The Spy Net by Henry Landau Page A

depositing them at a ‘letter box’ allocated to the company. Each battalion also had a special unit, some of whose members collected the reports at the company ‘letter boxes’ and deposited them at the battalion ‘letter box’, while a special member carried the reports from this ‘letter box’ to the headquarters’ ‘letter box’ in Liège. In Liège there were three ‘letter boxes’, one for each battalion. These ‘letter boxes’, and the couriers serving them, were kept as completely isolated as possible. They knew nothing about the service except their own particular duties; it was forbidden them to try and discover the identity of any member of the service.
    Each battalion had a secretariat where the reports picked up at the battalion ‘letter box’ were typed out, after they had been scrutinised by the battalion commander. At Liège, the reports from the three battalions were examined and criticised by Dewé and Chauvin, and were then passed on to the headquarters’ secretariat, where they were prepared for transmission to Holland.
    A special courier carried the reports from the headquarters’ secretariat to the frontier ‘letter box’. Here the duties of the War Office service commenced. It was up to it to pick up the reports at this ‘letter box’ and convey them across the frontier into Holland. The role of frontier ‘letter box’ was the most dangerous in the organisation, and so not only the agent occupying it, but everyone coming into contact with him, was especially isolated. The typing of the reports served a twofold purpose: it diminished the bulk, and it removed the evidence which handwriting would have supplied, if the reports were seized.
    GHQ consisted of the two chiefs, a supreme council of eight members, a chaplain, a counter-espionage section, a section to deal with finances, a courier section, the secretariat already mentioned, a section to attend to the hiding of compromised agents, and to make arrangements for their escape across the frontier into Holland, and, finally, a section to study all new extensions, and, if approved by the supreme council, to carry them into effect.
    All members were required to take one of the following oaths of allegiance:
    (i) I declare that I have engaged myself as a soldier in the military observation corps of the Allies until the end of the war.
    I swear before God to respect this engagement; to accomplishconscientiously the duties which are entrusted to me; to obey my superior officers; not to reveal to anyone whomsoever, without formal permission, anything concerning the service, not even if this should entail for me or mine the penalty of death; not to join any other espionage service, nor to undertake any work extraneous to the service, which might either cause an inquiry or my arrest by the Germans.
    (ii) The same oath of allegiance as above, but instead of the phrase ‘to accomplish conscientiously the duties which are entrusted to me’, it was allowed to substitute the following: ‘to accomplish conscientiously the duties which I have undertaken, or shall undertake in the future’.
    To each was given a lead identity disc, with his name, date, and place of birth, and matriculation number engraved on it. This disc was to be buried immediately, and was not to be disinterred until after the war.
    In addition to the reorganisation already mentioned, the militarisation and the oath of allegiance had other far-reaching effects. Hitherto, being civilians, Dewé and Chauvin had been forced to discuss all projects with agents before they would carry them out. This not only involved loss of time, but it forced them to disclose details of organisation, which should have been kept secret. Now a subordinate agent could be ordered to do what was required.
    The oath of allegiance also put a stop, once and for all, to agents involving themselves in such