British Secret Service During the Great WarEveritt, Nicholas
History
British Secret Service During the Great War
Everitt, Nicholas
Secret service -- Great Britain; World War, 1914-1918 -- Secret service -- Great Britain
In the former case a parcel sent to a supposed prisoner in a German
internment camp was found to contain, amongst other things, a woollen
sweater, or knitted sports vest. It was apparently so badly knitted, and
the wool was seen to be so full of knots, that the censor's suspicions
were aroused. Subsequent searches revealed that no such person as the
addressee of the parcel in question was known to exist. His name
certainly did not appear in any Army List. The aforesaid garment was
most carefully unravelled. The wool was found to be whole, with a
multitude of simple knots tied at irregular intervals. Alphabets were
written on a board, each letter being placed at given distances apart,
and very soon a most interesting message was read off.
The chess problem was deeper in its cunning and its intricacy. During
1917, a young and fascinating actress appeared in Paris. She was
suspected and closely watched. In due course she captivated one of the
junior secretaries of a neutral Embassy. His integrity was absolutely
beyond all doubt, but naturally he also was watched and shadowed in
order to learn what was passing, or might be passing, between them or
otherwise.
The watchers' notes, on being compared, revealed certain facts which
when carefully pieced together laid bare the whole plot. The actress
professed to be deeply interested in the serious game of chess. She
inspired a similar passion in the breast of the young and inexperienced
attaché. One day she produced to him a rough illustration of an alleged
chess problem which she had cut from a local newspaper; in all
probability she herself had indirectly caused its publication. She
worried her admirer unduly to help her solve what had been, or were, the
opening moves in the game which had caused the pieces to be left on the
board as shown in the sketch. No one in Paris could be found who could
enlighten or help her; at least, so she represented.
Gentle interrogation of the attaché by his inamorata caused him to admit
the existence of a chess club of some renown in the capital of the
country his Embassy represented. It was a neutral country which bordered
on Germany.
The actress then persuaded him to send this simple problem to the club
mentioned with an urgent request to unravel the problem, if possible,
and to let her know, through him, the result.
She knew, as does everyone who has had any close relationship with an
Embassy, that every Embassy has its own private letter-bag, which is
inviolate, and is passed over all frontiers uncensored and unopened, and
is generally carried personally by some trusted messenger of the
Government interested.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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