None of the men arrested in pursuance of the orders issued on Aug. 4 has yet been brought to trial, partly because the officers whose evidence would have been required were engaged in urgent duties in the early days of the war, but mainly because the prosecution by disclosing the means adopted to track out the spies and prove their guilt would have hampered the Intelligence Department in its further efforts.  They were and still are held as prisoners under the powers given to the Secretary of State by the Aliens Restriction act.  One of them, however, who established a claim to British nationality, has now been formally charged; and, the reasons for delay no longer existing, it is a matter for consideration whether the same course should now be taken with regard to some of the other known spies.

Although this action taken on August 4 is believed to have broken up the spy organization which had been established before the war, it is still necessary to take the most rigorous measures to prevent the establishment of any fresh organization and to deal with individual spies who might previously have been working in this country outside the organization, or who might be sent here under the guise of neutrals after the declaration of war.  In carrying this out the Home Office and War Office have now the assistance of the cable censorship, and also of the postal censorship, which, established originally to deal with correspondence with Germany and Austria, has been gradually extended (as the necessary staff could be obtained) so as to cover communications with those neutral countries through which correspondence might readily pass to Germany or Austria.  The censorship has been extremely effective in stopping secret communications by cable or letter with the enemy, but as its existence was necessarily known to them it has not, except in a few instances, produced materials for the detection of espionage.

On Aug. 5 the Aliens Restriction act was passed, and within an hour of its passing an order in council was made which gave the Home Office and the police stringent powers to deal with aliens, and especially enemy aliens, who under this act could be stopped from entering or leaving the United Kingdom, and were prohibited while residing in this country from having in their possession any wireless or signaling apparatus of any kind, or any carrier or homing pigeons.  Under this order all those districts where the Admiralty or War Office considered it undesirable that enemy aliens should reside have been cleared by the police of Germans and Austrians, with the exception of a few persons, chiefly women and children, whose character and antecedents are such that the local Chief Constable, in whose discretion the matter is vested by the order, considered that all ground for suspicion was precluded.  At the same time the Post Office, acting under the powers given them by the Wireless Telegraphy acts, dismantled all private wireless stations; and they established a special system of wireless detection by which any station actually used for the transmission of messages from this country could be discovered.  The police have co-operated successfully in this matter with the Post Office.