Queer people

If I were asked what were the best qualifications for a detective I should say to be a jack-of-all-trades and a master of none. That, perhaps, is because I happen to be an indif...

During the War there was an outbreak of what the Americans call ‘congenital lying,’ but which might better be termed ‘adolescent lying’ on the part of young persons. We all know...

The great business of transferring the contents of your neighbour’s pocket to your own is what more than nine-tenths of the world live upon. Society draws the line between what...

Like most Englishmen, I read of the murder at Sarajevo without a thought that it was to react upon the destiny of this country. It seemed to be an ordinary case of Balkan manner...

Throughout the War the Special Branch was combined with the Criminal Investigation Department. There is a dividing line between ordinary and political crime. In normal times the...

During the early months of 1915 the war spirit seized upon all classes. New Scotland Yard was often mistaken for the recruiting office in Scotland Yard, and the policeman at the...

As soon as war broke out, the veteran John Devoy, together with Judge Cohalan and other sympathisers, put themselves into communication with Bernstorff, the German Ambassador, v...

There was a sensation at New Scotland Yard when the entire crew of the _Aud_, including the officers, were marched over one evening for interrogation. They blocked the passages,...

All this time we were living in the atmosphere of a ‘Shilling Shocker’ or, as the Americans call it, the ‘Dime Novel.’ When one started work in the morning one could never tell...

My readers may now be asking themselves how soon I am going to write about German spies. There are obvious reasons why it is impossible to divulge secrets. I shall tell, therefo...

Early in 1915 the Germans began to organise spy-receiving offices in Holland. Usually they pretended to be legitimate commercial agencies. Sometimes one member of a not too pros...

Having failed with Germans, the enemy now turned to South America for their spies. The large German colony in Central and South America was an excellent recruiting-ground. In Ju...

Irving Guy Ries was a German-American who had been recruited by the Germans in New York. He landed at Liverpool in the guise of a corn merchant, though in private life he was ac...

It was not to be expected that the Germans would do no recruiting among Americans as long as the United States remained neutral. American journalists were travelling to all the...

It is no disparagement of the sex to say that women do not make good spies. Generally they are lacking in technical knowledge, and therefore are apt to send misleading reports t...

On 6th January 1916 a Dutch liner called in territorial waters at Falmouth, and was boarded by naval officers. On the steamer were Colonel von Papen and Captain Boy-ed, the Germ...

Several accounts have been published of the assassination of Rasputin, differing in detail. This event had so much to do with the collapse of Russia that I took pains to collect...

I suppose that some day or other one of the assistant provost-marshals who served in France will be moved to publish some of his experiences. Most of his work was dull and uneve...

In June 1916 the Germans adopted a new policy. They began to send distinguished neutrals, generally Swedes, who entered the country as ardently pro-British, and told us that a r...

During the War bogus royalties and princesses sprang up like toadstools. Any young woman with a turn for private theatricals and a vivid imagination could burst forth as a high-...

Three days before the Armistice was signed I went to Paris with representatives of the Office of Works and the Foreign Office to secure premises for the British Delegation in th...

A German subject once irreverently described the Kaiser Wilhelm II. as being half journalist, half actor-manager. Another German, even more irreverently, said he was a fool. Imm...

Apart from the Independent Labour Party, which was formed in 1893 by the late Mr. Keir Hardie to introduce Socialists into the Trade Unions and to procure their nomination for t...

Kerensky’s Revolution did not take the official world by surprise: it was, in fact, inevitable. The Revolution was hailed by uninstructed public opinion in England as a fulfilme...

As I have said, publicity has been the best weapon of defence against the forces of disorder. The fact is that there is little love lost between revolutionary leaders, and an at...