The Spy Catchers by David Horner

Author:David Horner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2014-08-27T16:00:00+00:00

The Royal Commission Section

To undertake ASIO’s work in supporting the royal commission, on 26 May 1954 Spry formed a special section within the organisation known as the Royal Commission Section, to be located in Sydney.31 Richards became its ‘controller’, with Wilfred Blackett as his deputy. As well as the seconded group of Leggett from MI5, Davis from the CIS and Rochford from the ACT Police, the section included Jack McMaster and Max Monkhouse from ASIO’s NSW office, Stan Roper from the Victorian office, and Len Rogers from the ACT.32 Later, the section was expanded to include staff to assist the royal commission’s counsel in preparing briefs, as well as records and administrative staff and typists. The section also included the members of the safe house team, which was headed by Jack Gilmour and included Leo Carter, the interpreter Bill Marshall, and interviewing officers such as Ern Redford, Len Heilig and Monkhouse (who split his time between the separate subsections). The safe house staff were responsible for the care and protection of the Petrovs, as well as for interviewing them, first on their own story and the documents, and later on specific questions put to them by the officers who were preparing briefs for the commission.33 During the course of the royal commission, and preceding it, four safe houses were occupied in Sydney and one in Melbourne. The Royal Commission Section, which eventually numbered about 30 officers (the number fluctuated), was not attached to, nor controlled by, the commission.

The officers of ASIO’s Royal Commission Section were immediately busy interviewing suspects and preparing briefs for the commissioners and their counsel. On 16 June Hamblen noted that the demands of the commission had ‘almost swamped the resources of ASIO. Indeed it is with the utmost difficulty that ASIO manages to survive the various pressures on the home front which come from all directions.’34

Most of the summaries and chronologies of the Petrov defection, which were used by the commission and later as the basis for in-house histories, were written by members of the Royal Commission Section during this period. The section also provided many other documents to the commission, including translations of original Petrov documents; interpretations; reports on operations; reports on the structure and activities of the CPA and front organisations; details of Petrov’s defection; papers on the establishment of ASIO and the ‘old case’; records of meetings with Evatt; and recordings of interviews. The section also provided background briefs on the personnel and structure of the Russian Intelligence Service; the dates of arrival and departure of Soviet Embassy personnel; and background histories of the Petrovs.35

The problems in interviewing the Petrovs were considerable. Both were in a fragile psychological state and Petrov was unwell. As the time for their appearance before the royal commission approached, he became more edgy and nervous, afraid for his personal safety. She was more concerned about the fate of her family in Russia. The Petrovs were rightly worried about some of the information that was appearing in the press about them.

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