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intentions’ was expected to be the standard political fare.

In doing this, the basic rules centred on fostering the positive, ‘massaging’ the awkward, and ignoring the unpleasant.
Wars are won and lost on resources. To understand what role Australia could play in a global military conflict was to identify the likely resources the nation could muster, and how those means could be converted into military power. People, know-how, food, mineral and industrial production, ship and aircraft building capacity, and political will are but a few of a nation’s significant ‘resources’ in times of war. Understanding these elements is imperative, and a competent spy will recognise the signs and pass them on.
The 1930s spy became increasingly absorbed in the uneasy background of political and military uncertainty. Within this setting, building a constructive awareness of a target country’s defence capabilities became the prime intent. During hostilities, knowing the enemy’s strength and weaknesses was the immediate goal at military headquarters. When the war commenced in September 1939, the Germans would have possessed accurate details of the military strengths in all Allied countries. Not known, however, was the detailed capacity of the Allied nations to multiply their military capabilities, or what scientific research may contribute to future defence upgrading. Assessing and passing on details of enemy military capacity changes was a crucial role for the spy remaining behind enemy lines. 

In this environment, the volume of material collected by a spy is an important element in the assessment of the spy’s worth. A successful spy will have the capacity to reliably collect a more than adequate volume of suitable information. The spy will also have the ability to move this collection to the next level – from data accumulation to data manipulation. This involves collecting more information than is really necessary, then applying a selective method to remove the debris.
    These were the primary espionage considerations existing when Annette Wagner arrived in Australia in March 1938.
    The Harbour Lights Guild
    Prior to World War II, international communications were very different to those of today. Amongst those whose lives were constantly affected by this were merchant seamen. Long voyages, little or no family contact while at sea and uncomfortable working conditions gave rise to the creation of organisations working towards providing various facilities for merchant ship crews.
    In Australia, the Harbour Lights Guild offered a range of services to seamen including the provision of books and magazines, hospital visits, banking assistance, inward and outward mail, and aiding authorities in tracing missing crew members.
    Nazi operatives in Australia took a special interest in the Guild, targeting the organisation as an important maritime information source. Through its doors travelled facts and figures of merchant ships and their cargoes, routes and destinations – just what the German raiders and U-Boats would need to know when the war started.
    The Nazis also formed a branch of the Party with a special interest in shipping – the Harbour Port Service.  In Melbourne, this was conveniently headed by a ship’s provedore, Hans Renz, who dutifully recorded shipping information for southern Australia, including ‘wayward behaviour’ by German crew members. Reports would be passed on to Gestapo contacts in Australia and then to Berlin. With a similar intent, the Guild was infiltrated by the Nazi Party and in the late 1930s was effectively controlled by two German agents, Rudolph Durkop and Helene Franze, both of whom were known to Annette Wagner.
    From Peace to War – the Spying Transition
    There is a significant difference between spying in peacetime to that in wartime. In democratic nations the prosecution of foreign espionage activity undertaken in peacetime