Soon after establishing contact in March, after a long discussion with Rado I put the whole financial position to Moscow and asked for help and advice. The Centre replied by suggesting, helpfully, that I go to Vichy and collect money from the courier at a prearranged rendezvous; they added that if this was not possible I could no doubt arrange for a trusted go-between to go there in my place. I replied somewhat acidly that as things were in Europe at that time it was a little difficult for a British subject to go into Vichy France from Switzerland and in any case this would hardly be advisable as it would probably "blow" me completely or at least expose me and the network to a grave risk of compromise. As regarded Ending a reliablehad, as the Centre knew, no sources of my own at that time, having been told not to cultivate any, and by the time I had found someone reliable and had had him vetted by the Centre in all likelihood the whole network would, at best, be in the Swiss equivalent of Carey Street and, at the worst, in jail. The Centre tactfully dropped this suggestion and I heard no more about it; but in April or May they produced a further scheme.
I was informed that a courier was coming from Belgium and that he would meet Rado at a rendezvous in Switzerland and would hand over Rado's allocation of cash and also my own. The courier duly arrived- but empty-handed. He told the infuriated Rado that this was merely a trial trip to see what the frontier controls were like between Germany and Switzerland, and, having passed through them, he, the courier, was certain that this route was not practicable as the search was too stringent. To add insult to injury he attempted to borrow money from the almost penniless Rado in order to finance his return trip. After our experience of these two bright financial ideas by the Centre, it was obvious to Rado and me that unless we ourselves could think up some scheme for getting money and put it in words of one syllable to Moscow the whole organisation would crumble quietly into ruins.
I first of all suggested to the Centre that they should pay money into an account in my name in a foreign bank and that this sum could then be transferred in a normal way to me in Switzerland. This was at once turned down as it would be necessary for the courier who paid the money to know my name, and this was strictly against the rules. They did state, however, that they could make cash payments into banks in Great Britain, the United States, China, and Sweden on receipt of instructions from me. They added, however, that on no account was the person receiving the money to know my name and the courier paying the money in would in turn give a false name. On those conditions and those conditions only could they help financially.
On the face of it, this did not look too promising. On the other hand the war had been going on some time and the various black bourses were in full blast. I made some discreet enquiries among my more monied Swiss friends and the shadier of my English acquaintances, and soon evolved a scheme which I thought would work. Through the agency of a Swiss friend I was able to get in touch with some firms which in the course of their normal business remitted money between Switzerland and the U.S.A. The usual procedure for such transactions was for the whole affair to be handled by the National Bank, which would change Swiss francs into dollars and vice versa at the rate of four francs thirty centimes per U.S. dollar. I proposed that, instead of doing their transactions through the normal and indeed only legal way, namely a Swiss bank, they should allow me to do them- at a cheaper rate.
The scheme was put up to Moscow and they agreed and played their part. The procedure was quite simple and almost foolproof. Moscow would pay into a bank in New York a sum of money in dollars for the credit of the Geneva account of an American firm. The firm's branch in Switzerland would be notified by telegram that this sum had been credited to their account and they would at once pay me the agreed rate in Swiss francs - at the black market rate.
This may sound complicated but in fact it was quite simple- and indeed profitable to all concerned. For ease and simplicity let it be assumed that the official rate for Swiss francs to dollars was four to the dollar and that the black market rate was two to the dollar (the real rates were 4.30 and at lowest 2.75 respectively) and that the sum in question was one hundred U.S. dollars. The Centre, through their courier, would pay into the firm's account at the New York bank the sum of one hundred dollars. The New York office of the firm would notify their Geneva branch that this sum had been credited to them in New York and that as a result they had a credit of four hundred Swiss francs or its equivalent available to them. The Geneva representative of the firm paid out to me two hundred francs (the equivalent of one hundred dollars at the black market rate). At the official rate of exchange, four Swiss francs to the dollar, he had thus paid out only fifty dollars and as a result he or his firm had fifty dollars' clear profit on the deal. The only loser was of course the Centre, which had to buy francs at a bad rate of exchange; but it enabled them (and it was the only way) to pay their network in Switzerland- and I suspect that the same system worked elsewhere. Thus everyone was happy. The firm in New York could not care less; their manager in Switzerland was making a handsome profit (the figures given above are of course arbitrary and put in for the sake of simplicity, but the mathematically inclined can work out the percentage of profit between rates of 4.30 and 2.75) and the Centre was able to finance its sorely embarrassed Swiss network.
This system was one which I worked satisfactorily all the time I was with the network, and as a result some hundreds of thousands of dollars were transferred to our use through the intermediary of innocent firms. The only limitation on the sums involved was laid down by Moscow. They stated that they were not prepared to do deals of more than ten thousand dollars at a time. Their reason for this was simple and practical. Any such transaction meant that a courier had to be given the money in question in cash to take to the bank and deposit. The Centre was not prepared to trust couriers with more than ten thousand dollars, as the temptation might prove too great and they might "go private" and settle down at large and at ease in a foreign democracy. Indeed one such case occurred and caused me considerable embarrassment.
My Swiss friend managed to get in touch with an American firm which was prepared to do business on these terms and he negotiated the first deal. The firm in question was an American one which had a flourishing business in Switzerland. I arranged over my transmitter that the Centre should send a courier from time to time to the bank in New York and pay ten thousand dollars into the firm's account for the credit of their Geneva branch. In due course Moscow informed me that the transfer had taken place, and also of course the firm's representative in Geneva was equally informed that this transfer to the credit of his account had taken place. When both sides were satisfied that the money was there, then my Swiss friend received the money in Swiss francs and handed it over to me. I need hardly emphasise that neither the Swiss friend nor the American firm knew that these transactions were being undertaken on behalf of the Red Army Intelligence, and I have no doubt that they would have been horrified if they had known that the Centre was in fact behind these transactions. The whole thing was regarded by these innocent intermediaries as part and parcel of the usual black bourse activities which flourished all over Europe and with a particularly virile luxuriance in Switzerland.