SCOTLAND YARD

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 144, 21 June 1930, Page 14

SCOTLAND YARD

BEHIND THE SCENES

SOME REVELATIONS

In view of Parliament's recent,decision to abolish the death penalty for certain military offences, it is interesting to learn from Sir Wyndham. Childs's "Episodes and Eeflections^' that during the War the extreme sentence was in fact remitted in 89 per cent, of the cases' .where' it hadv'beeriimposed, says "John o' London." ,'ln those clays Sir Wyndham was D.A^A.G. at G.H.Q., but it is of course as the hite head of tho C.I.D. that he is more familiar to the general public, and his book will not disappoint those who anticipate some interesting peeps behind the scenes at Scotland Yard.

Few people are aware that there never was a "Zinoviev Letter." The document which evoked such. a storm in 1024 purported to be nothing more than the English translation of a copy in Russian of an alleged original; whe~ tber or not that original ever existed must be a matter of opinion, indeed of conjecture. ... ' - CRUDE FORGERIES. In dealing with Communist activities Sir Wyndham. constantly came-across the crudest forgeries. The most notorious was a collection of documents purporting to emanate from Soviet Russia. The owner attempted to sell them to every big newspaper, and offered them also to the French Government. Twice this collection was sent on to Sir Wynd. ham by editors; the third -and ■ last occasion when it came into-his hands' was on the day when the general strike broke out, a well-known man connected with a- political organisation bringing it exultantly to Scotland Yard:—• "When these documents were- handed to me with some pride I recognised them at once. 'Where did you get these?' I said to my friend. '' ' Well, I am not in a position to tell you,' ho said. • • " 'What did you pay for them?M. demanded. - * " 'Fifteen hundred pounds.' " 'Good Lord!' "I thanked him for his kindness, told him the history of the documents, and sent him away a sadder and wiser man." . "FOUR BATTALIONS." Politicians with ./the "Communist Peril" bee in their bonnets seem to have been ear-marked as dupes by niinble-.witted adventurers. .Sir Wyndham was incessantly bombarded with amazing rumours and predictions which usually led to a mare's trest: "I remember on one occasion 1 met a well-known man in a state of considerable excitement. He said that"! sought to know that four battalions of Communists were established south of the Thames, all armed with revolvers,-and' capable of mobilisation under an hour; that the scheme was to chloroform the guard at Buckingham Palace and blow up the bridges over the Thames. I asked how he got his information. He told me that he had an agent who had succeeded in penetrating into the inner circle of the Communist Party. I asked him how long he had employed this agent. "Six weeks," was the answer. I replied, "Well, he has accomplished in six weeks what I have failed to do in almost as many years." After some argument, sarcastic on Sir. Wyndham's part, indignant on the other's: — '' I asked what was the nature of the vocation of the agent when not, employ-' ed in espionage, and when he'told me' ■that he was an actor this seemed to solve the problem. If an agent tells his employer that all is well, his services will be dispensed with, whereas if all is not well he is indispensable. ... I told him I had never heard such a lot of nonsense as this story in my life." ■■'■■■• •■'• ■-•■..;".■: '?. •; Most readers will remember, that • some -years ago an attempt was made;, by sending chocolates through the post, to poison General Horwood, the Com: missioner of Police, and the Home Secretary; the General luckily consumed so excessive a dose of arsenic that it actually saved his life!. A CLEVER RUSE. For weeks this incident remained a mystery. Then Sir Wyndham received from the G.O.C. Aldershot • Command, more or less a joke, an anonymous letter bearing the Balham post-mark' complaining that the writer had been disturbed by the sounds of night-firing at Aldershot. The handwriting was immediately recognised as that of the sender of the poisoned 'chocolates:: "I conceived the idea that the only way to catch a lunatic was to behave like one. Accordingly I enlisted the services of a member of a great evening newspaper', staff and lot him into the secret. My. idea was to put an

advertisement in a local.. paper in Balhani: 'If thero are any other l'esi-. dents in 'Balhani who- have been aiit noyed by the sounds of night-firing by artillery at Aldershot, will they communicate with the advertiser with a view to a joint protest?' ... A great evening paper was to 'notice' this advertisement and start correspondence (fictitious); suggesting that it was impossible to hear Aldershot guns from Balhani. . . Everybody knows that a lunatic only regards as sane those who agree .with him, and by this means I hoped that the writer of the letter would eventually come to hand."

, The ruse succeeded. The lunatic replied. When the officers went to his Balhani address, he-pulled out.a swordstick and a violent struggle ensued. Enough arsenic was found in his garden to poison a million people. Happily, he is now 'at Broadmoor. '