Sherlock Holmes and the adventure of The Martian War

To all of you who have the power to read and the strength of mind to care.

It has been drawn to my attention that, with her Majesty's government decreeing that this document be treated as 'Most Secret' for some time to come, many of those who read it will have already been exposed to another, quite different, account of the Martian Invasion in London-the account rendered by Mr. Wells in his best-selling novel, 'The War of the Worlds'.

Mr. Well's book, while entertaining, is, for the most part, a fiction ordered by the same government that is withholding this account. They believe-and I am forced to concur-that the world is not at this time ready for the true and quite horrid details of what happened during the brief period when Martians roamed the streets of London and preyed upon its citizens. Hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives and many who survived, did so by simply hiding until the Invasion was crushed.

It is my hope that those who survived, and their descendants, will be ready for the true facts of this Invasion after one hundred years have passed. Time is a great healer, and, one can hope, a hundred years can heal a great deal.

I can only hope that those of you reading this are capable of understanding the reason for the secrecy-and are, at the same time, strong enough to comprehend the true horrors of that time.

I also hope that there has been no further occurrence of the events noted within.