Barcelona double agent’s difficulties with pounds, shillings and pence

He claimed to be travelling around Britain and submitted his travel expenses based on fares listed in a British railway guide. A slight difficulty was that he did not understand the pre-decimal system of currency used in Britain, expressed in pounds, shillings and pence. He was unable to make sense of the British monetary system, and was unable to total his expenses. Instead he simply itemised them, and said he would send the total later. Other mistakes would take some ingenuity in explaining by his later handlers - he once reported concerning a supposed visit to Glasgow that “There are people here who would do anything for a litre of wine”. There’s a nice beard here, and here it is claimed (someone else confirms, but that’s no guarantee here) that he had previously fought for Hitler on the Russian front in the Spanish Division Azul. And then afterwards he buggered off to Venezuela and by all accounts did nothing interesting of any nature for the next 40 years. Well I never.

Trevor @ 18 January 2008 4:48 PM

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