The Secret History of MI6 - Keith Jeffery [14]
On 28 October a meeting (to which neither Cumming nor Kell was invited) chaired by Hardinge at the Foreign Office confirmed the division of responsibilities within the Bureau. Bethell afterwards told Cumming that the foreign agents were to ‘remain as at present’, but that there was ‘no more money’ and that Cumming was to see what he could ‘get done voluntarily’. With his actual duties defined, Cumming now turned to the practical arrangements. He thought that there were ‘several disadvantages’ in sharing an office with Kell and Drew. Although it was ‘a large place’ it was of ‘very little use’ and for his purposes quite insecure. He did not think that he could ‘create and develop the elaborate organization of which I am to be given charge, from the Office, as I am not to address letters from there, receive them there or see anyone there’. He therefore proposed renting a flat, which would include an office, where he would be available at all times of the day and night. ‘A separate Office - such as the present one - ’, he remarked, ‘immediately suggests a business, and invites interest and curiosity, but a private dwelling calls for no comment. ’ At home he could organise his work without raising suspicion or attracting attention, and he could meet agents and others in rooms hired for the purpose elsewhere. He would also set up a ‘photographic copying plant’ at the flat, where it could be ‘arranged so that no one will know of its existence’.
Reflecting on the sorts of people he would have to deal with in order to get information (and demonstrating that he had been thinking productively about the whole business of intelligence), Cumming contrasted his position with that of Kell. In Britain, he observed, ‘every third man one meets would be glad to help his country’, but ‘abroad the case is entirely different’. The Consular Service of official British representatives overseas was ‘expressly barred’, and it was ‘useless as a rule to approach natives and invite them to betray their country. Some of the lowest class may consent, but they will of course in turn betray us without scruple if it serves their purpose, and cannot be relied upon for the more important work.’ As to ‘Englishmen living abroad’, they would be ‘reluctant to do anything to damage the country they are living in’ and would ‘be fully aware of the risk they will run - to their business, or even their liberty - if found out’. Cumming wanted ‘free scope to make enquiries, sound every person likely to be of use’ and ‘be able to offer substantial retaining fees and rewards for valuable information’. While he had not so far ‘had time to think out any scheme for forming a system of look outs who will give us instant warning of the movements of ships, transports, concentration of foods and stores &c’, this was ‘the most important work of all’, and ‘the agents selected must be of reliable character and position, and will have to be paid in proportion to these advantages’.
But Cumming still worried about his prospects. On 3 November he jotted down some despondent reflections: ‘cannot do any work in Office. Been there 5 weeks, not yet signed my name. Absolutely cut off from everyone while there, as can not give my address, or be telephoned to under own name.’ Kell had ‘done more in one day than I have in the whole time’. The system had been ‘organized by the Military, who have just had control of my destinies long enough to take away all the work I could do, hand me over by far the most difficult part of the work (for which their own man [Kell] is obviously better suited)