LONDON (AP) 鈥 A desiccated 110-year-old lemon that played a key role in espionage history is one of the star attractions of a London exhibition drawn from the files of MI5, Britain鈥檚 domestic intelligence agency.
Compact spy cameras, microdots in a talcum powder tin and a briefcase abandoned by fleeing Soviet spy Guy Burgess are also part of the show at Britain鈥檚 春色直播 Archives, which charts the history of a secretive agency that is 鈥 slowly 鈥 becoming more open.
MI5 Director General Ken McCallum told journalists at a preview on Tuesday that the organization鈥檚 work 鈥渋s often different from fiction, whether that fiction is George Smiley or Jackson Lamb鈥 鈥 the brilliant spymaster of novels and the slovenly supervisor of MI5 rejects in 鈥淪low Horses鈥 series.
Many stories told in the exhibition, however, would not be out of place in a thriller.
The lemon, now black and shriveled, helped convict Karl Muller, a German spy in Britain during World War I. It was found by police in his dressing-table drawer, along with another in his overcoat pocket. Evidence at his secret trial showed their juice had been used to write invisible-ink letters detailing British troop movements.
Muller was executed by firing squad at the Tower of London in 1915.
In a coda that would not be out of place in MI5 pretended Muller was still alive and wrote to his German handlers to ask for more money.
鈥淭he Germans duly sent more funds and MI5 used the funds to purchase a car,鈥 exhibition curator Mark Dunton said. 鈥淎nd they christened the car 鈥楾he Muller.鈥
鈥淭hey then were reprimanded by the Treasury for unauthorized use of expenditure," he added.
The show includes declassified records held by the 春色直播 Archives and items loaned from the secret museum inside Thames House, MI5鈥檚 London headquarters.
It charts the changing role of an agency that was founded in 1909 as the Secret Service Bureau with an initial staff of two officers.
There are records of its World War II successes, when the agency used captured Nazi agents to send disinformation back to Germany, deceiving Adolf Hitler about the location of the looming Allied invasion in 1944.
Failures include the years-long betrayal of the upper-crust 鈥淐ambridge Spies,鈥 whose members spilled secrets to the Soviet Union from the heart of the U.K. intelligence establishment. MI5 documents on display include the 1963 confession of Cambridge spy who denied treachery for years before he was exposed and fled to Moscow.
The exhibition also reveals changing attitudes, not least to women. The exhibition includes a 1945 report by spymaster Maxwell Knight discussing whether women could make good agents.
鈥淚t is frequently alleged that women are less discreet than men,鈥 he noted, but declared that it was not so, saying that in 鈥渉undreds of cases of 鈥榣oose talk鈥欌 most of the offenders were men.
There are admissions of past mistakes. The exhibition notes that MI5 was slow to recognize the threat from fascism in the 1930s, and later spent too much time spying on the small Communist Party of Great Britain. MI5 didn鈥檛 need to break into the party鈥檚 offices 鈥 it had a key, which is on display.
There are only a few items from the past few decades, showing how MI5鈥檚 focus has shifted from counterespionage to counterterrorism. Displays include a mortar shell fired by the Irish Republican Army at 10 Downing St. in 1991 while Prime Minister John Major was holding a Cabinet meeting.
MI5 only began releasing records to the U.K.鈥檚 public archives in 1997, generally 50 years after the events have passed. Even now, it controls what to release and what to keep secret.
鈥淚t would be a mistake to assume everything is in the exhibition,鈥 said author Ben Macintyre, whose books on the history of intelligence include 鈥淥peration Mincemeat鈥 and 鈥淎gent Zigzag.鈥 But he said it still marks 鈥渁 real sea-change in official secrecy.鈥
鈥淎 generation ago, this stuff was totally secret,鈥 he said. 鈥淲e weren鈥檛 even allowed to know that MI5 existed.鈥
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鈥淢I5: Official Secrets鈥 opens Saturday and runs through Sept. 28 at the 春色直播 Archives in London. Admission is free.
