Miss X

Sample of the tempting sort of bait successfully used to catch spies by His Majesty's Government has now been on view in London's ancient, soot-blackened Bow Street Police Court for several weeks, officially tagged "Miss X." This slim, bobbed-hair blonde, English to judge from her accent, arrived curvesomely sheathed in clinging black, kept shifting her handsome fur piece with the sinuosity of Mae West, as she testified before a bug-eyed judge. "She is a lady," explained the Crown, refused to divulge her name.

Clustered miserably in the prisoner's dock day after day were four men who, according to the Crown, had been caught red-handed by Miss X. All were once-trusted employes at Woolwich, the chief British arsenal: Albert Williams, armament examiner; George Whomack, assistant foreman of the gun section; C. W. Munday, assistant chemist; and P. E. Glading, only a minor employe at Woolwich, but featured as an important Communist spy.

Seven years ago the British Intelligence Department of the War Office ("The Best in the World") decided to get a line on members of the Friends of the Soviet Union, openly organized in London as a movement opposed to war and Fascism. Knowing how carefully Communists probe the antecedents of anyone they intend to make use of, Intelligence did not risk assigning to the case a professional operative with a past which could come to light. They approached an ordinary stenographer --or rather an exceptionally pretty one-- who readily agreed to do her bit for King & Country, joined the Friends in 1931.

Miss X had to keep on doing routine volunteer work for the Friends until 1934, when she finally met Spy P. E. Glading a British Communist and member of the Friends who seemed to have plenty of money, plenty of colleagues whose affairs kept them traveling back & forth between London and Moscow. Miss X learned how to make photographic copies of documents for Mr. Glading, was sent by him on minor missions, finally rented with money he gave her a London flat which she equipped to function as a document-copying factory. Here Miss X worked with a couple who said they were "Mr. & Mrs. Stevens," could speak no English, talked with her in French, and one day were suddenly recalled to Moscow, where they "disappeared."

During the whole time Miss X kept secretly in touch with Intelligence, finally tipped them off that Jan. 21, 1938 would be a good day on which to arrest Glading, Williams, Munday and Whomack. They were all caught with highly incriminating papers, according to the Crown, and these included plans for Britain's new super-secret 14-inch naval gun, claimed to be vastly more effective than any other naval weapon of this calibre. Since the Soviet Union is now concentrating on building up the first real Russian navy (TIME, Feb. 28) and is in the market for naval improvements of all sorts, sea-minded Britons have followed the Miss X trial with breathless interest.

The openness of the proceedings showed that His Majesty's Government wants the attention of all the King's subjects called to such organizations as the Friends of the Soviet Union, and to the activities of British Communists. The proceedings ended in Bow Street Court last week when Prisoner Munday was discharged for lack of evidence and the other three pleaded guilty. Communist Glading was sentenced to six years' imprisonment, Williams to four years, Whomack to three years.

Lauding Miss X for her "extraordinary courage," Mr. Justice Hawke cried: "I think she has done a great service to her country!"

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