Historical Dictionary of British Intelligence

VOIGHT, FREDERICK• 561

under diplomatic cover, with the status of first secretary, but his prin-

cipal task was to help a team led byHarold Perkins, which included

David Smiley, prevent Jewish illegal immigrants from traveling to

Palestine. The mandate authorities had placed strict limits on the

number of refugees allowed to settle in the territory and, in despera-

tion, the British foreign secretary, Ernest Bevin, had authorized a

ruthless and highly secret scheme to prevent the illicit movement of

immigrants. Part of the operation was a clandestine reconnaissance

of the route prepared by theHaganahto move thousands of Holo-

caust survivors through Austria and Italy to ships in Yugoslav ports,

but the more controversial aspect was the attachment of limpet mines

onto the hulls of the freighters. One of those disabled after explosives

ripped through its empty hold was thePan Crescent, which had been

chartered in Greece and was awaiting a cargo of refugees. Posing as

cigarette smugglers ferrying contraband across the Adriatic, Ver-

schoyle and Smiley were never detected.

During this period of intense activity, Verschoyle found time to

write a novel,The Balcony, which was released in 1949. He had al-

ready written a volume of poetry in 1931 and editedThe English

Novelists(1936). After his retirement from SIS, Verschoyle edited

theGrowerand ran a bookshop in Ipswich. He died in December

1973.

VIVIAN, VALENTINE.A veteranSecret Intelligence Service(SIS)
officer, Valentine Vivian was the son of the Victorian portrait painter
Comley Vivian and had joined the Indian police in 1906 at the age
of 20. During World War I, he saw action in Palestine and Turkey
with the Indian army. In 1923 Vivian was recruited into SIS and ap-
pointed the head ofSection V, SIS’scounterintelligencebranch. He
conducted investigations into the suicide of MajorHugh Daltonin
The Hague in September 1936 and into the leakage of information
from the British embassy in Rome in February 1937, which identified
Francisco Costantinias a spy. In January 1941 Vivian was made
vice chief of SIS, and he retired in 1951.

VOIGHT, FREDERICK.Recruited byValentine Williamsto work
atWoburn Abbeyfor the Political Warfare Executive (PWE) in
1940, Frederick Voight had been the Berlin correspondent of the