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Part Eight

"The 'Abdin Palace coup' is a striking example of how different nations see the significance of the same event. Most English people have never heard of it: for those who have, it is simply a footnote to a long imperial history, and one minor incident in a great war for national survival. But to the Egyptians at the time this was a national humiliation and disaster, and 4 February 1942 has since become a cardinal date in their modern history. " R. Stephens.

One of the best, or perhaps worst, examples of Fisher' s manipulation of the historical record is his melodramatic account of Maskelyne's alleged spy mission on behalf of Dudley Clarke:

" only once did Clarke allow him to work as a spy, an incident that took place prior to Operation Crusader. Jasper put on a grand magic show for Clarke, and it almost cost him his life."

According to Fisher, MI-9, as a security precaution, had begun to intercept the Egyptian King's mail. Maskelyne, in turn, had found a way of secretly opening Farouk's correspondence without damaging the royal seal. The correspondence confirmed that the King had a secret Swiss bank account — circumstantial evidence that he might be collaborating with German or Italian spy networks. In addition, A-Force had located the whereabouts of a powerful radio transmitter, operating from within the protected confines of Abdin Palace.

Locating and closing down this transmitter was now a high priority.

Fisher describes in detail Maskelyne's daring attempt to penetrate the recesses of Farouk's guarded palace.

In the second week of November 1941, Maskelyne arranged a special command performance inside the Palace in honour of the King. Several A-Force agents cleverly gained access to the Palace by masquerading as members of Maskelyne's magic crew.

Furthermore, stubbornly protective of magic's secrets, Maskelyne demanded from the Egyptian officials complete privacy for his crew and his equipment.

During rehearsals, Clarke's trained agents were able to explore different areas of the palace. Frustratingly, they were unable to find the rogue transmitter. With time running out, further unsuccessful searches were undertaken up to and including the evening of the magic show.

Fortunately, Maskelyne himself had volunteered to examine a particular set of guarded rooms behind the stage area. He would daringly carry out this search midway through a box illusion.

He calculated he had a mere six minutes to complete the search.

Towards the end of the show, while all eyes were on the King who had been invited up on stage as a volunteer, Maskelyne escaped from his gimmicked trunk via a trapdoor.

With the guard distracted, he was able to inspect the nearby rooms. He found the enemy transmitter hidden in a printing room. Maskelyne managed to return under the stage and climb up secretly into another gimmicked trunk. The vanishing and reappearing act was carried off successfully.

After the show, Maskelyne and his crew dined triumphantly with the King.

And the next day, the troops arrived to confiscate the transmitter...

But is there any truth in this tale? Have we entered the realms of adventure fiction?

John Booth , in his Linking Ring article, mentions that in Kenya Maskelyne showed him ' a large, expensive gold wristwatch' . Jasper Maskelyne added:"This is the gift King Farouk gave me afterward in appreciation for that 'innocent' evening show of magic and illusion which I gave in his palace."

I cannot find any reference to this gift in "The War Magician".

"Magic-Top Secret" does mention a gold watch given to Maskelyne by King Farouk for services to Egypt. The context, however, is different. The gold watch later attracts the envious attention of the Imam of the Dervishes (see Article 5 for details ).

When he first heard this tale, Booth thought that Maskelyne's "sketchy comments about the transmitter were something that sounded a bit stretched." Having read "The War Magician", Booth was prepared to believe that the Palace escapade was "an entirely likely event."

It is a pity that Booth did not follow through with his earlier suspicions.

Maskelyne's dramatic and frantic search for the transmitter midway through a disappearing act resembles a fanciful episode of Mission Impossible.

Again, a direct comparison of the two accounts throws up discrepancies and contradictions:

My own theory is that the Palace escapade, as described in "The War Magician", is synthetic fiction. Two important factual ingredients have been irresponsibly combined to create a more forceful and entertaining account:

1/ Maskelyne, at some stage, probably did perform a magic show for King Farouk .

2/ the Ambassador did on one significant occasion surround the King's Palace with troops.

However, the confrontation between the British Ambassador and the King was a completely separate event. An elementary understanding of modern Egyptian history would reveal that Fisher has committed a blunder. The Abdin Palace incident was on February 4th, 1942.

Fisher places it earlier , before Operation Crusader, which was planned for November 17th, 1941.

To strengthen his narrative, Fisher seems willing to jettison any pretence at historical accuracy.

Even his mistakes contain additional mistakes : "The following morning GHQ took action on Maskelyne's discovery. At dawn Abdin Palace was surrounded by Commonwealth troops in combat gear. The portly British ambassador, Sir Miles Lampston (sic) , marched to the main gate and demanded an audience with the palace chief of staff..."

In fact, the military action was taken in the evening. Sir Miles Lampson on the morning of February 4th sent an ultimatum to Farouk , demanding an answer by 6pm. Around 9pm, Lampson was driven to the Palace to rendezvous with British armoured cars and a contingent of around 600 troops.

Lampson wanted Farouk to sign an abdication form. Farouk in a compromise caved in to the British demands and agreed to the installation of a pro-British prime minister. Had he refused, he would have been promptly and forcibly escorted to a Royal Navy ship and exiled to the Seychelles.

This is not exactly a wonderful moment in Anglo-Egyptian diplomacy , as the opening quote to this article indicates. The same British authorities who supposedly regard the monarchy as a sacred institution can be quite ruthless when it comes to dismissing other countries' monarchs.

What was behind this humiliating confrontation? The British feared that Farouk was gradually abandoning his neutrality and was moving closer to the enemy. It was rumoured that Farouk was about to bring a pro-Italian, Ali Maher, back into his cabinet.

Where Farouk's true loyalties lay is hard to decipher. As an insurance measure, it was sensible for him to remain pragmatic and flexible. At critical times, it seemed probable that Britain would be forced to withdraw from Egypt.

Lyttelton , a British official, later wrote:"...I should judge that he was far from sure that we would win and that he kept open some line of retreat to Mussolini and the Axis."

On the other hand, Farouk also realised that replacing British rule with that of either Italy or Germany hardly guaranteed an independent Egypt or his survival as monarch.

Adel M. Sabit in his book "A King Betrayed ­ The Ill-Fated Reign of Farouk of Egypt", published in English in 1989, gives an Egyptian perspective. Sabit argues that Ambassador Lampson was almost pathologically hostile to Farouk and was eager to have him dethroned. "Sir Miles dislike of Farouk led him along some strange paths of the imagination. The King, he thought, was obviously plotting against the British Empire. He was harbouring Italian spies. he controlled an intelligence network that supplied Hitler and Mussolini' s armies with vital military information."

Ironically, he points out that Lady Lampson herself was from an Italian background. That surely did not automatically make the British ambassador pro-Fascist.

"The myth that the Palace was harbouring dangerous Axis agents was easily exploded when one met the gentlemen in question."

Sabit claims that the suspect 'Italian aides' held minor positions , such as palace barber or dog handler, and held no sinister political influence over Farouk

Could there a kernel of truth to the radio transmitter story?

Lampson

I have strong doubts that Maskelyne was involved in any search for such a transmitter. Nevertheless, part of the story might be based on a contemporary rumour. "Lampson ...suspected that the King had set up a clandestine radio link with the Axis, through which, in some unaccountable way, he was passing secret information."

This is an interesting passage. However, Sabit regards this claim as farcical and ludicrous. He argues that it was not in Farouk's interests to favour an Italian victory.

When I first read "The War Magician", I found it difficult to believe that British Intelligence, having 'discovered' the radio , would have used such heavy handed methods to confiscate it. The logic of the story made no sense. If anything, one might expect Clarke to organise a more subtle counterintelligence operation , tracking the enemy agent and trying to arrange 'misinformation' to be broadcast via this source. Later I came across an intriguing reference : "the palace radio was in touch with Rome, but British intelligence later recruited the operator, who revised messages in a manner best to serve the Allied cause"

At present, I am not sure how authoritative this source is.

Interestingly , Artemis Cooper writes that Lyttelton actually read "the transcripts of the Palace radio messages that were regularly transmitted to Rome."

Given the sophistication of British signals intelligence, I find this claim plausible. It also undermines Fisher's version of the radio story. The British , I assume from this alternative picture, already knew where the transmitter was within the palace and had no urgent need to confiscate it.

In general, though, the transmitter story is hard to unravel decisively, especially when it is far from clear how reliable the competing sources are.

Alistair Maskelyne in his first letter wrote: "I remember my mother being less than impressed by pictures sent to us of my father's Egyptian magic show, which included some rather good looking female assistants. It was this charity show which he apparently gave before King Farouk. Whether or not the story about the radio transmitter is true or not I do not know."

In conclusion, the authenticity of Maskelyne's début spy mission for MI-9 is highly questionable. Fisher seems to have manipulated and combined a later factual incident (the Abdin Palace coup) to give credibility to a fantastical episode in Maskelyne's spying career.

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