Introduction

Introduction


In this book I have endeavored to present the true facts, as far as they are know^n, concerning German sabotage in the United States during the period between the outbreak of the World War and the entrance of the United States into the war. I have concentrated principally on the Black Tom and Kingsland cases, as they were the most devastating acts committed and the only ones, with the exception of an explosion in Tacoma Harbor, in which any attempt has been made to prove German complicity and to collect damages.

Having assisted the American claimants in their investigations in connection with the Black Tom and Kingsland cases, I have known intimately many of the principal characters involved and have obtained from them their personal stories. Because of this connection, too, the voluminous records of these cases, consisting chiefly of exhibits, briefs, oral arguments before the Mixed Claims Commission, and reports of the various American investigators have been at my disposal.

This book has been written entirely at my own volition and has been inspired neither by the American claimants nor by their German opponents; nor is it my object to try the case in public before a final decision has been reached by the Mixed Claims Commission. I have been prompted solely by a desire to tell the general story of German sabotage here and in particular to cover the amazing fight which the American claimants have put up during the last fifteen years in their efforts to prove Germany's guilt in the destruction of Black Tom and Kingsland. The story of these cases, probably the most intricate and bitterly contested ones ever argued before an international court of law, has never been told before. In view, too, of the present war clouds gathering in Europe and the Orient and in view of the fact that the United States is still as vulnerable as ever to the saboteur, it is high time that the lessons of Black Tom and Kingsland be revealed
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Far be it from me to indict Germany. Many arguments can be advanced in support of her contention that, while the United States was technically neutral during the neutrality period, actually she was affording material and financial aid to Germany's enemies and that Germany was justified, therefore, in the use of sabotage to impede the flow of munitions and supplies to the Allies. In wartime every nation adopts the most expedient methods to guard its vital interests, and American unpreparedness in the field of counter-espionage was an open invitation to Germany to conduct a campaign of sabotage in the United States.

In depicting the background of the fight which the American in- vestigators have waged against the German Secret Service and in analyzing the evidence, I have drawn on my own war experience in the British Secret Service. During that period I had unique opportunities to learn the methods and psychology of the German Secret Service.

A final word must be added concerning the German wireless and cable messages which the British intercepted and decoded during the war. Although an explanation of how Amos Peaslee came into pos- session of them is not given until Part II, they have been inserted throughout the text of the book wherever they apply. Their authenticity has been admitted by the German Government.

August 23, 1937. H. L.