MALLY, THEODORE• 325by an agent named Cole disappeared entirely, and Major Cauvin’s
mission of Sergeants Meldrum and Regan ended in September 1942
when Regan, the wireless operator, died in the jungle of an infection
and Cauvin himself committed suicide.
For a while following the chaos in Singapore, the one remaining
link with the outside world was Captain McMillan, who had run a
radio interception unit at Kranji. He was moved to Java, where he
maintained a link with some SIS noncommissioned officers, orga-
nized by Major James Barry, a formercounterespionageexpert
from the Malayan-Siamese border who himself survived for two
years behind enemy lines with some evaders, Privates Brian O. Smith
and Jim Wright. Barry eventually went mad and slashed his wrists
in July 1944, and most of his companions succumbed to illness and
festering wounds.
Perhaps the best-known ISLD agent among them was Sergeant
John Cross, who subsequently spent just over three harrowing years
in the jungle, together with Lance Corporal Fred Wagstaff and Sig-
nalman Douglas Morter. Cross had been recruited from the Royal
Signals by ISLD’s Major Rosher and had undergone the STS 101
treatment with a team of Chinese nominated by the MCP. By the time
Cross and his party were in position, Rosher had abandoned Kuala
Lumpur and only his second in command, Captain Knott, remained.
Their wireless contact was with McMillan in Java, and they stayed in
the rain forest under the protection of the MCP continuously, suffer-
ing appalling weather, health, and food.MALLY, THEODORE.TheNKVDillegalrezidentin London in
1936 and 1937, Theodore Mally was a former officer in the Austro-
Hungarian army who had been captured by the Russians in July
- In 1918 he volunteered to fight for the Red Army, and in 1921
joined theCheka. Later he was based in Paris and supervised opera-
tions in Holland. Twice in 1935, in May and November, he was sent
to London to runJohn King, operating under the cover of a trader in
old clothes, and in April 1936 he was appointed rezident in place of
Alexander Orlov, who had fled to Moscow to runDonald Maclean
andPercy Glading’s spy ring at theWoolwich Arsenal. Mally also
handledKim PhilbyandGuy Burgess. When Mally returned to
London from leave in January 1937 he metAnthony BluntandMi-