I believe these were just business relationships, not specifically a spy ring set up to do this. Imagine we both work for Microsoft - you in India and me in Red China - and we continue sharing information even as the two countries go to war. The people in England initially might not have even understood the reason behind information requests that were betraying the ships’ cargoes.
What you describe would be particularly true of neutrals like Sweden & Switzerland. Which had business relations with both sides.