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SIGINT IN THE SUN - GCHQ'S OVERSEAS EMPIRE 153
The aim was to provide an undercover broadcasting station that
would increase the desire for contacts with the West amongst
the Chinese middle classes, and increase defections across the
border into Hong Kong. The emphasis was on the 'purely "intelligence"
angle', and the defectors were needed because SIS
human agent coverage of China was weak. The original intention
had been to place this 'black station' in Hong Kong, but it
was eventually located in Singapore, hidden at one of the military
bases. 16
The main GCHQ sigint stations in Hong Kong were on the
coast at Little Sai Wan and the curiously-named outpost known
as 'Batty's Belvedere'. The contribution of Australia's Defence
Signals Branch was important, since Australia had identified
China as its top sigint target, followed by Indonesia and then
VietnamY During the late 1950s the commander of the sigint
station was an Australian called Ken Sly, and originally it was
staffed by airmen from the RAP's 367 Signals Unit. IS A constant
flow of National Servicemen had learnt Chinese at RAF Wythall
near Birmingham and later at RAF North Luffenham in
Leicestershire, but by 1957 the increasing use of civilians with
qualifications in the language was reducing this considerable
training requirement. There was also a separate cohort of
Vietnamese linguists. 19 Civilianisation brought unexpected security
problems, since civilians could not be used for some of the
menial duties carried out by service personnel. GCHQ tried to
address this problem by employing deaf and dumb locals in the
more sensitive locations on the sites. 20
Ken Sly was well aware of the attentions of Chinese intelligence.
One of the locally employed Chinese, Wal Bin Chang,
showed a propensity for taking photographs of groups on social
occaSIOns, and 'also took care to photograph each one of us
separately'. Moreover, he tended to volunteer for extra duties
at unsociable hours. He was eventually captured on the border
trying to cross over into Communist China with a number of
documents, including a description of the personal habits of
every NCO and officer at the base. He had been entertaining