128 • CURZON STREET HOUSE
went to Geneva as head of station. Curwen came back to London in
May 1980 as the SIS’s deputy chief, succeedingColin Figuresin
July 1985 with no publicity untilThe Sunday Timespublished his
profile.
Curwen supervised the exfiltration from Moscow of SIS’s star
source inside theKGB,Oleg Gordievsky, and was to remain in his
post for just four years, a period when he dealt with only one foreign
secretary, Geoffrey Howe. In November 1988, he succeeded Figures
as theintelligence coordinator to the Cabinet, and he finally retired
in 1991, taking on a part-time role as a member of theSecurity
Commission, a body that became redundant when theParliamen-
tary Intelligence and Security Committeewas created three years
later, being replaced as coordinator by the retiring deputy chief,Ger-
ald Warner.CURZON STREET HOUSE.Formerly the Ministry of Education,
Curzon Street House was strengthened immediately prior to World
War II and in 1973 provided office accommodation forMI5, with
half of the spaces dedicated to telephone interception and occupied
by British Telecom engineers. The site was demolished in 1993.
CX.The symbol used to indicate a report of theSecret Intelligence
Servicewhen circulated in Whitehall, having originated with the first
chief, Sir Mansfield Smith-Cumming.
CZECH DEUXIEME BUREAU.Headed by ColonelFrantisek Mo- ravec, the Czech Deuxieme Bureau was transferred to London in
March 1939. It maintained a good relationship with theSecret Intel-
ligence Service,but its links with the MY Section ofSpecial Opera-
tions Executive (SOE) were strained to the point that SOE
considered suspending operations into the Protectorate in 1943 be-
cause of a lack of knowledge about local conditions. Reprisals fol-
lowing anthropoid inhibited activity and cooperation, and
eventually in 1944 two British military missions,manganeseand
mica, were established in Slovakia, supported from September 1940
bywindproof, which had been intended forHungary.
CZECH INTELLIGENCE SERVICE (StB).The Czech Intelligence
Service acted throughout the Cold War as a surrogate for theKGB