MINOR CUT-OUTS
The only subsidiary contact of any importance was Taylor. He was not only a cut-out but an agent as well.
He worked back to Rado through Cissie. He provided the network with a certain amount of gossip and information from the International Labour Office where he worked as a translator. By origin a German Jew, his real name was Schneider (of which his cover name was of course only an English translation). In himself he was of little importance to the network, but as the recruiter and contact of "Lucy," our link with the German high command (who was of such importance that I have thought it worth while to devote a chapter to his activities), he was of vital importance. He and only he knew Lucy's real identity, and it was therefore vital for the network to keep him working and happy. It is not everyone who acts as intermediary for an agent who has access to all the secrets of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, and Taylor was at first our only link. At a critical period of the war the Centre offered him a salary for life if he would give up his job with the I.L.O. and devote himself solely to being contact man for Lucy. The only stipulation that Moscow made was that Taylor should provide an address in the United States to which the money could be sent in a lump sum in dollars. This, unfortunately for him, Taylor was unable to supply. Despite this, however, he gave up his job with the I.L.O. and did nothing more save cut-out work between Cissie and Lucy. I think that he is still waiting for his money.
COURIERS
The only couriers of any importance of whom the organisation made use were Rosie, who as well as being an operator acted as courier between Rado and me and also between Rado and Pakbo and Maude, the wife of Hamel, who, herself a trained operator, also was a courier between Rado and me when the latter was too busy I to make personal contact.
The above is the main internal communication network. Rado at the centre with his two main cut-outs, Cissie and Pakbo, with Taylor as a secondary contact to the former. Both Cissie and Rado had personal contact with Nicole, who in turn acted as contact with the left-wing Socialists and also one portion of the Geneva and Tessin Communist parties. Cissie was also the cut-out to Hofmeier of the Party. Communication with Moscow was assured through the three transmitters, and Rosie and Maude acted as couriers between Rado, Pakbo, and me.
Before Rado had access to Sonia's transmitter he was, of course, using the old microphotographic technique for the transmission of his information through a cover address in France, whence it was delivered to the Soviet Embassy in Paris. It was the fall of France which, as I have explained before, forced the Centre to put him and Sonia in contact so that communications could be maintained.
With the organisation for the communication and transmission of information clear, the actual sources of information can be examined. To give a catalogue of all the sources would be extremely tedious and, after this lapse of time, almost impossible for me. There were, if I remember correctly, some sixty sources, i.e., agents with cover names, who supplied information to the network. Many of these I knew only by their cover names and many of them, in their turn, merely provided occasional information. Here I give only the main sources
from which Rado drew the material for his reports. They alone were more than sufficient to keep our three transmitters fully occupied. I was often so rushed that I had only time to read and encipher the messages, and no time at all to digest their content, and as a result was on the air for hours at a time, which of course offends all security canons and would lead to certain discovery in an enemy country. The "Bupo" (Bundespolizei, the wartime Swiss police security organisation) were either kinder or less efficient.
Cissie's main sources were three in number: