the directors of Krupp’s, came to London on business, possibly to arrange with his agent some telegraphic code, whereby information could be sent without arousing suspicion.

  Reichwald was arrested on the outbreak of war and search of his premises was made without result, so he was liberated, on about 17 August. He had a son serving in the Indian Army, as Assistant Military Secretary and interpreter to the Commander-in-Chief India. Captain Reichwald changed his name to Blaker. He was attached to the headquarters staff of the Indian Cavalry Corps in France as GSO for Intelligence.

  The file is one long record of information laid against August Reichwald, who was an old man, and naturalised British, and his son Captain Blaker, who was an able officer and had done good service in intelligence work. August had a son, A. W. Reichwald, a general merchant of Newcastle-on-Tyne. In November 1914, instructions were given that A. W. Reichwald’s correspondence should be watched. Any communications the contents of which showed, or gave presumption, that Reichwald was: trading with a foreign country; sending letters via a neutral country to an enemy country; supplying merchandise that would be useful to an enemy; collecting information of use to an enemy country; showing hostile sentiments; or showing connection with enemy alien residing in prohibited area, were to be submitted to Investigation Branch, GPO.

  The correspondence showed that Reichwald had some engagement with the Essen, Rheinhausen and Stahlworks, Verband, and was in touch with Mr Peters of Barcelona and also with the Credit Reform in Berlin. In January 1915 a supervisor was appointed to the firm. In May 1915 W. F. Blaker (late Reichwald), Royal Horse Artillery himself wrote suggesting the internment of the many Germans who were then at large in England. At the same time came the report that the firm of Reichwald were also trading as the Celtol Supply Company and selling their manufactures to Irish farmers. Then Major Reichwald (alias Blaker) was sent home from the Front and attached to a battery here. His father interceded on Major Reichwald’s behalf to get him reinstated with the Indian Cavalry Corps.

  Nothing was ever proved against any member of the family but the feeling of the general community was so strong that when August Waldemar Reichwald applied for a passport to France, MI5E did not oppose the issue on personal grounds, but suggested reference to the French authorities first as their granting of the visa was doubtful. Dr Max Balsar Reichwald asked for a definite assurance that if he took a commission in the RAMC the minister responsible for the grant would state that after full enquiry he was satisfied as to Reichwald’s bona-fides. This could not be given and there was some doubt as to whether in the man’s own interest, it was advisable to endorse the grant of the commission.

  Of the other sons, one, Victor Reichwald, served in IW Battalion (30th and 31st Middlesex) and another Edward was employed as an ‘outside clerk’ under the Intelligence Department of the Air Board. Concerning a third, Fritz Bernard, who was said to make model aeroplanes etc. MI5 made no enquiry.

  The case is interesting as illustrating the difficulty of dealing with the families of naturalised Germans who had yet kept up connection with German commercial concerns that were of immense importance to the Imperial government.

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  The declaration of war on 4 Aug
ust 1914 immediately increased the work and activity of G Branch, then the Preventive or B Section of MO5. Plans had been drawn up in July 1914 for some re-organisation of the bureau in the event of hostilities. The staff was to consist of the Director of Intelligence Police, three Assistant Directors, Captain Drake, Captain Holt-Wilson, Captain Haldane, and two intelligence officers. Each of the Assistant Directors and one of the intelligence officers was to take it in turn to work at the War Office MO5G, his duties being to sift the papers and questions brought to him, to deal himself with the minor questions and to use his discretion in transmitting the remainder to the bureau urgently or in normal course. In November 1914, the Preventive Division or B Section and the Detective or A Section were organised as separate branches.

  Towards the end of the year it became known that Germany expected to maintain easy communication by post with her spies in the United Kingdom, has commerce destroyers would keep in touch with German residents in the United States by means of wireless. Floating mines would be laid to prevent food supplies from reaching our shores and missionaries in India would stir up sedition among the natives. In its main lines the work of investigation was carried on by the same methods as before the war. The chief agents continued to be the police, officials of the post office and special agents employed by the bureau. Owing to the great increase in the number of suspected persons, there was a noticeable increase in the number of HOWs taken out.

  In his report for November and December 1914, Major Drake mentions various types of investigation:

  General Inquiries: with regard to the bona-fides of persons who had been and continued to be in receipt of regular payments through German banks in this country with a view to detecting possible agents; search of all telegrams sent to certain countries since the outbreak of war.

  Special Inquiries: with regard to records obtained and action taken with regard to certain persons holding commissions who were unfit for such posts; bona-fides of certain Belgians; foreign business firms and a hotel supposed to be under German management; attempts to re-establish the German spy organisations.

  Other enquiries related to firms and cases of suspected of espionage. The two General Enquiries mentioned above illustrate the enlargement of scope conferred upon the bureau by the publicity and necessitated the war. The investigation of bank accounts and the search of telegrams were pre-war methods used in individual cases but now raised to universal application and carried out either by specially appointed persons as in the case of the banks, or by the ordinary channel of a great public service.

  I. German banks

  The great German banks stood foremost among enemy organisations in this country. The German banks formed a highly centralised system, which, it may he noted en passant, was copied here when the policy was adopted of tightening up the links between the German clubs in London.

  The four chief German banks, the Deutsche, Dresdner, Disconto and Darmstädter, combined in a group which dominated the economic life of Germany. The Deutsche Bank itself controlled twelve other important banks and had representatives who sometimes occupied such important posts as chairman or vice-chairman, on the directorate of 118 firms belonging to industry, commerce, insurance, and transport. Moreover, the banks had interests in a number of foreign railways, electrical companies and banks. With these German banks, G Branch was concerned only with regard to their agencies, possible use as agencies for: 1. Transmitting money for espionage and hostile purposes; 2. Conveying information disguised under business messages; 3. The collection of information by members of their staffs.

  Under the Trading with the Enemy Act the Board of Trade had appointed chartered accountants to supervise the business of foreign companies and it was through these supervisors that MO5 instituted enquiries as to the regular payments of small sums which had been made through German and Austrian banks to private individuals in this country. In November 1914, the supervisors of four banks sent in returns identifying their payees.

  It was the custom at the Deutsche Bank not to enter the address or description of the payee on the current card and the labour of supplying these data from other documents in the bank would have been too great; MO5, however, from their own records were able to supply the addresses of ninety-three persons. Enquiries were made in the vast majority of cases; the following various police authorities are noted in the files, and there are probably others which have escaped special record. Enquiries through the Metropolitan Police, sixty-four; City of London Police, fifteen; provincial police constables, sixteen, making a total of ninety-five.

  Of the names received from the Anglo-Austrian Bank, one, Otto Teumark, and of those received from the Deutsche Bank, three, Percy Ernst Becker, Fraü E. Schuter, Bernhard Moses Biedermann, at a later date became the subject of special enquiry. Three of the clients of the Deutsche Bank were already known to the police and of these one had been searched as a suspect early in November, but without result, and one had been fined for possessing arms and a camera.

  At Salford an enemy client of the Anglo-Austrian bank named Breuhne, who was in the employ of the Griesheim-Electro Company, had been arrested and interned on 25 October. But for detection purposes the enquiry hardly gave satisfactory results since either the recipient could be traced, when he always gave a good account of himself and was whitewashed by the police or he could not be traced and the enquiry proceeded no further. An instance of the latter type occurs in the case of Enoch Constantine, who up until July 1914 had been in receipt of monthly payments of pension money in sums of £8 6s. 11d.; enquiries about the address given at Gateshead, Newcastle or Felling-on-Tyne failed to establish the existence in those regions of any alien of the name of Constantine. These enquiries had reference only to pre-war payments, for with the transfer of the banks to British supervision it seemed unlikely that they would be used as remitting agencies to German spies.

  II. Search of telegrams by the GPO

  On 9 August arrangements were made with the GPO to submit inland telegrams sent from ports and military stations with a view to ascertaining the address of possible spies. On 11 and 18 August, these lists were sent in as well as a number of other telegrams despatched from London and the country. Certain of these telegrams were picked out as possibly suspect but the vast majority were harmless and it was decided to place restrictions only upon messages sent from the Continent. Thereafter many telegrams from Gothenburg and Copenhagen to northern ports were submitted to MO5; some were stopped, others were partly erased and sent forward; on two enquiries were made. In this last category was a telegram from Baku containing details of payments amounting to more than £600 made in various countries; the addressee could not be traced.

  III. German consuls

  The cases of two ex-German consuls, Franz Rahtkens at Middlesbrough, and Nicholas Emil Ahlers at Sunderland, are of interest. Rahtkens, who was arrested on suspicion by the Chief Constable of Middlesbrough, was a British subject, having naturalised in 1882, he was also a ship-owner. In this double capacity he had been receiving confidential and secret Admiralty documents such as trade routes during the war, instructions to vessels plying between various ports, which had been issued with a view to the safe passage of merchant ships past our minefields, etc. Among his papers were also found instructions from the German consul-general, dated 31 July 1914, to destroy ‘all really secret affairs’ in case of danger and to warn German vessels that diplomatic relations between Germany and Great Britain might be broken off. Rahtkens had also furthered the visits of German government engineers to British ports and harbours, and he had helped Germans to return to their country at the outbreak of war.

  Major Drake concluded that the means whereby Germany had obtained information of the position of our minefields had been established, and that Admiralty Secret Instructions must not in future be allowed to fall into the hands of any person of German birth. He laid down as an axiom that all ex-German consuls of German origin, whether naturalised or not, must be regarded as dangerous enemy subjects,
and he drew attention to the necessity for reconsidering the position of the whole class of naturalised British subjects of German origin, without regard to the date of their naturalisation.

  Information regarding U-boat methods was obtained through an agent posted in an internment camp and working among the crew of a German submarine. A similar attempt made in an officers’ camp failed owing partly to the inefficient agent employed.

  On the outbreak of war the Central Censorship was established for the examination of mails between the United Kingdom and Germany with Austria-Hungary; it was extended to mails with Turkey when that power came into the war. But experience soon proved that such scope was insufficient and the system was extended as follows:

  – 29 August 1914. To mails to and from Holland, Denmark and Norway.

  – 19 September 1914. To mails to and from Sweden.

  – 14 October 1914. To mails to and from Switzerland.

  – 7 November 1914. To mails to and from Italy.

  – 17 December 1914. To mails to and from Spain, Portugal and Romania.

  Home Office Warrants had, however, been issued to the Central Censorship on the outbreak of war for checking all correspondence to certain addresses in neutral and Allied countries. The examination of parcels to neutral countries was begun at the end of November 1914. Letters to PoWs were despatched in separate bags through the Dutch Postal Administration. Letters were sorted into four categories with sub-divisions as follows: