would be better informed than a British general. Haldane was persuaded to set up another CID sub-committee to inquire about foreign espionage, at which Edmonds gave evidence. Viscount Esher said that Edmonds was but Haldane was more persuaded. The existing intelligence system could not quantify German spying or stop it. The sub-committee recommended that a secret service bureau be established and in August 1909 the new agency was set up within MO5. Edmonds appointed Kell to run the agency. The government also created controls to monitor and limit the freedom of movement of aliens and increased powers under the Official Secrets Act to give more powers to the police against spies. After studying continental powers, the Metropolitan Police gained more powers of arrest and search. A conviction could be obtained on the evidence of suspicious behaviour and the burden of proof was placed on the accused. By the time that Edmonds left MO5 in 1910 he had established a Secret Service section from a ramshackle, under-funded and poorly-organised group of temporary, part-time and amateur agents which resembled a modern intelligence gathering and counter-intelligence organisation. Despite being taken in by sensational tales of mass spying, Edmonds had laid the foundations of MI5 and MI6. Return to soldiering After seven years in intelligence, Edmonds wanted a change and did not want to be subordinate to General Henry Wilson, the new DMO, towards whom, Edmonds harboured a certain enmity. Edmonds was offered the posts of commandant of the School of Military Engineering or General Staff Officer (Grade I) (GSO I, the divisional chief of staff) of the 4th Division (Major-General Thomas Snow). Edmonds joined the 4th Division on 1 March 1911, despite being told that it was a bad career move to leave the War Office. Edmonds had gone on leave for three months before transferring during which he had translated French and Russian works on battlefield engineering. Snow, a somewhat irascible man, quickly gained confidence in Edmonds and told him, "I provide the ginger and you provide the brains". The division trained and in the corps manoeuvres of 1912, the 3rd Division and the 4th Division defeated I Corps which was under the command of Douglas Haig. An important part of the divisional training was the retreat, despite this being banned by the War Office. On the eve of the war, Edmonds thought that his division was prepared but ill-equipped compared to