Beware the Spyclists!

The newsworld was a-twitter yesterday with revelations, courtesy of Cambridge University's Christopher Andrew, that Hitler Youth went on a cycling trip around England in the late 1930s, as tensions in Europe heightened.  In the spring of 1937, groups of black-clad Hitler Youth cycled around London and the countryside, stopping along the way to visit with children their own age at schools, with church groups, Rotary Clubs, and at the occasional factory, quite often with cameras in hand.  Not surprisingly, this concerned MI5 and its then-boss, Sir Vernon Kell.  Sir Vernon then had police officers around the country keep tabs on the visitors.

It's apparent that Sir Vernon's instructions weren't taken all that seriously. One police superintendent reported that:

At about 4 p.m. on Friday the 16th of July, I saw a party of seven young men cycling along the Bolton to Spalding main road...These young men were dressed in shorts with jackets, each of them had what appeared to be a food can strapped on the carriers at the rear of their cycles.  I feel confident they were German subjects.  I did not speak to any of them.

Meanwhile, another report, from Superintendent T. Dawson, stated "I respectfully beg to inform you that a party of German youths arrived at Spalding on Friday the 30th of July 1937.  They were entertained by the Spalding Rotary Club and camped for the night in Fulney Park, leaving the following morning and travelling south."

Supt. Dawson enclosed a clipping from the local paper, which didn't seem all that concerned with the Nazis, recounting that "the homey atmosphere familiar at an English fireside at the Christmas season prevailed when the Spalding Rotary Club entertained a party of German youths to a sausage-and-mashed potato supper."

However, there were reasons to be more concerned. MI5 suspected that the Hitler Youth was attempting to develop close ties with none other than Lord Baden-Powell, the legendary founder of the Boy Scouts movement.  Baden-Powell met with the German ambassador, Joachim von Ribbentrop, who invited the Englishman to meet Hitler himself. Whilst Baden-Powell was anxious to bring about greater understanding between the two nations, he sought official guidance.  MI5 thought, at least in 1937, that it could use a linkage between the Boy Scouts and Hitler Youth to spy on the Germans. 

Nothing, however, seems to have come of the situation.  The Hitler Youth undertook similar journeys to other nations, such as Belgium, Holland, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia.  Readers will note the connection here: all those countries were invaded and occupied by Germany.  So perhaps there was something to MI5's concern?