286 • KESWICK, SIR JOHN
proved to be an important asset and allowedMI5access to all the
reports sent back to Bern in the Swiss diplomatic bag. It is unlikely
that Kessler was aware that Burgess was also keeping theNKVD
fully informed about the activities of his homosexual friend.KESWICK, SIR JOHN.A member of the famous merchant family
that ran Jardine Matheson’s commercial empire in the Far East, John
Keswick was also theSpecial Operations Executive(SOE) Oriental
Mission’s representative in Chungking. He negotiated with Chiang
Kai-shek for SOE to develop training facilities on his territory in Jan-
uary 1942. An embryonicSpecial Training School(STS) was
opened near Chungking in March, but thereafter the relationship had
faltered, principally because of the head of Chiang’s intelligence ser-
vice, General Tai Lio, who among other demands insisted that a Chi-
nese officer should head the STS. Instead of finding a compromise,
Keswick and his colorful White Russian deputy, Vladimir Petropav-
lovsky, were ordered to leave the country forthwith. The British am-
bassador, Sir Alexander Clark Kerr, reported this unfortunate episode
in the following terms:
SOE got into such bad odor with the Chinese because its personnel were
almost exclusively representatives of British interests and their tactless and
misguided activities, that Chiang Kai-Chek himself ordered them out of
China and refused them permission to operate.Both Keswick and Petropavlovsky were redeployed, the former to
London where he was appointed director of missions, Area C—
covering India, the Far East, and the Americas—the latter to the Bal-
kans.KEY, JOSE ESTELLA.A 33-year-old British subject of Spanish par-
entage, Jose Key was a laborer in theGibraltardockyard when he
was arrested in March 1942. While awaiting interrogation by thede-
fence security officer, Philip Kirby Green, Key attempted to escape
but was recaptured. He confessed to having been recruited by a Fa-
langist working on behalf of theAbwehrand was sent to London for
trial. He was convicted under the Treachery Act in May 1942 and
executed at Wandsworth in July.