SELBORNE, EARL OF• 481SECURITY LIAISON OFFICER (SLO). MI5 officers posted
abroad, usually under diplomatic cover but declared to their hosts so
they may conduct liaison duties, are known as security liaison offi-
cers. In the postwar era, SLOs represented the Security Service in
most major Commonwealth countries, but during the Cold War MI5
limited its overseas posts to Auckland, Melbourne,Hong Kong,Ja-
maica, Trinidad, Cyprus, Ottawa, Nairobi, New Delhi, Salisbury, and
Lagos. The most important SLO was in Washington, D.C., to liaise
with theFederal Bureau of InvestigationandCentral Intelligence
Agency. Among those filling the U.S. post have been Dick Thistle-
thwaite (1945–49), Geoffrey Paterson (1949–54), Harry Stone
(1954 –64), Michael McCaul (1964 –69), Barry Russell-Jones (1969–
72), Cecil Shipp (1972–75), John Murley (1975–80), Neville Giradot
(1980–85), Martin Flint (1986 –89), andEliza Manningham-Buller
(1980–82).See alsoREGIONAL SECURITY LIAISON OFFICER.
SECURITY SERVICE ACT.The 1989 Security Service Act, placed
MI5on a statutory footing for the first time and introduced an ele-
ment of oversight—a compromise formula achieved by the home
secretary, Douglas Hurd, who was switched to the Foreign Office in
October 1989. Hurd had guided the Security Service Bill through the
House of Commons as home secretary and persuaded a reluctant
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of the need to legislate. It had
beenAntony Duffas MI5’s reforming director-general who had
talked Hurd into altering his service’s status in January 1987, but
whereas he was able to persuadeRobert Armstrongto agree by
April, it took more than a year before the prime minister finally ac-
cepted the idea, having authorized a bill to be drafted in July. By the
time the bill received the royal assent in December 1989, Duff had
been replaced as director-general by his deputy,Patrick Walker.
The bill had been welcomed by MI5’s management, long tired and
apprehensive about their quasi-legal status resting on an ancient, un-
testedroyal prerogative.
SELBORNE, EARL OF.Born in 1887 and educated at Winchester
and University College, Oxford, Roundell Palmer was known as
‘‘Top’’ and inherited the title Viscount Wolmer on the death of his
father in 1895. In 1905 he joined the Hampshire regiment and for