Functions of the Military Intelligence Division, General Staff

The United States, prior to its entry into the present conflict, with its small military establishment, with its isolation and its traditional policy of friendliness to other nations, found itself virtually without those agencies necessary for gathering military information in time of war. On the other hand, it found itself pitted against a nation that had developed the art of gathering military intelligence in all its branches to a degree far surpassing any other similar organization known to history. The capacity for patient, painstaking effort, which the German has developed, had served him well in this task. For two generations, with the determination of making wars for conquest, he had winnowed with minute care every grain of information concerning every possible enemy. The world, during the last four years only, has come to appreciate the extent and the thoroughness of the German organization. Topics include the positive branch, intelligence in the field, negative intelligence, military morale, port control and graft, censorship, and cost.