While Inspectors Pasche and Knecht, who were in charge of the raid, searched the flat, I was taken out into the hall and put under the guard of a young armed detective. I began rather smugly to congratulate myself that I had left no clues behind, for I had been expecting some sort of action for weeks, ever since the first arrests, and had destroyed all my records, cash accounts, etc., and as a result there was nothing for the police save a heap of charred ashes and a damaged transmitter. My pleasant daydream was rudely shattered when I saw laying on the hall table my electric torch. It was one of the long thin type which take two 1-1/2-volt batteries. The top battery was genuine but the bottom one I had hollowed out and used as a hiding place for important messages. A couple of days before I had received from Jean Beauchamp the names and addresses of various individuals whom he proposed to recruit as operators and cutouts. I had intended to memorise these and in the meanwhile had written them down in the first part of my cipher before it was "closed"- which was as easy for me to read as ordinary text - and if found would make my cipher easily "breakable" by any competent cryptographer. This would be a disaster which, among other things, would lead to the arrest of several more members of the network; and it would certainly be my death warrant if I ever fell into Russian hands.
To my horror my guard picked up the torch and began flicking the switch. Fortunately, when he found it did not work he merely laid it down again on the table. The torch was taken to prison along with all my other property and later I was able to apply for it, extract the messages, eat them (thereby following the best traditions of espionage) , and breathe freely once more.
The search did not take long. The police found no difficulty in locating the hiding place for my transmitter because, as it was in use at the time of the raid, the door of the hiding place was open. After I had been in the flat for some time I had constructed a hiding place in a cavity about a built-in cupboard in my sitting room. So well did the join blend into the surrounding wall that both Pasche and Knecht admitted that had it been closed they might well have found considerable difficulty in discovering it. At that time all it contained was my cash reserve. The police were, however, a little apprehensive about booby traps and brought me back into the room so that I myself could extract what was in it under their eyes. A sensible precaution and one which I recommend to anyone dealing with a suspected saboteur or his equipment.
About three in the morning I was taken by car to police headquarters in Lausanne, and my interrogation by Pasche and Knecht began and continued until the following evening. At the time of my arrest they had been most jovial and the whole affair had been conducted, after the first rather sensational entry, in an atmosphere of complete international amity. There was, however, a complete change in their attitude once the interrogation began; they became very severe and grave. Pasche opened the proceedings as he was really in charge of the case, Knecht being federal police chief for the canton of Geneva.
The former made me a long and impressive speech. "It is useless for you to deny your activities, Foote," he said. "The suspects Bolli and the two Hamels have all made long statements which incriminate you completely and all your activities are known. It is now only necessary for you to make a complete confession and you will he immediately released." He added that there was no suggestion that I had acted against Swiss interests and as far as he, personally, was concerned he inclined favourably towards me as I had been working against Germany - which was the only country in the world which threatened Swiss independence - even though I had been working for the Soviet Union and not for my own country.
I replied that I admitted nothing but if what he said was true I must obviously be a moderately important person in the service of a great power fighting for its life. I pointed out that in the eyes of the Soviet Union I had been arrested by a power which was an enemy- as any power not allied to Russia was so regarded by them. If I were released at once they would imagine that I had betrayed all their secrets in order to secure my release. Therefore I demanded that I remain locked up and, what was more, for a longer period than all the other arrested persons, as the charges against me appeared to be graver. I added that if the accusation that I had been working for a Soviet intelligence organisation was true, then the interrogation that I would get at a later stage from the Russians would be infinitely worse than anything the Swiss could do. All the Swiss police could do was imprison me; the Russians on the other hand could make me face a firing squad and I infinitely preferred a few years in a Swiss prison to a few minutes up against a Russian wall.
This line rather flummoxed Pasche; he was not used to suspects pleading to be locked up and refusing chances of liberty. He then almost begged me to make a statement and I replied that I might after I had had time to think it over and consult my lawyer. I was then told that according to the wartime emergency regulations under which I was held this was not allowed until the police had completed their case against me. They could thus hold me incommunicado indefinitely. After this the interrogation dragged on throughout the day and in the end degenerated into a general discussion when everything under the sun was discussed save the case in question. As evening fell, I was taken away from police headquarters and to the Bois Marmet prison where I was to spend the next ten months.
A few days later I was again visited by Pasche, Knecht, and other police officers, and told that in an hour's time I was to be cross-examined again and that this time I must tell everything I knew or it would be the worse for me. I suggested that the proceedings might be helped if a few bottles of scotch and schnapps were taken from my cellar, as they would help to pass the time away and also might loosen my tongue. I was taken out of my cell into the interrogation room and the typewriter was prepared with a nice new sheet of paper in it all ready to take down my confession. The paper was as virgin at the end of the interrogation as it had been at the start. With the aid of the scotch and the schnapps a good time was had by all, and if it did not advance the investigation much it at least cemented Anglo-Swiss relations. I can only hope that the next time I am arrested for espionage I will meet such kind and courteous interrogators.
Though they got nothing from me, I managed to learn a certain amount from them. They had no idea where Rado was hiding, but had got Cissie under surveillance and were letting her run loose in the hope that she would lead them to further contacts- particularly Lucy. They had of course found much of Lucy's material when they raided the Hamels' flat, and from the content of some of the messages, especially the one about the Oerlikon cannon, had deduced that Lucy was probably none other than their valued evaluater and source, Selzinger. This they confirmed, as the Lucy messages and the material he gave the Swiss General Staff were typed on the same machine. He was not arrested, however, till long after I was, and was then held in prison but three months before being released with a certificate from the General Staff.