SIR PERCY & 'BEETLE' SMITH CUT SOVIET'S SPY LINE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81-00131R000500340003-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 8, 2013
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: May 4, 1954
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT --
Declassified
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in Part- Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 50-Yr 2013/11/08: CIA-RDP81-00131R000500340003-5
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Spy Li
By DR. KURT SINGER
The four most powerful men in the world of espionage in our generation have been
Russia' Lavrenti Beria, Germany's Admiral Canaris, Britain's Sir Percy Sillitoe and
the United States' Allen Welsh Dulles.
Beria and his spies had been
successful in obtaining blue-
prints of the B-25 bombers and
of the critical structure of the
Nagasaki atom bomb.
Klaus Fuchs supplies the atomic
information fiom the British side,
the two Rosenbergs from the Amer-
ican side. Dr. Pontecorvo betrayed
the West's cosmic ray research,
and two British diplomats escaped
into Russia with secret information
on British-American defense plans.
The main British code also had
fallen into Russian hands. No won-
der La.vrenti Beria and his office
were confident their apparatus
'could not be matched.
WARNINGS UNHEEDED
On the other hand, U. S. intelli-
gence offices had failed to convince
statesmen of the West of an im-
pending war in Korea. The intelli-
gence agencies of France and Brit-
amn did not foresee the preparations
and implications of the invasion of
N Indo-China and Malayan territory.
Then suddenly Beria's secret
agents began to have difficulties.
His spies were brought to trial.
Security checkups prevented other
spy infiltration. All along the
line their activities were seriously
hampered.
One challenge to Soviet espionage
supremacy and the tightening of
Western intelligence policies was
due to Sir Percy Sillitoe, six-foot-
two-inch chief of Britain's famous
M. I. 5 Service.
When Britain's first atom bomb.
was exploded in Australia during
the fall of 1952, Sir Percy was even
more proud than the scientists who
actually developed the weapon. One
year before the explosion he had
visited Australia and personally su-
pervised and set up intricate pre-
cautions against any possible en-
emy agent infiltration.
He knows that for some time no
foreign agent has been ?ble to op-
erate successfully in the British
Commonwealth. He has achieved
this security against the enemies of
democracy by constant traveling
and on-the-spot observation, by
tightening of supervision, by ask-
ing for new spy legislation. Sir
Percy knows all the tricks used by
the Russian secret service.
TIM FARMER TYPE
The tall espionage chief of Britain
Is now 64 and looks more like a
simple farmer than a military ex-
pert and spy me-te . He began as
ea.set va.d;eat elffininl
Sir Percy Beria
Second of five stories by a for-
mer U. S. intelligence agent who is
author of 21 books and is noted as
a lecturer. The stories are from
his latest book published by Beacon
Press.
Sir Percy aN oids all soca' fle'rs
or parties in the belief that such
activity might endanger his job of
protecting Britain and the West
against continued Soviet espionage.
The United Nations estimated in
1949 that Britain had 3860 intelli-
gence officers?which is only a frac-
tion of Russia's vast spy corps. Un-
doubtedly this figure has now been
doubled, but it is quality and not
quantity that Sillitoe stresses.
Since Britain's ace spy catcher
took over his job in 1946, the man
and his work have been wrapped in
secrecy. Not even the Russians
knew when Sir Percy and Gen. Be-
dell Smith met to map a new
strategy against the grave diggers
of Western democracy.
MIND RKADER
Gen. Smith was America's first
cold war intelligence chief. He has
been a confidant of three presidents;
Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower.
Thanks to him, also, the Russians
began to learn that they, too, could
lose spy battles.
When Gen. Bedell Smith accepted
his post as intelligence chief, he
said:
"I have no illstsions. I am
asked no more than to guess the
most secret thoughts of Papa
Stalin and of God himself. Only
so far I am not convinced that
President Truman is really inter-
ested in what God has planned."
And he added:
"The only thing, fundamentally,
which is worth knowing, is the
day and hour an which the Rus-
sians will attack. Everything else
rtf czAnnvidisir-ai immtrfstnet? "
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/11/08: CIA-RDP81-00131R000500340003-5
tence and sense of justice. _
Gen. Smith Dulles
colorful gentlemen America's mili-
tary forces have produced during
the last three decades.
Not many photographs of him are
in existence. for he has never used
his public relations apparatus in his
own behalf, but he looks young,
trim, and vigorous. Insiders knew
him as the hardest working man at
the Pentagon. They respected him;
they loved him; and they wondered
how ohe man could achieve as much
as he did. His manner, as the Rus-
sians know, is always straightfor-
ward. His voice is harsh, he never
wastes a word, he is always cour-
teous and understanding, with time
for everyone who needs him.
1Ccpyricht by Kurt Singer. Dieributed by
United Ferture SyLeicate,