WAR SECRETS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 26, 28 December 1932, Page 2

WAR SECRETS

NOVELIST’S REVELATION. A striking pen-picture of “C.” for many years chief of the British Secret Service, is drawn by Mr Compton MacKenzie in his book, “Greek Memories,” the withdrawal of which was requested by the Government, and which has led to him being prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act. The identity of this remarkable man, who before and during the war probed the naval and military secrets of the Central Powers, is revealed in print for the first time.

“C.” was the late Captain Sir Mansfield Gumming, K.C.M.G., G.C.8.. on the retired list of the Royal Navy. From his chambers in "Whitehall Court —above the Authors’ Club — he controlled all the foreign ramifications of the Secret Service, working in close collaboration with Colonel Sir Vernon Kell, the famous “K.,” who was responsible for counter-espionage in Great Britain.

“C.’s” organisation, officially known as M.l.i. (c), was originally under the Foreign Office, but during the war it was transferred to the War Office. Mr MacKenzie had heard much of “C.” before ho actually met him. His mysterious chief had l>een described as “an extraordinary old bird; obstinate as a mule, with a chin like the cutwater of a battleship.” He was also told the story of how Captain Mansfield Gumming had lost his leg. “This was the first time I heard ‘C.’s’ real name. Apart from the initial he was usually known as Captain Spencer,” the author says, and goes on : “In the autumn of 1914 his son, a subaltern in the Seaforths, had been driving him in a fast car on some urgent intelligence mission in the area of operations. The car, going at full speed, had crashed into a tree and overturned, pinning Captain Camming by the leg and flinging his son out on his head. The boy was fatally injured, and his father, hearing him moan something about the cold, tried to extricate himself from the wreck of the car to put a coat over him but struggle as he might he could not free his smashed leg. Thereupon he had taken out a penknife and hacked away at his smashed leg until he had cut it off, after which he had crawled over to his son and spread a coat over him, being found later lying unconscious by the dead body.” THE LEGATION MAIL.

While Mr MacKenzie was intelligence officer in Athens he made several attempts to intercept the German Legation mail, and at length succeeded. Among the documents, hidden away in cushions, was a letter from the Queen of the Hellenes to a German relative. This was returned to tli© Queen, with an apology, by T our Foreign Office. Some of the captured papers were of such a nature that their publication would have been very damaging to the German cause, but the Foreign Office was “too squeamish” to use them in tnis way. There is a vivid description of the scenes in Athens in December, 1916, when French and British naval landing parties came into conflict with Greek troops. When the fusillade was at its hottest the British Minister, Sir Francis Elliot, ran out of the Legation, waving his umbrella, and ordered everybody to stop firing at once. “His appearance as he hurried into the line of fire was described to me afterward as like that of an elderly gentleman waving his umbrella to stop a bus.” During the British occupation of the Cyclades word was received that four police officers of Tenos had escaped to Andros, taking with them over 30,000 drachmas of public money. They were run to earth in a monastery, regaling themselves with a large pie. “They were covered by pistols and Hugh Whittall demanded sternly of the chief officer what he had done with the money. When he denied all knowledge of”it Whittall suddenly said: ‘You’ve grown very fat since you started eating that pie,’ with which remark he whipped out a knife and slashed it through what appeared to be the chief officer’s paunch. Immediately hundreds of gold and silver coins gushed out, to run jingling and tinkling along the flags of the refectory.” Mr MacKenzie records several fruitless expeditions along the Greek coast in search of “petroP’ and “benzine” dumps which were reported to have been established for the use of German U-boats. It is odd that our intelligence people in Athens should have remained unaware of the fact that neither fuel uvnild have been of any use to the German submarines, since these Diesel-engined craft used nothing but heavy oil.