REVIEWS
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1987.tb02592.x |
| Published date | 01 November 1987 |
| Date | 01 November 1987 |
REVIEWS
THE
SECOND
OLDEST
PROFESSION.
By
PHILLIP
KNIGHTLEY
[London:
Andre
Deutsch,
1986,
436
pp,
f14.951
SPYCATCHER.
By
PETER
WRIGHT-[NeW
YGk:
Viking,
1987, 392
pp,
us19.95
J
NATION
states play trivial pursuits and deadly games. They play at different
tables and often in different rooms. At the top table
or
innermost room
only two can play (though a third may be expected to join
soon).
This is
known as the Big Game where the stakes are highest and the counters
extremely dangerous. At the lower tables, the players change frequently
and their play is influenced by what goes on at the top table. The name
of
the casino is The Endless Adventure with its suggestion
of
romance,
of
unreality,
of
excitement, and
of
fun. The suggestion is false because this is
not the experience
of
those who are killed or tortured in its pursuit.
Nor
may it be endless. We must wait and see. “Time will say nothing but
I
told you
so.”
Every nation state seeks to discover what other nation states are up to,
what they are likely
to
do
tomorrow and next year. Who’s In,
Who’s
Out.
For this purpose they employ spies who are either their own nationals
operating in other countries
or
the nationals
of
other countries whom they
have persuaded to act for them in the nationals’ own countries. The latter
are traitors in that they are operating against their own state; whatever
their motive they are universally condemned by their own countrymen.
The former-foreigners spying for their own country abroad-are, whatever
their motive, accepted as part
of
the political and moral order.
In 1909, R. B. Haldane was Secretary
of
State for War and presided
over a sub-committee
of
the Committee for Imperial Defence to consider
the question
of
foreign espionage in Great Britain. Amongst other things,
the sub-committee recommended a tightening
of
the Official Secrets Act
(which followed in 1911) and the establishment
of
a secret service bureau
which would serve as a “screen” between the Government Departments
(the Home Office, the War Office and the Admiralty) and those employed
as secret service agents. The bureau had a Foreign Section to collect
intelligence from abroad (this became MI6
or
SIS)
and a Home Section to
catch spies in Britain (this became MI5). One consequence
of
erecting the
screen was that the two sections gained considerable autonomy. Although
MI5
was ultimately responsible to the Home Secretary (and the Prime
Minister), political control over its operation was patchy.
In February 1986, the Rt. Hon. James Callaghan
MP
gave evidence
to
a
sub-committee
of
the Treasury and Civil Service Committee. He was
asked by the Chairman:
759.
Are you satisfied the security service are sufficiently accountable
to ministers and Parliament, but primarily ministers and the Prime
Minister?
Mr. Callaghan:
I
am not sure what its accountability is to Parliament,
I
am not sure about ministers. I find it a difficult question to answer,
I
really do. They are run-the security services and MIS and MIbas
separate departments. They are not in the Minister’s office, as it
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