1. Isaac, by origin a Lithuanian Jew. He asserted that when Russia occupied the Baltic States he had applied to the Soviet Embassy in Paris for Soviet papers, having registered as a Soviet citizen. He also stated that he had been told to stay in Switzerland and not go to Moscow. He was of use to the organisation not only as a source but also, being a member of the staff of the I.L.O. and therefore possessing quasi-diplomatic privilege, as a useful depository for compromising documents and as a "safe house." The information that he supplied via Cis- sie was mostly material from the League of Nations and the I.L.O. and generally dealt, not unnaturally, with political matters. He was never given a regular retainer but was paid only by results.
2. Another source of Cissie's was "Brant," who supplied a certain amount of material on League of Nations matters. He was, I believe, some sort of connection of Cissie's by marriage. He later left Switzerland for France, of which country he was a national, and, as far as I know, is now out of the whole racket.
3. Cissie's third and most important source was Lucy, through the medium of Taylor. She had, in addition, several minor sources and contacts who were of use to the network but these do not merit mention here and will appear only in the course of the narrative.
Pakbo also had three main sources and as well acted as occasional contact with Nicole and the Swiss Communist Party. Probably his main source was "Rot," an organisation in South Germany, which I suspect was closely tied up with the German Communist Party and had links into and with the Swiss Party. This source produced political, military, and economic information from South Germany. Occasionally the source also yielded information from Berlin.
I never knew much more about the organisation, but I should imagine that it was a small group in close touch with events in South Germany, occasionally receiving information from members of the group who were stationed in Berlin or elsewhere and came down to South Germany for leave. The information was never very "hot" and it probably reached Pakbo through a series of couriers. I also suspect that he did not organise these but that they were organised by the Party in Switzerland.
His other source outside Switzerland was one known to me only by the rather romantic name of "Lili aus Vatikan." This source, as the name suggests, produced diplomatic information from Italy in general and the Vatican City in particular. I never knew how it reached Pakbo but always assumed that it was via the diplomatic bag (the delay in receipt would fit that assumption), and that the source was some diplomat accredited to the Vatican City.
In Switzerland Pakbo had one main source of value. This was "Salter." His identity was never known to me but I suspect that he was a Yugoslav and from the type of information that he produced it might well have been the Yugoslav military attaché. Apart from providing in- I formation, Salter also acted as a rather tenuous link between Rado and the British. Salter was in touch with the British military attaché and it was through Pakbo and Salter that Rado put out his feelers for a possible "safe house" with the British should his position become I untenable in Switzerland. Rado did this when he saw that the "heat was on" and that it was only a matter of time before he was picked up or had to go into hiding. He actually made his approach and received a favourable reaction from the British. Rashly, he also put the suggestion to the Centre - who turned it down at once and ever after suspected Rado of, at the best, leanings towards the democracies and at the worst downright treachery. An interesting example of the different attitude of "allies" allegedly fighting the same war against a common enemy.
My own sources also were three in number. This is mere coincidence and not any mystic belief by the Centre in the virtue of uneven numbers.
My first source was "May." She acted as cut-out between me and Humbert Droz of the Swiss Communist Party. Droz had formerly been Secretary of the Comintern and had, in fact, preceded Dimitrov in that post. He had been previously in touch with another Russian network in Switzerland but had not had contact since 1939. I contacted him in 1941, on instructions from Moscow, who wished him to form his own network and supply such information as he could obtain from just over the frontier. This was not really a difficult or dangerous task as workers streamed to and fro over the German border with comparative ease, and there was an ample supply of Party comrades as potential recruits. Droz agreed to do this, but before he could take any steps he was arrested by the Swiss authorities for secretly reforming the Swiss Communist Party. He was released a few months later but abandoned the Communist Party and joined the Social Democrats, of which party he later became Secretary.
Helena Schmidt was a most useful source and veteran of the network, which had employed her for some twenty years. She was the contact between the network and the "cobbler" (maker of illegal passports).