Secret and Confidential: The Experiences of a Military Attaché

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Page 323 - ... Bosnians; his posthumous works were edited by Trotsky. It was by his direction that Chabrinovitch and Princip had been approached by Tsiganovitch, and were later taken in hand, together with another Bosnian boy of nineteen called Grabezh who had just joined them, by an officer called Tankositch, who had been concerned in the murder of King Alexander and Queen Draga. Tankositch took the boys into some woods and saw how they shot — which was badly, though Princip was better than the others. Finally...
Page 329 - ... having met Sazonov at the Buchanans', on my way to Mogilov in August, it was evident that his retirement had been involuntary. My reply to His Majesty was, of course, that the real reason would be most interesting, and he then said : " I dismissed him because he was going too fast and too far, and raising hopes which, with an illiterate people like mine, could not be realised for generations. If a Revolution should occur, those moderate men, like Sazonov, would be swept away in two weeks, and...
Page 64 - Three (the Minister of War, the Chief of the General Staff and the Inspector-General of Military Education) refused the post.
Page 36 - In fact, my view always was — and experience has only tended to confirm it — that the results of secret service are usually negligible. Taking it all in all information acquired in this manner may indeed act as a kind of boomerang, and harm the recipients by making them lose their sense of proportion, or false news may be handed out.
Page 32 - My memory happened to be a naturally good one, and it had had three years' intensive training, many years previously, at the Lyce"e Imperial de Versailles, where great attention was paid to word-perfect recitations from, for example, a long play of Racine's, learned during the school year.
Page 23 - Majesty's ambassadors and ministers in the various foreign capitals ; all those which had any bearing on politico-military matters were circulated to the Intelligence Division, so that one soon gained an excellent insight into the temperaments and abilities of England's representatives.
Page 22 - The Intelligence Division was in constant and direct communication with the Foreign Office, which frequently consulted it on various political subjects and their bearing on the military situation.
Page 32 - The same plan stood me in good stead on this occasion in Russia. As soon as I saw or heard something worth noting, I repeated it to myself over and over again until it was fixed in my mind...
Page 10 - ... Ireland before the Union, he enjoyed, therefore, the most interesting and fruitful field for its exercise, and some of the coups he achieved were so remarkable, even in that day, as to seem worth recording. For example, a son of his, Lorenzo, continued to draw army half pay — £133:5:8 a year — long after he had become a clergyman of the Established Church of Ireland, and also long after the Act of Union had been passed. But even this arrangement must have appeared simple in comparison with...

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