The Mystery of Britain's Boy Spy

Evening Post, Volume 97, Issue 97, 21 October 1933, Page 16

The Mystery of Britain's Boy Spy

One of the most'remarkable mysteries Cf the war has been solved, says the "Sunday Chronicle. " It is the case of Alexander Szek, hero of tjie war's greatest spy 'adventure. Szek, a youth in his.teens, provided the Allies with secret information of momentous value —and then vanished. He disappeared in England. For sixteen years he has been neither seen -nor heard of. Now, however, it can be revealed that Alexander Szek is still alive. He is stayingv-i somewhere in Britain. ..■■.'. ~ Becently the mystery of Szok's fate was deepened by a famous German book ,on wartime espionage, which said: "It is only logical that the young man had to disappear. .If he remained alive ho might nave given away his secret. The death of Alexander Szek did away with this danger." ■■"'.'.. It has been stated that Szek was got rid of because he knew too much, but in a letter to the "Sunday Chronicle '' Mr. Joseph T. Szek, father of tho young man, states that there is no truth in tho suggestion that his son disappeared for that reason. "That story requires rectification. My son was not killed in Britain," he says. The secret of Szek was the secret of how the Allies were warned' of the beginning of unrestricted submarine' wairfare, and how President Wilson was turned against Germany'to the support of the Allies, bringing America into the war. Szek's father was a wealthy Austrian married to an English woman. The family lived in Brussels, where Alexander, while still in his car.iy teens, had several ingenious radio inventions to his credit. The Szeks stayed on in Brussols^when, in 1914, tho Germans swept in. German staff officers were billeted on them. But young Alexander pursued his radio studies, though with some difficulty. When Alexander's secret experiments

were discovered, he was at first suspected, but later ttie Germans took advantage of his great knowledge and utilised him in their important military radio station in Brussels as an operator. After some time ho was even put in charge of it, and the young half-Eng-lishman acted as the vital link between Berlin and the German front. But unknown to . Szek, the very efficient British secret service in Brussels was tapping his messages and conveying them to England.; Baffled by the way in' which plans leaked out, the Germans invented a. code for their Brussels station that, completely defied the British secret service code experts. The only way to solve this puzzle was to get a British spy into Brussels. This was done, and then occurred one of the greatest pieces of luck in the war. The British agent got into touch, by chance, with young Alexander . Szek, the half-English radio operator, the only man who knew the new code. The man from Britain won Szek over to the Allied cause. From then on, every secret message from Berlin was deciphered and relayed to the Allies. One day Szek was handed a message that made him gasp, so important to the Allies was it. It announced the opening of the great U:boat campaign, and an offer to Mexico of alliance with Germany against the United States. So staggered was Szek at the full realisation of what this ; meant ; that he decided to take the message personally to London. Helped by his secret service friend, Alexander was smuggled out of Belgium and into Britain. He delivered his message to high officials in London, j Everybody was full of gratitude to . him. For fwo days he stayed in LonI don. Then he disappeared. Alexander Szek has never been seen or heard of since. But it is stated that hq is still -alive.