Historical Dictionary of British Intelligence

UREN, ORMOND• 555

counterintelligenceorganization might look like. MI5 supplied a

broad description of its own structure and stressed the importance of

good relations with the armed forces and with industry to safeguard

blueprints of new inventions and of equipment being manufactured

in government and private munitions plants, which should be the sub-

ject of regular visits and inspections. Lee studied the whole question

thoroughly and sent papers to the War Department, but no action was

taken. He had emphasized the need for a counterintelligence service

to be free of any political bias and criticized the FBI’s tendency to

court favorable publicity.

During World War II, collaboration between theOffice of Strate-

gic Servicesand its British counterparts, theSecret Intelligence

ServiceandSpecial Operations Executive, reached integration to

the point where the organizations ran joint operations and manned

war rooms in headquarters to supervise their personnel deployed

overseas. In the field of signals intelligence, American cryptogra-

phers were posted toBletchley Park, and this manifestation of mu-

tual trust resulted in numerous interagency projects, including work

on thevenonatraffic, which was conducted simultaneously by

GCHQand the U.S.National Security Agency. Postwar, this dual

approach culminated in the UKUSA andBRUSAtreaties, which for-

malized the exchange of highly classified cryptanalytical informa-

tion.

UREN, ORMOND.A member of theHungarianSection ofSpecial
Operations Executive(SOE), Captain Ormond Uren was convicted
in June 1943 of passing classified documents toDouglas Springhall,
formerly theCommunist Party of Great Britain(CPGB)’s national
organizer. Uren had joined SOE from his regiment, the Highland
Light Infantry, in May 1942 and was selected for a drop into Hungary
by the section’s head,Harold Perkins. The investigation into Uren
byMI5’s F2(a) section was prompted by the discovery in Spring-
hall’s notebook of the name of an Edinburgh Communist, Helen
Grierson, apparently through whom he had met an important source.
David Clark, MI5’s Russiancounterespionageexpert, traveled up to
Scotland, befriended Grierson, and pretended to know Springhall’s
contact. Impressed by Clark’s impressive knowledge of CPGB per-
sonalities, Grierson had let slip Uren’s name.