246 • HOME DEFENCE
was recruited to join MI5. In 1915 he was appointed thesecurity
liaison officerat the Inter-Allied Intelligence Bureau in Paris and
supervised the deployment of the Field Security Police. The follow-
ing year he was transferred to Egypt to reorganize the British security
apparatus in Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean. After the war he
went to the Rhineland as chief of the British Police Commission, re-
sponsible for rebuilding the civilian police in Germany.
In 1930 Holt-Wilson visited India, Ceylon, Singapore, Hong
Kong, Shanghai, and Ottawa on a trip aimed at establishing and de-
veloping liaison with the Dominions and Colonies. Although no
plans were worked out for systematic maintenance of this liaison, the
foundation was laid for the establishment of a global network secur-
ity liaison officers and defence security officers across the empire.
Hitherto, liaison with the Allies had been the preserve of theSecret
Intelligence Service(SIS), although during World War I, MI5 had
placed ‘‘military control officers’’ and ‘‘military pass officers’’ in
Paris, Rome, New York, and certain ports. In neutral countries, this
task had been undertaken by SIS.HOME DEFENCE (SECURITY) EXECUTIVE.Created in 1940,
the Home Defence (Security) Executive was chaired by Lord Swin-
ton for the purpose of supervising the work of the Security Service
and was run bySir Findlater Stewart. Also on the committee were
Isaac Foot, MP; Sir Joe Ball; Jasper Harker, asMI5’s acting director-
general;Valentine Vivianof ACSS; Colonel Roger Reynolds of the
War Office; Sir Alan Hunter, head of the War Office’s PoW depart-
ment; Sir Arthur Rucker from the Department of Health; (Sir) Arthur
Hutchinson from the Home Office; Edwin Herbert, the director of
postal censorship; Malcolm Frost of the BBC; and a trade unionist,
Alf Wall. The Security Executive was served by two secretaries, (Sir)
William Armstrong and Kenneth (later Lord) Diplock. In 1942 Swin-
ton was replaced as chairman byDuff Cooper.
HONEYTRAP.A technique adopted by intelligence agencies to entrap
an adversary in a compromising situation that can be exploited to
advantage. British victims of honeytraps includeJohn Vassall, who
was blackmailed in Moscow and spied for the Soviets from his return
to London in 1956 until his arrest in September 1962, and Com-