The Iron Lady And The Spy-Catcher

 
If you knew my age, you would appreciate the era when someone seemed to be on the way to become British Prime Minister, and yet the same masses later to elect her were saying: 'No, she will not be, because, Britain is such a conservative society, she is woman; she will not become Prime Minister.' I do not need to disclose my age, do I? But, I am sure lots of my readers would have no difficulty telling everybody now who the lady I seem to be talking about was.

A man started life living on an English farm as a child in need of material help, just after the World War I (WWI). He later learned to fiddle with electronics for communications, as he got enrolled in Marconi Electronics, a company that came to be as a result of happenstance. GuglielmoMarconi was born in 1874 in Italy of parents of two nationalities. His dad was Italian, and mom Irish. After fiddling with wires at home, he finally managed to consolidate a modus for communications, the importance of which the Italian government failed to recognise when it was time.

His Irish Auntie encouraged him to come to London, where she resided, and the 'British Telecommunications' per chance, embraced the 'Marconi Telecommunications' ideas.  The latter rose in importance, such that the Nobel Prize Committee awarded 'Gulgliemo Marconi' the prestigious prize in 1909.  The wireless business had become more than real. Friendship with Mussolini, and Marconi's support for Fascism did not disturb his prospects.

His story got twisted in the period where the Russians had a new name, which was the USSR, or the Soviet Union, after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917/18. Between the nations of Western Europe and the Soviet Union became a brand new creation to be called ' The Iron Curtain' - Communism on the East front, and Capitalism on the West.  The monarchies in Europe, especially Great Britain, Holland, and Spain, did not only feel, but they were truly threatened by the new situation.

Karl Marx had left his German hometown and had settled in Cambridge, where he had staunch admirers from among British student-intellectuals. Sir Roger Hollis, (himself an intellectual) and boss of the MI5, was believed to be a double agent, only he 'failed to confess.' Names like Maclean and Burgess were among such intellectuals who later would defect to the Soviet Union, saying forever 'Good-bye' to bacon and eggs. Peter Wright had grown out of 'one-time farm-yard boy' into a young and ebullient self-taught scientist working with the company Marconi, and that would turn into the showcase of spying for the fatherland, as a counter-intelligence agent.

As if that would not be enough, the Iron Curtain had created a situation in which people living one side did not possess any 'goodwill' towards the other. No time in recent history of mankind had spying become not as lucrative, but nevertheless inspiring!   Spy-movies were not only for the cinema houses, but 'From Russia with love', for example, was truly something! It had become bluffing for a young man to be called ' James Bond,' and indeed act like one. An English 'night-girl' that might not have liked to be called a prostitute, would nonetheless share her nights between a Russian spy and a British War Minister.

A 'headless and frozen human being' found floating on the River Thames in London one morning would keep Buckingham Palace extremely 'hot', whether there was a Mr. Churchill as Prime Minister, or was it Mr. Alec Douglas H? The Pentkowski affair, spinning from Moscow via Stockholm to London, spelled out how nervous even the strong man in the White House could become. The world had become a platform, where two Germans, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, had spanned an order which had destroyed a German princess and her Russian King, with all their children, except one, who has stayed a mystery, even until today.

Except for the ingenuity of Peter Wright, and of course, the American CIA, 'spinning the cash' and working tirelessly together to stop Communism from taking the entire world, the British monarchy might not have survived. The Egyptian Embassy in London could be used by the MI5 to tap telephone conversations emanating from Moscow. Would you want to know how this would be done?  Let the British Telecom fiddle with the hotline that served the embassy.

The technicians coming for repairs, though in uniform, would be merely actors from the MI5. After the 'shine' repair, the entire Russian secret service, when they communicated, it was for the British counter-Intelligence service, and they would share every word with the CIA. This was Peter Wright from the MI5, in coordination with theMI6, and would catch, one after the other, the most dangerous communist infiltrators into the British society, who wished to have turned the LIFE-class of England into one like in the Soviet Union.

Meager wages came into the pockets of the young men, who tirelessly worked to keep England and the West what freedom lovers enjoy today.  Among them was Mr. Ustinov, whose son became the world-famous actor, Peter, whom many have watched in the movie 'The Ashanti', starring also, Akosua Busia, daughter of the former and late Prime Minister of Ghana, Prof. Kofi Abrefa Busia. Peter Wright had dedicated HIS ENTIRE LIFE, offering good services to the MI5. He earned, just as Peter Ustinov's father, only a pittance.

The meanwhile old Peter Wright knew the value of the material he possessed in his head, and maybe in a dozen briefcases. The entire world would be interested if he wanted to tell his 'spy story.' But, Mrs. Thatcher, both as Leader of the Conservative Party and then Prime Minister of Britain from 1975 till 1990, thought she knew a way to stop  Peter Wright, who had plans to go back to live on the farm, as at the beginning of his life. He needed money, and his intended book, 'Spy Catcher', would give him that money to raise horses on a New Zealand Farm.

The inside stuff of the book would not let even people who believe in Democracy feel entirely proud of themselves, and what their government, at times, initiated, or participated in. Mrs. Thatcher was convinced she could use the court to prevent the book from being published. Britain, being the 'The Best Democracy', according to many who don't even live in it, is the type found in England. The English court finally ruled: 'The Book may not be published in England; it however, may be read in England.' Mr. Wright got an American publisher for 'Spy Catcher'. He raised millions of dollars, settled on a farm in New Zealand, raised horses, and died definitely peacefully in 1995, aged 79 years.

Dr. Kofi Dankyi Beeko, MD.e-mail:dankyikofi@yahoo.com

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