Right Man - Right Reason?

This is (yet another) story about the problems ‘Need to Know’ can cause. We start with an MI5 account of surveillance of a Soviet Intelligence officer, Pavel Kuznetsov, with the cover of a Second Secretary at the Soviet Embassy in London 

25.4.52.

KUZNETSOV left home with his boy at 8.35 am and went by 'bus to KPG.

He came out via the passage leading to York House Place at 10.20 am boarded a 31 'bus, immediately alighted, and jumped onto a 27 'bus travelling on it as far as Hammersmith.

In Hammersmith Broadway he alighted and got on a No 9 'bus heading for Mortlake. He stood on the platform while this 'bus crossed the Broadway and then ran forward to another No.9 'bus which had stopped just in front. Again he remained on the platform until the 'bus started off.

It would have been sheer folly to have attempted to board this bus so that we had to rely on taxis which, unfortunately, were not available.

A search was made at Mortlake and this being unsuccessful it was decided to travel to Richmond.

At 11.15 am KUZNETSOV was seen waiting at a 'bus stop in Richmond and he in fact boarded the very 'bus on which our assistants were travelling. He came aboard and sat not far away panting and breathing heavily, as though the shaking off of his pursuers was indeed most strenuous work.

He alighted at Marble Hill Park, Twickenham, sat reading his newspaper on a seat in this park from 11.30 am until noon and then walked back along the riverbank to Richmond.

After some window crawling and excursions into back streets he boarded a No 65 'bus, travelled to Kingston and arrived outside the Century-Elite Cinema at 1p.m.

When he moved away from the front of this cinema, after a stay of only a few moments, he was joined by a man ("D") and they entered the Normandie Restaurant (Bentalls).

At 2.25 pm they left the restaurant and walked through quiet back streets to Canbury Gardens, Kingston, where they positioned themselves on a seat in such a manner that they could see anyone approaching from any angle.

KUZNETSOV was observed making notes in a pocket book and the man "D" took from his inside coat pocket a large sheet of stiffish paper about 15" x 15" which he opened out on his knees. He then appeared to be drawing or explaining by hand movements details from this sheet. Occasionally KUZNETSOV would lean over and appeared to be asking for a fuller explanation following which his friend would again refer to this paper. On the rare occasions that a person passed by, "D" folded the paper and put it in his pocket.

They were in Canbury Gardens from 2.40 pm until 4.10 pm and separated the moment they left the gardens, without as much as a nod of the head.

Reluctantly we had to allow KUZNETSOV to proceed and concentrated our forces on the contact who walked back to Kingston, travelled by 85 'bus to Putney and thence by train to Earlesfield. He was finally housed at 36, Elborough Street, SW18 going in by key at 5.10 pm.

The demeanour of this man "D" changed completely during the afternoon. When he first met KUZNETSOV he was in a happy mood, apparently without a care in the world. During his sojourn on the park seat his face became more grave as time went by and when he parted from KUZNETSOV he was in a state of nervous tension.

When first seen the papers "D" was carrying could be seen jutting out from his inside pocket but after he had left KUZNETSOV they were not visible.

"D" is described as:

Looks 20-25. 5 ft 8 ins. Slight build. Oval face. Sallow complexion. Clean shaven. Small nose. Small chin. Dark brown straight hair, distinct parting on left going across crown of his head. Large feet, flat footed and walks with rolling motion.

Dressed in fawn belted gabardine raincoat, fawn suit with faint yellowish stripe, no hat, brown leather shoes, yellow socks.

Voters' list particulars for 36, Elborough Street, SW18 show:

MARSHALL William F.

MARSHALL Mary A.E.       

MORGAN Elizabeth. 

(KV 2/1636 s.2a 19520426)

William and Mary’s son, also William (though often Bill), wasn’t on the list because he worked elsewhere. Specifically, he was a radio operator for the Diplomatic Wireless Service (DWS). There was only one conceivable reason for his meeting a Soviet intelligence officer, but no evidence that he had committed a crime.

MI5 began a thorough investigation: within a couple of days they had full access to the salient details of his working life: after National Service in the Royal Corps of Signals where he was trained as a radio operator, he had joined the Diplomatic Wireless Service on 1 November 1948 and had been allocated accommodation at Bletchley Park where some of the wartime huts had been turned over to become a Ministry of Labour hostel for members of the DWS. He was posted to Egypt in July 1948, returning to the UK and to work in October 1949. In December 1950 he was posted to the British Embassy in Moscow, returning to the UK in December 1951.

On 30 April 1951, Gambier-Parry, the head of the DWS met representatives of MI5 and MI6 in the Foreign Office. He revealed that Marshall’s posting to Egypt had been to support SIS, whose wireless station had been moved from Cairo to Ismailia. Gambier-Parry was happy to accept that Marshall had been communicating with the Russians, but stressed that as a radio operator he would have had not access to the contents of classified messages, only to the cipher text. Marshall would have known about DWS comms procedural matter: callsigns, frequencies, schedules etc but Gambier-Parry was inclined to think that this information was particularly important. He also made clear that Marshall’s hostel was also used by the Post Office Training School and GCHQ trainees.

It was agreed that only a couple of DWS personnel would be made aware of what was going on, and that they would be looking to see when Marshall visited London to give MI5 the best possible chance to catch Marshall meeting Kusnetsov. Meanwhile MI5 would continue their investigations to establish what sort of motive Marshall might have had for becoming a Soviet agent (if that was what had happened).

In all of the paperwork discussing the means by which MI5 would investigate Marshall’s life there is an interesting paragraph about Bletchley Park:

The huts are situated in a small section of park land in front of a fairly large country house in Bletchley village itself. The park land is covered in huts of various patterns and grouped together in different formations. At present the GPO occupy the country house and various huts and buildings. Other huts are used by the Board of Education’s pupil teachers, the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the Ministry of Works and GCHQ trainees.

(KV 2/1636 s.29a 19520509)

It is clear that at this stage nobody involved in MI5 has any idea what Bletchley Park had been, or what GCHQ trainees were being trained in. This might well mean that those reporting had little idea what GCHQ actually did. (GCHQ continued to train its radio operators at Bletchley Park until the 1980s.)

A real insight into Marshall’s character came from a letter sent to George Carey Foster, Foreign Office Head of Security, by Lambert Titchener, Head of Chancery at the Moscow Embassy. He said:

I have very little substantive information to give you which will throw any light on his political leanings. Although he behaved very oddly throughout most  of his time here, and I will describe his behaviour in a  subsequent paragraph, it was not until the last day that an action of his, on reflection, would cause suspicions of the kind you appear to have in mind.

2. He was due to leave by the late train for Leningrad;  and had already been relieved of duty to finish his packing. He was missing most of the day, and it was not until 10 pm, by which time his absence was causing disquiet, that he returned  in a taxi from the town. He was asked where he had been, and  answered evasively that he had been making a few purchases. I did not attach much importance to this at the time, because  it was in keeping with the way he had behaved during most of his tour here.

...

4. Marshall was a perfect example of the type who should not be sent here. He was an introvert, antisocial to a degree I have never seen before. At staff cocktail parties he would be found in a corner behind a screen,if he turned up at all, or in some other obscure spot.He was most difficult to draw into conversation, and he had a meanness which it would be difficult to surpass. If asked to give a cigarette to a  colleague, he would ask for a cigarette back the following day.

...

6. So far as his work was concerned, it was not of a very high order, and adverse reports on it were sent back by Cole. Towards the end he apparently suffered from lapses of  memory.

...

7. All in all he was an unfortunate choice, but such grounds for suspicion as we had were concerned solely with his arrested mental development and his ability to stand up to the strain of work here.

(KV 2/1636 s.32a 19520513)

Meanwhile the War Office had sent information about Marshall’s military career. He had been called up in 1945 (after having spent some time as a trainee at a Merchant Navy Training Centre) and after training had been classified and remustered as Operator Special BIII, posted first to the War Office Wireless Service at Forest Moor’s detachment at Woodhouse and then joined 2 Wireless regiment in Palestine, where he stayed until leaving the Middle East in April 1948.

Later in May, Marshall met Kuznetsov again, and the Foreign Office started pressing  for the case to be brought to a conclusion as soon as possible. MI5 were in agreement, as by now they had greater insight into Marshall.  They had seen his employment file at DWS which said:

‘… that he exhibited considerable persistence in applying for a post with DWS. On 25th May 1948 he applied for a temporary post with DWS pending receipt of information concerning a Government Grant to enable him to attend Colwyn Bay Radio College. He stated he was familiar with DWS procedure, as he had been attached to the DWS link

at Fayid, MELF when serving as a signalman with GSI (8) in the Middle East. He was informed that he could not be taken on as a temporary employee. On 12th June 1948 he wrote stating that he had not been granted the Government allowance to enable him to attend the Radio College and was therefore applying for permanent employment with DWS. He was told that no vacancies existed. On 5th July he applied again saying that he would greatly appreciate it if his name could be placed on record and if he could be notified when a vacancy occurred. On 12th September 1948, without having been notified, he applied again and was told to submit the necessary forms. As a result of this application he was taken on.

…

On 22nd September 1950 MARSHALL wrote from the Middle East stating that he understood his overseas tour was about to be terminated, after one year and two months. He added that, as the normal tour was two years, he would appreciate it if he could be posted abroad again as soon as he returned to the UK for ten months, in order to complete his two year tour. He said that, as he understood Moscow postings lasted only ten months or a year, he would like to be considered for Moscow.’

(KV 2/1637 s.61a 19520603)

Marshall was arrested and charged under the Official Secrets Act on 14 June 1952. A list of new comms procedures to be used by the DWS had been left in a place to which he would have had access and was carrying these when he met Kuznetsov. Kuznetsov was also temporarily detained and searched (there was a diplomatic row subsequently) and denied knowing Marshall – which, as Marshall was carrying a diary detailing eight previous meetings as well as this one and the next, was not a particularly plausible lie.

The investigation continued: attention was drawn to the fact that Marshall had been friendly with a Russian woman employed by the Embassy, and a belief there that Marshall had spent his last day in Moscow with her. He was remembered on occasions as being impress by the Soviet regime and that towards the end of his time there, he used to take long solitary walks.

On 13 June 1952 Marshall made a statement.

I was born in London on 22nd December, 1927 and was brought up there and educated there till 1941.I then went to the Rotherhithe Nautical school which was then in Wales. I was there until December 1943 when I returned to London. I then went to the British School of Telegraphy, Clapham Road, Stockwell for just over a year. From February till November, 1945, I was unemployed, in which time I was trying to get away to sea. In November, 1945, I volunteered for the Royal Signals and served in England till May, 1947. I then served about six months in Palestine and five months in Egypt. During the time I was in Palestine and Egypt I did wireless intercepting and telegraphy. After demobilisation in April, 1948, I was unemployed till July, 1948, when I was given a government grant to continue studies in wireless telegraphy. I was three months at a wireless school at Earls Court. I do not remember the address. While I was in Fayid, Egypt, I first got to know that there was such a thing as a Diplomatic Wireless Service. I did some work on one of their circuits and got the idea that I would like to join the service on my return to civil life. I made several applications but heard nothing till Autumn 1948, when I was called for an interview.

...

Towards the end of December, 1950, I was offered a posting in Moscow because an operator there had fallen sick and I accepted forthwith because I was on my beam ends financially. The pay offered for Moscow was considerably higher than in England. I flew to Moscow arriving there on 31st December, 1950, and started work at the British Embassy. I was a misfit at the Embassy at Moscow from the start. The people there were not my class of people and I led a very solitary life. I kept to myself, spoke to as few people as possible, did my work as well as I could and just waited for the time to come home. I was disgusted with the pettiness of life at the Embassy. I began to take an interest in the Russian way of life. I was impressed by the efforts of the Russian people and by their ideals. They seemed to me to be trying to build a society which would allow the fullest scope for human endeavour although I think they still have a long way to go. 

...

Shortly after my return to England, I went to the Soviet Embassy in Kensington Palace Gardens to hand in a Russian pass which I had forgotten to hand in in Moscow. I saw there a man who introduced himself as Mr Paul Kuznetsov. He did not say what position he occupied. He told me that the pass was not Russian but British and suggested I return it to the Foreign Office. About a quarter of an hour's conversation followed and we found we had a good deal in common and we looked at life in a similar sort of way.

(KV 2/1638 s.97z 19520619)

I don’t think this is a case that need detain us further: Marshall was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, and after being sentenced Marshall refused to talk to MI5. Whether he had been recruited in Moscow or on his return to London was something chewed over, but given Marshall’s refusal to talk, precise details were never uncovered. The case was remembered as the first in which a Soviet agent had been uncovered because of detailed surveillance of the activities of a Soviet intelligence officer.

Many of you, however, will have worked out by now that there was a line of enquiry, that was never pursued, and that happened because nobody dealing with the nitty-gritty detail of the case would have known that there was a Sigint angle, and none of those at the top of MI5 who would have noticed it would have seen more than summaries of the case.

Marshall’s army career was spent first in learning how to be a Sigint operator and then being posted to 2 Wireless Regiment at Sarafand in Palestine, the principal War Office Sigint station in the Near East since the end of the First World War. It was after this posting (which included some time in Egypt where he became acquainted with the work of the DWS).

I don’t think that it would have made a significant difference to this case, but it exposes the fact that a serious investigation into an Official Secrets Act case was blind to a potentially important piece of information. GCHQ’s only involvement in the case was to request the suppression of details of how the Soviets might use the information Marshall was about to hand over as it might reveal techniques used by GCHQ. Though not part of the case, it was also revealed early in the investigation that GCHQ occasionally monitored DWS communications to advise on their security.

Dilly Knox once famously asked: ‘How do I know whether I need to know something if I don’t know what it is?’ and I have never seen a good answer to the question. Excessive secrecy can be as bad as poor security. And what might most MI5 staff have missed during most of the Cold War because of a lack of any understanding of Sigint (just as nearly all GCHQ employees were ignorant of what MI5 did). Need-to-Know is a double-edged sword which often seems to have one very blunt edge.