"Several years before war was even declared, the Abwehr (German military intelligence), along with the Nazi civilian secret service, had highly trained undercover agents operating in Greece. With consummate skill they had catalogued all military and civil information that could be useful to the Third Reich, and organised spy rings throughout the country. As war became more and more inevitable, it also became increasingly imperative that Britain and other anti-fascist countries should gain specific and accurate knowledge of these operations. "During this period a monk, who had embraced the Orthodox faith in Warsaw, arrived from Poland via Mount Athos, to join the monastery of Pendeli, just outside Athens. According to his biographer John Freeman, his registration at Pendeli reads, Cell 102 Serial number 75 Secular name David Balfour Ecclesiastic name Dimitri Place of birth England Age 35 Inscribed order of His Holiness the Archbishop of Athens. Coming from the Russian Church. Archbishopric ordinance number 3197 of 9 May 1936." "Father Dimitri was obviously a well-educated and very courteous person. He had studied in various parts of Europe and spoke several languages fluently. These included ancient, Byzantine and modern Greek, not to mention colloquial 'mangika' (slang). When a vacancy arose for a priest to serve the chapel at Evangelismos Hospital in central Athens, who should be more suitable for this post in the heart of the select neighbourhood of Kolonaki than the well-educated, well-bred, charming and conscientious Father Dimitri." (David Balfour died aged 86 on the 11th of October 1989.) "Anyway, let me continue my story of the 'Corinthia trip", Eliascos went on. "We celebrated Easter on board and when we arrived at Alexandria some of us were sent on to Cairo and others went to India. My brother and I presented ourselves at the offices of the Press Department of the British Embassy in the Garden City. We were received by the well-known Byzantine scholar Stephen Runciman who was in charge of all foreign language broadcasts directed to Europe, that is, the Balkans, Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Poland and several others. One of our colleagues was Lawrence Durrell who later became the famous author of many successful books like the banned 'Black Book', 'Bitter Lemons', 'The Alexandria Quartet', 'Prospero's Cell' and others. But at that time, he used to entertain us daily with a fresh episode about his Aunt Agatha with the wooden leg."