14 
LAND & WATER 
January ii, 1917 
Germans in India 
By Arthur Gordon 
T 
/^|["^HERE is hardly any portion of the Britisli Empire 
over which the trail of the Teutonic serpent has 
not passed — to greater or less extent — with the 
determined, but carefully concealed object of 
strangling our commerce by keen trade competition ; 
discovering the natural resources of the country with a 
view to their future exploitation in German interests ; or of 
exciting feelings of discontent and sedition against British 
administration. India affords no exception to this rule, 
for a steady influx of the German element began shortly 
after the war of 1870, when the German Empire— as now 
constituted— was called into existence. The representa- 
tives of the Fatherland most commonly met with in India 
are merchants or missionaries, although a third section, 
composed of professional spies, sent forth by a splendidly 
organised Intelligence Department, has for years past 
been deputed to carry out the instructions from the 
Wilhelmstrassc and to collect ail kinds of useful in- 
formation regarding British affairs in India. 
Missionaries 
Of the German spy system in India I shall remark 
later on, beginning my notice of the Teuton in Hindustan 
by mention of the German missionary. Some of these 
evangehsing agencies — such as the Moravian Brethren — 
may fairly be pronounced harmless and free from the slight- 
est suspicion of intrigue against Great Britain or her Allies. 
Situated for the most part in remote Hill States and un- 
frequented regions, amid a sparse population and with 
scanty means for communication with the outer world, 
the Herrenhutter missionary could do littleJiarm, even 
were he inclined to. Very different, however, is the case 
in Madras, with a large native Christian community, and 
among the jungle tribes of Chota Nagpur and the Central 
Indian plateau. Here Lutheran Missions obtained a 
strong footing and were able to exert influence of a danger- 
ous kind over their semi-civilised Converts. 
Loth to give credit to the reports which had been re- 
ceived from planters and even from British officials with 
first-hand knowledge of what was going on among the 
Santals, Oraons, and other aboriginal races, the Govern- 
ment displayed much reluctance at the outset in issuing 
orders for interning these missionaries and thus depriving 
the reverend gentlemen of power for mischief. But it 
was ascertained, from very reliable sources, that Native 
Christians had been warned to prepare for a change of 
rulers and so must cease to be loyal subjects of the British 
Sirkar as they and their fathers had always been. 
Coloured pictures of the Kaiser were placed in prominent 
grandeur on the walls of schoolrooms and other places 
wiicrc con\-erts were wont to assemble, and nothing omitted 
for disturbing the credulous Indian mind, ever prone to 
believe the most extraordinary tales and to act on the 
most unreasonable impulses. Several of the German 
missionaries now interned held orders in the Church 
Militant together with commissions in the German 
Lan:Jwchr ; a dual rank the respective duties of which 
must have been difficult to combine in practice. 
Coming to the German in commerce, it is surprising — 
and not a little mortifying to our national pride — to detect 
the case with which the Hun merchant had managed to 
secure so large a share of Indian trade and was gradually 
ousting British rivals from markets that — ^had ordinary 
foresight and business intelligence been employed— 
should have remained closed preserves to the manu- 
facturers bf the United Kingdom. Outside the Pre- 
sidency capitals of Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, 
Germans usually figure as watchmakers, jewellers on a 
small scale, or as agents for an English firm ; which they 
leave as soon as they have acquired enough grasp of the 
business in question to be able to enter into competition 
with their late employers. 
The manager of one of the new industrial enterprises 
which are now being started in many parts of India 
(not before it was time) is, strange to say, a naturalised 
Cierman, whose services have been engaged in default 
of finding a Briton capable of performing the work re- 
quired — a statement one is unwilling to credit, preferring 
to hold the opposite theory that there are few men in 
this world whose place cannot be lilled by others. The 
Punjab Chamber of Commerce has set a good example 
by announcing its fixed resolve to have little or nothing to 
do with German goods or German traders in future, 
such declaration being no idle expression of hysterical 
anger at the conduct of these people, but a fixed resolve 
to prevent — as far as lies in its power— any attempt 
of Germany to recapture the Indian markets. On the 
other hand, a glance at the advertisement columns of 
newspapers in India show the existence in the chief towns 
of a number of companies and firms bearing Teutonic 
names ; possibly deserted by the original proprietors for a 
season, but still carrying on business under the old 
familiar titles. 
The professional spy remains to be described as I have 
known him in India, some years ago certainly, but the breed 
is not apt to vary in nature and methods of working. 
One German Intelligence Agent was running a small 
hotel in a station just outside Calcutta and must have 
been provided with necessary funds by his employers, 
since business done was of a very trifling description — ■ 
men spending the week-end there for the sake of snipe- 
shooting ; visitors to the monthly gymkhanas (there was 
a military cantonment that furnished most of the 
European population) and a few Calcutta merchants who 
chose to live away from their places of business, running 
in daily as do men in the city. Thanks to a smattering 
of German which the writer possessed, he was on 
rather intimate terms with mine host who used to relate 
— when copious draughts of Pilsener rendered him in 
communicative mood— stories of his adventures on 
espionage duty in France before the outbreak of the 1870 
war. Disguised as a traveller of wines he boasted of 
having collected much valuable information and was 
proud of having been given a task most honourable men 
avoid. He further stated that he was only one of hun- 
dreds of Germans always spying out military details in 
friendly countries. 
This' hotel-keeper could not have amassed in India 
much, news worth sending home, for his enquiries were 
usually directed to the subject of the native troops, con- 
cerning whom his usual sources of information — non- 
commissioned officers belonging to the Battery or the 
Infantry detachment quartered in that particular 
station— were unable to give any, or correct, tidings. 
Apart from his sp\ing profession, he was quite a decent 
specimen of the German Unter-Offizier of those days : 
he had been a Quartermaster-Sergeant in a regiment of 
Saxon hussars, so was free from the unpleasant bumptious- 
ness and inveterate bragging associated with Prussian 
soldiers of all ranks, nor— if one can judge from his manner 
of speaking about the French, both mihtary and civilians 
— would he have admired, far less committed, the acts 
which have rendered the modern Hun a byword and a 
reproach among civilised nations. He had an honest 
respect for the British Navy, but considered thC' British 
Army too small in numbers to be looked on as a serious 
factor where European warfare was in question. Ap- 
parently the same error as was manifested by the generals 
and statesmen of the Kaiser when they resolved to dis- 
regard Belgium neutrality. 
Of recent years, stricter supervision has been exercised 
by the Indian C.I.D. over visitors from foreign parts to our 
Eastern Empire, and a fairly strict watch has been 
maintained on cold weather tourists anxious to inspect 
the defences of Ouetta or to collect materials ioj a book 
on British rule in India. Despite these precautions, the 
German spy has managed to get in touch with the scditionist 
party_feu in numbers certainly, yet formidable on 
account of the immunitv from punishment enjoyed by its 
leaders so long as they' refrain, from murdering officials. 
Securely concealed in the background, the German agent- 
provocateur found little trouble in persuading the 
credulous Indian student, or the more dangerous 
Maratha Brahmin and his fellow conspirator of Bengal, 
to plot and plan for the overthrow of British rule. 
