ABSTRACT

This chapter provides a case study from the history of Anglo-Japanese relations in the period of the First World War which is designed to demonstrate how the activities and reports derived from human intelligence can influence and complicate the diplomatic process. This case involves a British double agent named Vincent Kraft. The name of Vincent Kraft is one that has all but disappeared from the annals of history, but a recently released file at The National Archives (TNA) at Kew reveals the contemporary significance given to his activities during the First World War. Vincent Kraft was a Dutchman born in Batavia in 1888 who was employed by the British between 1915 and 1918 as a double agent. At this point Kraft was involved in a wildly ambitious but ongoing German plot to seize control of the Andaman Islands and to use them as a base from which to ship arms to Indian revolutionaries in Bengal.