BRITAIN'S SECRET SERVICE

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 177, 29 July 1939, Page 8 (Supplement)

BRITAIN'S SECRET SERVICE

THIS is the story of Britain's Secret Service, a service on which the Government is spending this year £500,000—the largest sum ever voted for it in peace time. International tension and the vast armament building of the nations have forced Britain to strengthen her second "Silent Service." Many things about the Secret Service may not be told, but in this article by Howard French are facts which have never previously been revealed about the working and personnel of Britain's espionage and counter-espionage. Them is one sensational fact. about llii! Secret Scrvici —(ho Secret Service in lint sensational. Dny in nml liny out in peace time British Intelligence officers work with inlinitp patience, steadily sifting through masses of material, interrogating hundreds of people. No detail is too small to 'to thoroughly investigated. Such work entails soul-destroying, humdrum routine with no thanks but the satisfaction of duty well done. Perhaps the only result of days of labour is a Court ease held in camera, when an insignificant foreigner is fined a few pounds and ordered to be deported. Unsung And Unhononred The heroes of the hour—members of the Secret Service—go home unsung and unhonoured by all except the chiefs of their department. And so the game goes on. . . . Spies are found and hauled before the Courts. Some, like Mrs. Jessie .Jordan, the Dundee hairdresser, arc sent to gaol. Others are sent out of the country. The British Secret Service is not one huge body of spies and counter-spies. It is a different organisation, divided, and sub-divided again, with the pieces of tho jig-saw put together only by the highest officials in Whitehall. Tho Navy has Its own Intelligence Department, which is responsible for guarding naval secrets and revealing those of potential enemies. The Army and the Air Force have similar departments to cover military and air work. The Foreign Office has its own team of political agents. ' Each department has two divisions— those who counter the work of foreign spies in England and those who work abroad. According to the Army List, MajorGeneral H. E. Pownall is tho head of tho Military Intelligence Department of tho War Office, of which the Secret Service, section is M.1.5. Pownall is 52 years old, won a D.S.O. and nn M.C. in the Great War. He was married in 1918.

I — The head of Naval Intelligence is Read-Admiral J. H. Godfrey, and of Air Intelligence, Group-Captain K. C. Buss. First, I will deal with counter-espion-age in England. Naturally the brunt of tho work falls on the shoulders of M.1.5. Dotted about the country arc the arms works and military camps, each with their secrets of special interest to foreign spies. Suspects are weeded out, but more often than not they are left to carry out their work unmolested. The policy of the department is: "The spy you know is an asset. Tho one you don't is the menace." For several years before the Great War Germany flooded England with spies. By 1014, British intelligence officers had marked them all down, but not ono was arrested until August I. when 21 were rounded up. The result was that the German espionage system was completely wrecked. These men, working as they thought in complete security, had not taken the precaution of arranging deputies to , carry on after them. Britain was able to move 1800 troop trains to her ports and ship the "Old Contcmptibles" across to France without the Germans knowing the date, time or quantity of the movements. So it is to-day. The spies are marked down, but they are not interfered with ; unless, by some mischance, they come : into possession of vital information. Then there is an Official Secrets Act • trial or a prosecution under the Aliens " Act. f The police play a bigger part in t counter-espionage than most people imagine. The Intelligence officers do not . make arrests. They leave that to the 3 police, who act ."on information received."

i How To Become An Agent 1

J HERE arc no rules for join- apart from fte mg the Secret Service. It is would demand experience. Many a profession open to anyone with men hay>e enfereJ fc the necessary technical, patriotic scfk/ . •„ r< , porfe .^ language and temperamental fc qualifications. Technical qualt- accredited agenis _ Fbmlh „ hen fications must include a know- mm Qf d ledge of armaments, warships or himself of ft< , Qf atrcrafL been invited to join. The man or rvoman joining the "rx. , ,l » . l x ' c • , l j• , I rove that you can be of use Secret oervice must be a patriot, . .„ , . , , ~ . j ,i to us, and We will then consiaer because the pay is poor ana the gg „ . ~ ~ ~ L . , . ... y t . y> ou < IS the line the chtefs of risk is great. 1 emperamcnl is R.. . , . ~. , l . , , !•/-,- s ,i Britain s intelligence departments an important qualification, )or the . , , ~ • ... ' . , .i ,• ,■ lal(e. In the home sections )or agent must have the patience o) . ~, , , , ~ j r counter-espionage, contact Willi Job and the nerve and coolness ■ . °, , , , , , , -~ . ~i .- r , , the service can best be made [>y to bluff his way out of the lightest ._,,„„ , ,u l />. /• 9 reporting to the local police anycorner. .; • „ ... L thing which arouses your susTo become a Secret Service agent picion. If you can prove your you could apply to the officer worth you may eventually make commanding the intelligence your way into the select corps of branch you wish to enter. But our Secret Service.

i Working'closely in tiucli with the Secret Service is the Special Branch of Scotland Yard. Consisting of KM) of the best detectives in the country, they follow up the clues provided by the Service, do the routine interrogations, and "tail'' suspects. The public, too, are among the best counter-espionage agents. More spies ha\e been unmasked by information given in the first instance by alert members of the public than in any other way. Village gossip about the mystery man who took the house on the hill or the strange behaviour of the professor with a passion for photographing things which would not normally interest a photographer, set the Service to work. There was the ease of Dr. Hermann (inert/, who was sentenced to four years at the Old Bailey in 193ti. His quick-witted landlady at Broadstairs, Mrs. Florence Johnson, took an inventory of the bungalow Goertz had rented from her. She found a camera in the pocket of some dungarees he had left behind. The films showed photographs of Mnnston aerodrome. Airs. Johnson told the police and when Goertz returned to Britain from Germany he was arrested. While the counter-espionage agents , are for ever warring against foreign spies in Britain, Whitehall relies on :ts own agents abroad to keep it posted with the latest developments of foreign forces, reactions to its political moves, , and forecasts of political activities. Stories of courageous amateurs risking their all for love of their country can be discounted. The modern Secret Service agent has an expert's knowledge • of ballistics, armoury, defence works, or army, air or naval matters. • He is able to recognise the main points of any offensive or defensive weapon from the merest glance at it.

This girl shared the work with her young brother. She would stand by the window from midday to midnight, counting . . . counting . . . counting. Her -brother stood watch for the other 12 hours. Weeks of this work wrecked her health and she retired to a convent. The brother died not long afterwards — his life was given for Ms country as much as though he had been shot dead in the front line. The greatest mystery of the Secret Service is its money. Each year Parliament is asked to vote a sum for the "Secret Service." It is customary that on this vote no questions should be asked. Once, in Balfour's time, an M.P. did question the vote, and Balfour said: "The first essence of a Secret Service is to be secret." This snub effectively silenced the inquisitive M.P., and it has since become the recognised formula for replying to occasional questions still asked in Parliament about the Secret Service. This year the Civil Estimate for the Secret Service is £500,000. This is ten times the amount estimated in 1!)14, and is the highest figure ever readied in peace time. During the Avar one estimate was for £1,500,000, but circumstances then were exceptional. iMain reason for the increased cost of tho Secret Service is the vast armament race now in progress, with its increased spying and counter-spying.

He has the ability for rapid and minute observation and a memory which does y not fail. v Most of the Secret Service agents are c volunteers, but others, where necessity dictates, are ordered to do this work, i Never has a case of refusal been known, ], and the cases of funk have been so few r j as to be a negligible quantity. j, Opinions are divided as to the value v of the use of women agents, but women j are used and will continue to be used as long as man is attracted by woman. c There was Miss X., the secret agent, who figured in the trial of Percy (blading, sentenced in 1938 at the Old Bailey n to six years for attempting to photo- * graph plans stolen from Woolwich * Arsenal. 1 She was the mysterious, well-dressed young woman who had known Glading k for live years. Glading took in her name a flat where < he could photograph the plans. Miss 1 X kept in touch witli M.1.5 and Glading. < Everyone who came to the flat was 1 shadowed, and an entire spy gang was broken up. f It was five years of patient, and \ probably exasperating, work by Miss X. j that undid (ilading's plot. , Tho greatest pains were taken to prevent the identity of Miss X. from becoming known. Newspaper reporters < were asked to do nothing to discover it during the trial or afterwards —a re- < quest that was strictly honoured. ] British Agents Are Not Spectacular Abroad, in peace time, there is nothing sj>ectacu]ar about the work of British agents. Many of them have bonafiile- jobs in the countries where they work. From purely patriotic motives they disregard the penalties and forward information to the authorities here. The professional agents have a harder task. When they are sent out it is usually with specific instructions to get certain information. Day and night they must always be on their guard against counter-espionage. Never are they able to sleep easily in their boils for fear that, they may be discovered. Penalties imposed against Secret Ser-vi.-c agents abroad are much more severe than they are in Britain. In peace time, as in war time, a great deal of the information required by headquarters at home is gained only by slogging routine work. It centres in troop and ship movements, changes of equipment and strength of military, naval and air force units. • Most of it can be gained only by patient observation and long hours of waiting. Ono of the best examples of such patience was exhibited by a little Belgian girl, hardly more than a child. When the Germans occupied her country she was given a room overlooking an important railway junction. • Her job was to count the trains filled with troops as they rattled over the points. The information was passed on to British Intelligence officers and for- . warded to London.

Even bo, £500,000 is a negligible sum for a nation such as Britain to spend en its Secret Sendee. Germany spends at least treble the sum, yet it is doubtful if. her system is as good as Britain's. The Secret Service as a profession is probably the most poorly paid in the world. Its officers frequently do not earn as much as the £600 a year of a country doctor. Retired officers get a small addition to their pensions. I can, on the highest authority, explode the myth that they, or anyone else for that matter, buy information for vast sums of money. There are optimists who go to M.1.5. and offer to sell secrets "if you give me -, £. -.0,000." * M.1.5 usually tells them to go away " and have another think. Sometimes the J material is bought, but £50 would be nearer the price. ( Kelly, who was sentenced in Manehester for sending to Germany a plan ; of the Chorley arms, works, only got « £."10 from their agents. The Foreign Office agents are the most 1 expensive and they take a good pro- , portion of the sum voted for the secret . ! service. Their work in the political , ' quarters of foreign countries demands ■ quick moves to keep up with new situa- . tions. ; Only two men in the whole of Britain ( i know the full list of our Secret Service I agents. i One is Sir Warren Fisher, Permanent 1 Secretary to the Treasury, and usually ' • the other is the Permanent Under- > Secretary for Foreign Affairs, now Sir Alexander Cadogan. i Our Secret Service functions effici- -' ently, secretly and silently. Kings, com- - moners and Governments are prepared to leave it like that. a.