The Secret History of MI6 - Keith Jeffery [203]
As well as investigating service needs, Hankey also interviewed Desmond Morton, by now Director of Intelligence at the Ministry of Economic Warfare. Morton (a former SIS officer himself) was very negative. SIS, he said, ‘was not producing the material required’, especially ‘definite information’, such as ‘copies of the customs returns of certain neutral countries’ or reports on ‘occasional surreptitious cargoes’. Rather reflecting Buss’s complaint about the lack of technical expertise on the part of SIS’s representatives in the field, Morton thought that they simply ‘did not know precisely what sort of information was required’. SIS had ‘essentially a military character, with “a strong political adjunct” in the shape of Mr. Woollcombe’. The Economic Section, by contrast, ‘was not perhaps very strong and ought to be reinforced’. The problem was ‘largely one of liaison’, though he admitted that ‘there had lately been signs of improvement in this direction’.
While each of the customer departments consulted by Hankey had reservations about what Morton called ‘S.I.S. intelligence, strictly speaking’ - human intelligence (humint) - the situation regarding signals intelligence was much more favourable. Morton said that commercial intercepts were ‘much the brightest side’. By this means his department had ‘obtained a very full knowledge of the present state of Russo-German commercial relations’ and ‘conclusive evidence’ that ‘the Russians had so far provided nothing of what the Germans required’. Telephone intercepts, which Morton likewise received from SIS, ‘were also very useful’. While Air Intelligence reported that they had obtained ‘a great deal of information’ from GC&CS, Admiral Godfrey said that ‘cryptography’ had ‘so far not provided any good naval material’. This ‘was certainly not due to any shortcoming on the part of the Government Code and Cypher School’, who were ‘in any case, making very promising progress’. But for Godfrey ‘the one really bright spot’ was ‘the “‘Y’ side”,17 in particular the intercepted signals and call signs, which the Admiralty found of the greatest possible use. All praise for this state of affairs’, he added, ‘was due to Colonel Gambier-Parry.’
In addition to investigating SIS’s intelligence-gathering activities, Hankey also looked into the more problematic (as was increasingly to be the case) matter of covert action, and in particular Colonel Laurence Grand’s special operations Section IX or D. Hankey interviewed Grand ‘in the company of Colonel Menzies, with the main object of trying to discover exactly what his activities were’. Grand said that his chief propaganda function was the distribution of material in Germany, and for this ‘he employed various channels - Catholics, Junkers, Socialists and the like’. His section made special efforts to ensure ‘that the paper and ink should, if possible, resemble German materials’. He said that ‘about 70- 80,000 “pieces” were now being distributed monthly in Germany’ and asserted that there were ‘three secret presses run by anti-Nazis in Prague, Hamburg and Berlin’, but admitted that he ‘had actually no control’ over their output. When pressed by Hankey, Grand evasively replied that he ‘did not think’ these presses had been ‘entirely quiescent’.
Grand argued that the dissemination of propaganda in neutral countries was almost as important as that in Germany. His main operation was based in Belgrade where he said he ‘managed to reach “large sections of the population by indirect means”, notably a private press, a whispering campaign and making use of commercial agents. A press agency had also been established.’ Hankey asked Grand