In all respects physical and mental, he (Mansfield Cumming) was the very antithesis of the spy king of popular fiction. Jovial and very human, bluff and plainspeaking, outwardly at least, a very simple man, who would ever have imagined that this was the chief who... employed secret agents in every corner of the world? My first interview with him was typical of the man. I had expected to be put through an examination in the Russian language, and a questionnaire as to what I knew about Russian politics and the Russian army. I had imagined that I should have been almost blindfolded before being introduced into the presence of this man of mystery. Instead there were a few conventional questions in a very conventional roonn, a searching look and a nod to say that whilst it was not much of a job, I could have it, if I wanted it. In the space of a few seconds I was accepted into the ranks of the Secret Service.

The intelligence operations going on in the background were run by Alley, Captain John Dymoke Scale, the subsequent recruiter of Sidney Reilly, and another MI1c officer, Lieutenant Oswald Rayner, who had been sent out in November 1915 with Major Henry Vere Benet to carry out an extensive "censorship" of telegrams and mail examined in total collaboration with the Russian authorities, while sharing the intelligence it produced on a rather more selective basis. Some of the most productive material came on Scandinavian shipping companies taking goods into or out of Germany through the Royal Navy economic blockade...

Scale worked across the intelligence system, assisting Thornhill as well as Hoare. Shortly after Scale arrived in Petrograd, Cumming set up the military control system, initially with two offices in Russia, one run by Alley in Petrograd, with offices at 19 Moika Embankment, and the second at Archangel, run by Lieutenant-Commander Malcolm McLaren RNVR, another of Cumming's officers. McLaren was another Briton who had worked in Russia's oilfields, although he is said to have previously been a sea captain and wore gold earrings that "gave him the look of a pirate". There were sub-stations at Tornea on the border between Sweden and Finland, where Lieutenant Harry Gruner checked people coming in and out of Russia; in the Far East at Vladivostok, where Lieutenant Leonard Binns RNVIZ was assistant military control officer.

There were persistent rumours that a peace party under Rasputin's influence was working with Germany and a number of prominent Russians discussed plots to remove him from power. Hoare was approached by one of the plotters, Vladiniir Purishkevich, a member of the Russian parliament, the Duma, in November 1916, and told that a plan existed to "liquidate" Rasputin. "At this time, the Russian word to liquidate was on everyone's lips," Hoare later recalled. "I had heard so much, however, of former plots and attempts to liquidate the affair of Rasputin, and my friend's tone was so casual that I thought his words were symptomatic of what everyone was thinking and saying rather than the expression of a definitely thought-out plan." Hoare appears not to have been aware that three of his own mission's officers, Alley, Scale and Rayner, were in fact closely involved in the plan.

The murder of Rasputin has always been portrayed as an almost romantic attempt to rescue the Tsar Nicholas II and the Tsarina Alexandra from Rasputin's malign influence. In fact, it was without doubt one of the most brutal and ruthless incidents in the entire history of Britain's secret service. Alley and Scale were becoming increasingly concerned over the position of the German-born Tsarina, and in particular the role of Rasputin as her closest adviser. Such views were shared by many in Russia, where virtually anything that went wrong was laid at the feet of the so-called "Dark Forces" that Rasputin was deemed to represent, and in London, where The Times described Rasputin as "one of the most potent of the baleful Germanophil forces in Russia".

He (Hoare) was an unlikely candidate for espionage. An English baronet of the old school, he had been the Conservative Member of Parliament for Chelsea since 1910. Well-spoken, well-mannered, well-heeled, he was solidly conventional. Harrow and Oxford, old chap. Double first.

But he had taught himself conversational Russian and this had earned him the notice of the Secret Intelligence Service. He was to be sent to Petrograd in order to forge links with Russian generals and monitor the fighting on the Eastern Front.

It was not a question of spying on the enemy: Russia was a key member of the Triple Entente (Britain, France, Russia) fighting against Germany in the First World War. However, Hoare's role was certainly of vital importance. The conflict on the Eastern Front was tying down huge numbers of German troops that could otherwise be transferred to the Western Front. A sudden influx of battle-hardened soldiers to Northern France would spell disaster for the British Tommies struggling to hold their entrenched positions in Picardie and Champagne.

Hoare was hoping to be initiated into a world of glamour, duplicity and deception when he first arrived in Petrograd. He had been given a rudimentary training in eavesdropping and ciphering and was looking forward to using his new skills.
However, his work at the Russian War Ministry proved monotonous and exhausting, with twelve-hour days and no holidays. Far from infiltrating subversive meetings, he found himself helping to supply Russian ministries with much needed supplies. On one occasion, he was asked to procure thousands of beeswax candles for the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church.

His evenings were no less tedious - a succession of champagne soirees with highly decorated generals whose knowledge of battlefield strategy was lamentable. "Incompetent, idle, self-indulgent, irresponsible," was Hoare's opinion of the Minister of War.

Teamwork meant everything to Hoare. He played according to the rules - taking pride in being firm but fair - and he expected his men to do the same. He was unaware that they didn't all agree with his very British approach to espionage. Nor did he realise that there was a far more nefarious side to the activities of the bureau that he directed.

Among those serving in his team was a young Oxford graduate named Oswald Rayner. Along with a handful of others, Rayner had established a clandestine inner circle that members referred to as the "far-reaching system".

This "system" aimed to act in absolute secrecy, spearheading underground missions that left no trace of their involvement. These dangerous operations, of which Hoare had no knowledge, were to become a hallmark of the Russian bureau.

Oswald Rayner's "far-reaching system" was to make the first of many spectacular strikes in the winter of 1916. It was to leave a fingerprint so faint that it would remain undetected for nine decades.

Although Chamberlain rapidly became the scapegoat for the failed peace attempt of 1938, his policies were firmly supported by his cabinet, several members of which were to become key figures in this investigation. One name that repeatedly surfaces is Sir Samuel Hoare, whose role in the run-up to Hess's flight was considerable. As a Quaker, Hoare - who became Viscount Templewood in 1944 - held strong views on the iniquities of war and the necessity to seek any and every means of avoiding it. During the Great War he was a secret service officer stationed in Moscow, where he built up contacts with the Swedish aristocracy and Royal Family, and where he saw the evils of the Russian Revolution at first hand.20 Later in 1917 he became chief of military intelligence in Italy, using his influence to get to know the then newspaper editor Benito Mussolini, actively encouraging him in his anti-Communist activities. After this he entered politics, becoming a Conservative MP in 1920, progressing to several ministerial posts, including Secretary of State for Air (1922-9) and eventually rising to the post of Foreign Secretary in 1935. He was regarded by many as a Prime Minister in waiting.

On 3 October 1935 Mussolini's Italian army invaded Abyssinia (Ethiopia). Then Foreign Secretary in the newly elected government of Stanley Baldwin, Hoare tried to negotiate a compromise peace, together with the French Prime Minister Pierre Laval, eventually devising what is known as the Hoare-Laval Pact. Under this arrangement, Italy could keep a large part of Abyssinia - a foretaste of Chamberlain's later appeasement policy at Munich. When news of the plan leaked out there was uproar in the House, especially from the opposition. Although Baldwin and the cabinet had approved the pact, Hoare himself became the scapegoat and, in order to protect the new Prime Minister in his first major crisis, he did the honourable thing and resigned. This was not the end of his influence, however: during the abdication crisis he was chosen by Edward VIII as one of his closest advisers, becoming great friends with the embattled monarch. Still very much a force to be reckoned with politically, he held the post of Home Secretary between 1937 and 1939.

Hoare believed in exploring every possible avenue to settle disputes peacefully. As Foreign Secretary in 1935 he made a speech in the Commons in which he stated that the search for peace would be the centrepiece of Britain's foreign poticy - a sentiment that earned him several enemies. Sir Alexander Cadogan, the permanent under-secretary to the Foreign Office - never an admirer of Sir Samuel - wrote uncompromisingly of Hoare and his wife Maud in his diary in May 1940: "The sooner we get them out of the country the better. I'd rather send them to a penal colony. He'll be the Quisling of England when Germany conquers us and I'm dead."

What a day. Sir Samuel Hoare has resigned. He sat in a corner of the 3rd bench, a place usually accorded to fallen Cabinet Ministers. He looked thin and ill, and had a plaster across his nose, which he broke in Switzerland a few days ago There was considerable tension; many people, I amongst them, felt that the Government has behaved with almost incredible stupidity. It wobbled. First it displeased the Left-Wing by its seeming acceptance of the Hoare-Laval proposals, and then suddenly it made a volte-face and dropped Hoare and the Proposals, thus enraging the Right-Wing the Socialist Opposition have put down a Motion of Censure.

At last Sam Hoare got up, and in a flash he had won the sympathy ot the House by his lucidity, his concise narrative, his sincerity and patriotism. He told the whole story of his negotiations and added that not a country, save our own, has moved a soldier, a ship, an aeroplane - was this collective action? He was a Cato defending himself; for 40 minutes he held the House breathless, and at last sat down, but not before he had wished his successor better luck, and burst into tears. I have never been so moved by a speech. It may have been only a Mea Gulpa; but to me it was more - it was the voice of a large section of sensible England; perhaps the swan-song of a certain Conservative spirit ... He may be down today, disowned and disgraced, but he will rise again, I am sure, and soon, to high office. But his health is weak and his nerves seem shattered. The House vibrated with emotion as he spoke; and had it been possible to put a vote I am sure he would have won. But he was followed by the Prime Minister, who was embarrassed and spoke lamely, though he was honest enough to admit his mistake in accepting the proposals. In no other country could the Prime Minister stand up in the Chamber and calmly say 'I made a mistake, and I am sorry . But Mr Baldwin can do this better than anyone. The House took him at his word. There were a few back-benchers , murmuring inaudible complaints including myself. If I had been in the House longer, I should have struck a note of reality, and expressed the opinion of everyone one meets - for God's sake, Mr Baldwin, make peace. Instead he has allowed himself to be bullied by the Left-Wing Conservatives and by Liberals. Attlee, the Socialist Leader, followed. He looks like a black snail and is equally ineffective: he challenged the Government, in a long, unconvincing speech; indeed, given his case, almost anyone could have made a better job of it. The House emptied. Austen Chamberlain rose, gaunt, deaf, and was mildly conciliatory and then made a sudden assault on Attlee which made the little man seem to shrink. Harold Nicolson made a good 'maiden' - the Liberals talked a lot of nonsense. The vote was put: and the Government won with a majority of 232. Cheers, and then an Amendment which we again won, and then home. The Government is saved.

The resignation of the late Foreign Secretary may well be a milestone in history. Great quarrels, it has been well said, arise from small occasions but seldom from small causes. The late Foreign Secretary adhered to the old policy which we have all forgotten for so long. The Prime Minister and his colleagues have entered upon another and a new policy. The old policy was an effort to establish the rule of law in Europe, and build up through the League of Nations effective deterrents against the aggressor. Is it the new policy to come to terms with the totalitarian Powers in the hope that by great and far-reaching acts of submission, not merely in sentiment and pride, but in material factors, peace may be preserved.

A firm stand by France and Britain, under the authority of the League of Nations, would have been followed by the immediate evacuation of the Rhineland without the shedding of a drop of blood; and the effects of that might have enabled the more prudent elements of the German Army to gain their proper position, and would not have given to the political head of Germany the enormous ascendancy which has enabled him to move forward. Austria has now been laid in thrall, and we do not know whether Czechoslovakia will not suffer a similar attack.

Nobody will quarrel with the Government's wish to bring about appeasement in Europe. But if appeasement is to mean what it says, it must not be at the expense either of our vital interests, or of our national reputation, or of our sense of fair dealing. For our own people the issue becomes clarified. They see freedom of thought, of race, of worship grow every week more restricted in Europe. The conviction is growing that continued retreat can only lead to ever-widening confusion. They know that a stand must be made. They pray that it be not made too late.