success as might have been expected from a scheme so
wonderfully organised as it has been. With the vast sums spent upon
it, the German General Staff might reasonably have obtained men in a
higher position in life who could have gauged the political atmosphere
better than was done by their agents immediately before the present
crisis.

Their plans for starting strikes at a critical time met with no
response whatever. They had great ideas of stirring up strife and
discontent among the Mahommedan populations both in Egypt and in
India, but they calculated without knowing enough of the Eastern races
or their feelings towards Great Britain and Germany--more especially
Germany.

They looked upon the Irish question as being a certainty for civil war
in Britain, and one which would necessitate the employment of a large
proportion of our expeditionary force within our own islands.

They never foresaw that the Boer and Briton would be working amicably
in South Africa; they had supposed that the army of occupation there
could never be removed, and did not foresee that South Africa would
be sending a contingent against their South African colonies while the
regulars came to strengthen our army at home.

They imagined the Overseas Dominions were too weak in men and ships
and training to be of any use; and they never foresaw that the manhood
of Great Britain would come forward in vast numbers to take up arms
for which their national character has to a large extent given them
the necessary qualifications. All this might have been discovered
if the Germans had employed men of a higher education and social
position.

TACTICAL AGENTS.

In addition to finding out military details about a country, such as
its preparedness in men, supplies, efficiency, and so on, these agents
have to study the tactical features of hills and plains, roads and
railways, rivers and woods, and even the probable battlefields and
their artillery positions, and so on.

The Germans in the present war have been using the huge guns whose
shells, owing to their black, smoky explosions, have been nicknamed
"Black Marias" or "Jack Johnsons." These guns require strong concrete
foundations for them to stand upon before they can be fired. But
the Germans foresaw this long before the war, and laid their plans
accordingly.

They examined all the country over which they were likely to fight,
both in Belgium and in France, and wherever they saw good positions
fo