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218 SPACE, SPY SHIPS AND SCANDALS
and code-makers were finally getting to grips with Tempest. The
issue, together with i_ndependent cryptography by European
NATO allies and neutrals, had presented sensitive and costly
problems. However, there had also been enormous achievements,
many of which are still shrouded in deep secrecy, which
provided continuous access to many streams of diplomatic traffic
around the world. The main beneficiaries were K Division at
GCHQ, whose task it was to read non-Soviet systems. However,
these triumphs also owed much to the work of the unsung
heroes of communications security, hiding out in one of Britain's
least-known secret service headquarters in Palmer Street in
central London. In 1969, their last year of independent operation
before they were merged with GCHQ, Fred Stannard's
colleagues declared that their secretive influence over cypher
machines was the surest route to good intelligence: 'There is
no better way to successful Sigint than to influence selected
target countries by Comsec advice to use a source of equipment
desired by Sigint.' This, they added with quiet satisfaction, 'can
sometimes be done'.67
Although the problems of Tempest were now being addressed,
they were frighteningly expensive to resolve, and in the 1960s
money was a major problem for all of Britain's secret services.
Indeed, if a single adjective had to be chosen to describe British
intelligence during the Cold War, it might well be 'impecunious'.
The real world of British secret service at this time was a shabby
one, and the persona of the average intelligence officer was less
that of Ian Fleming's glamorous James Bond than of Len Deighton's
down-at-heel Harry Palmer. In Cheltenham, Berlin, Cyprus or
Hong Kong, thousands of intelligence operatives endured dingy
offices notable only for their peeling paint and rotting linoleum.
Moreover, there was remorseless pressure to economise.
One obvious area for economies was the three sprawling
intelligence empires owned by the Royal Navy, the Army and
the RAE As we have seen, each of the armed services had its
own intelligence activities. Their largest collection task was sigint,