Originally Posted by
j.sabourn
#43 whether it was the Iron Curtain or the Bamboo Curtain it was the usual practice to be approached by the MOD for one should I say keep their eyes open for certain info. they supposedly needed. This was before satellites and the spies in the sky syndrome everyone was keen to write about , you may or may not remember think it was Grenville Jones a business man who was picked up for spying in one of Russia’s satellite countries and was displayed all over the media at the time. He was no more a spy than I am , but must have thought he was doing his civic and moral duties , pie in the sky it was practiced on both sides and probably still is , I always said no , and meant it when approached . I knew of a master and mate on a ship going into Shanghai who were caught with sketches of various objects they received a number of years in a Chinese jail. Your country in most cases will deny your existence when caught . It’s alright for spy novels and someone’s vivid imagination but in real life should be kept well clear of.
I would imagine every country after WW11 had people lists of people they wanted to interview for different reasons one of the biggest was Israel who had a big bone to pick with Germany , Russia probably had similar bones to pick with various others also , although they were probably more severe in their immediate punishments without due trial. One old second mate told me of a time before the war in Europe he was in one of the Baltic ports and lost his watch. He reported it to the Russian guards , work was stopped and all the stevedores were searched , his watch was found and returned , the miscreant was marched to the end of the jetty and shot in the head , game set and match as easy as that, his body was dumped off the quayside . Makes one wonder what today the followers of the clean seas acts would say to that one. Think they would keep their mouths shut. The. Same. Second mate must be a long time dead by now but he. Told me he could of had the watch , he must of had a bad conscience for the rest of his life. Cheers JS