Reed papers, letter from Reed, undated, postmarked 25 February 1945. ‘My old hide-out had been over-run and I couldn’t get back there, so my people sent me to the HQ of Slovenia, where I arrived in Nov, with a completely new language to learn and a bad record as a spy. Whether some of the Greek nastiness [British operations against the communist resistance in Greece] made them suspicious or whether the Trieste rumour [that Reed had been monitoring Yugoslav Partisan activities designed to annex the Italian city] still stuck I shall never know. Anyhow I was the victim of the most awful combination of icy courtesy and downright loathing as a result of which I had no freedom of movement and found myself stuck with 15 other chaps in a tiny smoky room trying to encode and send off the daily mass of rumours which reached us from the HQ about the doings of the Hun. The trouble was I hadn’t any idea how much of it was true and how much mere invention.’
UK National Archives, letter from Flotsam mission, 15 December 1944. 'Reed has recently started interrogating a number of ex-POWs passing through 'A' Force transit here ['A' Force was responsible for escape and evasion]. This has provided a valuable check on Partisan claims and intelligence. In addition, certain information about POW escape routes from south Austria has come to light.'
UK National Archives, letter from Flotsam mission, 3 January 1945. 'After vigorous protests by Reed to the intelligence staff, they have swept out their drawers and at last produced some identification of units. But as usual no evidence ... Captain Burdon, the ISLD [SIS] counter-espionage expert, is getting no co-operation whatever from the Partisans.'
In dealings with the vehemently anti-Western Partisan leadership he found himself engaged in an almost constant struggle against suspicion, prevarication and outright obstruction. Early in 1945 he became embroiled in an attempt to secure the evacuation of two German prisoners to Italy, both of whom possessed information of considerable value to the Western Allies...