Kit Bennett

They were well paid.

These were top jobs these people had.

And same for the diplomats, not just the intelligence officers, but often even particularly the diplomats.

They weren't allowed to have their families.

And they didn't hold to that strictly.

Sometimes they'd have the whole family together, but not for very long.

And of course...

The Americans and Brits would always be watching for that because, you know, when they have got their family together, suddenly some guy might come out and say, hey, I want to stay.

And they know nothing.

And that's happened where they didn't know anything about the guy.

He was a Time magazine recruit or, you know, he'd decided to jump but wasn't going to talk to anyone until he had his family with him.

So the Soviets were very careful about that.

Every time I got there, I'd know he was there because the station would tell me, you know, he's not on home leave or anything.

So I'd make sure I was there when he was there.

And I'd ring him up and he was always happy to come and see me.

Sometimes pick me up in the hotel and we'd go and have lunch.

Sometimes we'd have lunch in the hotel and there'd be long lunches.

Well, always about business and he'd be asking me about living in New Zealand and that sort of thing and my travels and I'd be asking him about where he'd been based and what sort of business he was doing because he was in the commercial side.

His cupboard.

It was a commercial cupboard.