Forgeries and Spies: The Foreign Office and the ‘Cicero’ Case

Abstract

This article seeks to analyze the Foreign Office reaction to the Cicero spy affair. Papers newly released in 2003 and 2005 provide some fascinating insights into leaks that were occurring at the Ankara embassy long before Cicero, how diplomats tried to trap the notorious spy and how the Foreign Office sought to block any outside interference in its investigations, particularly from the Security Service (MI5). The article also sheds light on how the Foreign Office attempted to deal with the fallout when the full scale of the Cicero leak became publicly known. At the time, the Foreign Office investigation into the leak failed to identify Cicero but it did highlight that Sir Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen, the British Ambassador to Turkey, was culpable in allowing documents in his possession to be photographed. It appeared, however, that Hugessen had got off lightly when he was rewarded with the ambassadorship at Brussels in September 1944. Why had this situation come about? Was the Foreign Office closing its ranks to protect one of its own? And, did this confirm oft-repeated accusations that as an institution, the Foreign Office could not be trusted when it came to security?

Notes

The author would like to thank Professor Keith Jeffery at Queen's University Belfast and Mark Seaman at the Cabinet Office for their helpful suggestions on this article. I would also like to thank Percy Hayball for my discussions with him on the subject, who later went on to produce an excellent undergraduate BA dissertation, ‘A Reassessment of Operation Cicero’ (Cambridge 2006).

1 For various surveys of the whole episode see Richard Wires, The Cicero Spy Affair: German Access to British Secrets in World War II (London: Praeger 1999); F. H. Hinsley and C. A. G. Simkins, British Intelligence in the Second World War, IV: Security and Counter-Intelligence (London: HMSO 1990) pp.213–5; Nigel West, Unreliable Witness: Espionage Myths of the Second World War (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson 1984) chp.7 and Robin Denniston, Churchill's Secret War: Diplomatic Decrypts, the Foreign Office and Turkey, 1942–44 (Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 1997) chp.8.

2 Reilly, minute, 1 November 1950 and Strang, minute, 1 November 1950, FO 370/2930 (all FO and FCO documents are cited from The National Archives (TNA)) and Sir Edward Peck's supplementary to Hugessen's obituary in ‘Sir H. Knatchbull-Hugessen’, The Times, 12 April 1971.

3 The best account of Turkish foreign policy during the Second World War is Selim Deringil, Turkish Foreign Policy During the Second World War: An ‘Active’ Neutrality (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2004). See also Christopher Baxter, ‘The Cicero Papers: further releases concerning the security breach at HM Embassy, Ankara, in the Second World War, 1943–73’ (www.fco.gov.uk/resources/enpdf/pdf19/fco_hp_ciceropapers), which looks at this aspect of the Cicero story and also provides a brief survey of the 2005 release of Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) records. On Hugessen's role during the negotiations to entice Turkey into the war, see Christopher Baxter, ‘Sir Hughe Knatchbull-Hugesson and Turkish Neutrality, 1942–1944', in Christopher Baxter and Andrew Stewart (eds.), Diplomats at War: British Commonwealth Diplomacy in Wartime (Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 2008), pp.253–74.

4 Moyzisch, an Austrian of Jewish origin, worked at the German embassy ostensibly as the Assistant Commercial Attaché. His interrogation reports can be found in KV 2/169 (all KV documents are cited from TNA). A host of MI5 papers were released on Cicero in 2003.

5 Molkenteller's interrogation report can be found in KV 2/1171. In 1979, a research assistant to F. H. Hinsley's, British Intelligence in the Second World War, Volumes I-IV (London: HMSO 1979–1990), wrote a definitive summary of the case, including a survey of MI5's interrogations. The memorandum covers the period 1 January 1945 to 31 December 1952 and can be found in KV 6/8 (hereafter referred to as ‘memorandum on Cicero, 1945–52’). See also Walter Schellenberg, The Schellenberg Memoirs (London: Andre Deutsch, translated by Louis Hagen 1956) chp.35, for his assessment of the Cicero affair.

6 Hart, minute, 14 May 1945, KV 6/8.

7 Remarkably, the Vatican Legation subsequently employed Constantini after June 1940, even though he was an enemy national. See Christopher Andrew, Secret Service: The Making of the British Intelligence Community (London: Heinemann 1985) pp.402–7 and Vasili Mitrokhin, The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West (London: Allen Lane 1999) pp.46–7; 7–9.

8 ‘Security’, Eden to His Majesty's Representatives, 8 February 1941, FO 370/2930.

9 ‘Alleged Leakage at Ankara’, Dashwood, minute, 9 August 1945. Ibid. The names Diener and Friede are later revealed in a memorandum entitled, ‘Leakages of Information from the British Embassy in Ankara’ produced by Herbert Hart after the war. Hart's memorandum is enclosed in Petrie to Menzies, letter, 8 August 1945, KV 6/8. The Cripps warning was obtained from the British naval mission and their liaison with Soviet naval intelligence. See Naval Intelligence Department to Hollis, letter, 10 July 1952. Ibid. The ISOS disclosures are revealed in diary entry for 17 October 1941 in Volume 4 of the diary kept by Guy Liddell, the head of MI5's B Division (counter-espionage) during the Second World War (hereafter referred to as Liddell Diaries), 13 October 1941 – 1 November 1941, pp.119–48, KV 4/188 and diary entry for 3 November 1941 in Liddell Diaries, Volume 4, 3 November 1941 – 12 November 1941, pp.149–71. Ibid.

10 ‘Alleged Leakages at Ankara', Dashwood, minute, 9 August 1945, FO 370/2930.

11 ‘Alleged Leakage at Ankara’, Dashwood, minute, 9 August 1945, FO 370/2930. The indication that the British suspected the cypher-clerk (Mr Sherrington) and his later exoneration can be found in O'Brien to Blunt, letter, 27 July 1945, KV 6/8. The revelations about the confidential bag can be found in Moyzisch's interrogation in KV 2/169.

12 Ankara Tel. No. 2038, 22 August 1941, HS 3/222, TNA. HS 3/222 is entitled, ‘Relations with the Foreign Office and H.E. Ambassador Ankara’ and details the constant quarrels Hugessen (and the Foreign Office) had with the Special Operations Executive (SOE). See also Neville Wylie, ‘Ungentlemanly Warriors or Unreliable Diplomats? Special Operations Executive and “Irregular Political Activities” in Europe’, Intelligence and National Security 20/1 (2005) pp.103–9. For a brief survey of Hugessen's career see his obituary, ‘Sir Huge Knatchbull-Hugessen: Former British Ambassador to Turkey', The Times, 23 March 1971.

13 ‘Alleged Leakage at Ankara’, Dashwood, minute, 9 August 1945, FO 370/2930.

14 ‘Background to the Cicero Affair and Sir Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen’, Everett note, 25 October 1973, FCO 12/161.

15 ‘Alleged Leakages at Ankara’, Dashwood, minute, 9 August 1945, FO 370/2930.

16 Ibid.

17 Ibid.

18 See John Prebble, ‘A War Spy in the British Embassy’, Sunday Express, 15 January 1950.

19 Busk later wrote a brief account of the Cicero affair, which is in Busk to Greenhill, letter, 1 August 1972, FCO 12/145.

20 ‘Alleged Leakage at Ankara’, Dashwood, minute, 9 August 1945, FO 370/2930.

21 Nicholas Elliott, Never Judge a Man by his Umbrella (Salisbury: Michael Russell 1991) p.135 and H. O. Dovey, ‘The Intelligence War in Turkey’, Intelligence and National Security 9/1 (1994) pp.59–61.

22 ‘Alleged Leakage at Ankara’, Dashwood, minute, 9 August 1945, FO 370/2930.

23 Memorandum on Cicero, 1945–52, pp.2–5, KV 6/8 and Llewellyn Woodward, British Foreign Policy in the Second World War, IV (London: HMSO 1975) p.170.

24 Von Papen had also gleaned information that allied submarines might be permitted to enter the Black Sea. Roosevelt to Churchill (passed from the Admiralty), Tel. No. 1368, 15 January 1944, PREM 3/447/12B, TNA.

25 Allen Dulles, The Secret Surrender (London: Harper & Row 1967) pp.22–5.

26 Diary entry for 20 January 1944 in Liddell Diaries, Volume 9, 6 January 1944 – 30 January 1944, pp.82–133, KV 4/193.

27 See Menzies to Churchill, letter, 18 January 1944, PREM 3/447/12B and Churchill to Roosevelt, Tel. No. 548, 19 January 1944. Ibid.

28 Churchill, minute for Eden, 21 January 1944. Ibid. See Denniston, Churchill's Secret War, p.75, for an example of Churchill's poor opinion of Hugessen.

29 Eden, minute for Churchill, 25 January 1944, R1518/1518/44, FO 371/44148.

30 Cadogan, minute, 21 January 1944. Ibid.

31 Diary entry for 20 January 1944 in Liddell Diaries, Volume 9, 6 January 1944 – 30 January 1944, pp.82–133, KV 4/193.

32 Hinsley and Simkins, British Intelligence, IV, p.213.

33 Dashwood to Codrington, letter, 16 March 1944, FO 370/2930.

34 Elliott, Umbrella, p.136.

35 Diary entry for 6 January 1945 in Liddell Diaries, Volume 12, 1 January 1945 – 10 January 1945, pp.1–40, KV 4/196.

36 ‘Leakages in Turkey. 1943/44’, Dashwood memorandum, 7 March 1944, FO 850/128 and ‘Alleged Leakage at Ankara’, Dashwood, minute, 9 August 1945, FO 370/2930.

37 ‘Leakages in Turkey. 1943/44’, Dashwood memorandum, 7 March 1944, FO 850/128.

38 Edward Peck, Recollections, 1915–2005 (New Dehli: Pauls Press 2005) p.62.

39 ‘Leakages in Turkey. 1943/44’, Dashwood memorandum, 7 March 1944, FO 850/128.

40 ‘Alleged Leakages at Ankara’, Dashwood, minute, 9 August 1945, FO 370/2930.

41 This correspondence can be found in Ibid.

42‘Leakages in Turkey. 1943/44’, Dashwood memorandum, 7 March 1944, FO 850/128.

43 Clutton, minute for Strang, 4 January 1950, FO 370/2930. A copy of the forged War Cabinet paper can be found appended to Clutton's minute.

44 ‘Leakages in Turkey. 1943/44’, Dashwood memorandum, 7 Mar 1944, FO 850/128.

45 Hinsley and Simkins, British Intelligence, IV, p.214.

46 Codrington, minute, 22 March 1944, FO 370/2930.

47 Cadogan, minute, 26 March 1944. Ibid.

48 Liddell, minute for Petrie, 6 August 1945, KV 6/8.

49 Diary entry for 6 January 1945 in Liddell Diaries, Volume 12, 1 January 1945 – 10 January 1945, pp.1–40, KV 4/196.

50 Liddell, minute for Petrie, 6 August 1945, KV 6/8.

51 Petrie to Menzies, letter, 8 August 1945. Ibid.

52 Menzies to Petrie, letter, 23 Aug 1945. Ibid.

53 Petrie to Menzies, 1 Sep 1945. Ibid. The meeting with Howe is recorded in Petrie, minute, 29 August 1945. Ibid.

54 Diary entry for 14 August 1945 in David Dilks (ed.), The Diaries of Sir Alexander Cadogan, O.M. 1938–1945 (London: Cassell 1971) p.761.

55 The Cadogan-Hugessen correspondence during this period is summarized in ‘Background to the Cicero Affair and Sir Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen’, Everett note, 25 October 1973, FCO 12/161.

56 Ludwig Moyzisch, Operation Cicero (London: Wingate 1950).

57 Five Fingers (Twentieth Century Fox, directed by Joseph Mankiewicz 1952).

58 Prebble, ‘A War Spy’.

59 McNeil, minute, 25 January 1950, FO 370/2930.

60 Bevin's statements to the House can be found in ‘Background to the Cicero Affair and Sir Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen’, Everett note, 25 October 1973, FCO 12/161.

61 Ibid.

62 ‘Background to the Cicero Affair and Sir Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen’, Everett note, October 1973, FCO 12/161.

63 Carey Foster, minute, 13 November 1950, FO 370/2930.

64 ‘Background to the Cicero Affair and Sir Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen’, Everett note, October 1973, FCO 12/161.

65 Elyesa Bazna with Hans Nogly, I was Cicero (London: Andre Deutsch, translated by Eric Mosbacher 1962).

66 Peck to Greenhill, letter, 24 March 1971, FCO 12/124.

67 Street, minute, 3 December 1964, FO 370/2930.

68 Peck, minute, 16 December 1964. Ibid.

69 Peck to Greenhill, letter, 24 March 1971, FCO 12/124.

70 Greenhill to Peck, letter, 26 March 1971. Ibid.

71 ‘Sir H. Knatchbull-Hugessen’, The Times, 12 April 1971.

72 Mott-Radclyffe to Douglas-Home, letter, 14 April 1971, FCO 12/124.

73 Greenhill to Mott-Radclyffe, letter, 4 May 1971. Ibid.

74 Peck to Busk, letter, 5 January 1972, FCO 12/145.

75 Ritchie to Peck, letter, 14 February 1972. Ibid.

76 Peck to Busk, letter, 22 February 1972. Ibid.

77 Tonkin, minute, 24 October 1973, FCO12/161.