I am aware of two British intelligence agencies: MI5, the counterintelligence service, and MI6 (the Secret Intelligence Service), which I understand is England’s answer to the CIA. What I want to know is, whatever happened to MIs 1, 2, 3, and 4? –Len Cleavelin, Saint Louis
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Good question, lame answer–but what do you want, entertainment or the truth? At the turn of the century the British War Office had various “military operations” departments, each designated MO-something. MO2g, for example, handled analysis of German intelligence. MO5 was the special-projects section and did things like plan for wartime cable censorship (implemented in 1914 as department MO5d). In 1909, with rumors of war already in the air, MO5 established a Secret Service Bureau, the counterintelligence branch of which came to be designated MO5g. In 1916 the War Office reorganized the spy services into a new military-intelligence directorate, and MO5g, whose staff was now much enlarged, became MI5. MI1 was “special intelligence” and included among its divisions MI1c, foreign espionage. By and by MI1c got too big for its britches and was redesignated MI6, presumably because MIs 2, 3, and 4 were already spoken for (German intelligence analysis, the motor pool, who knows?). MO5d, the cable censorship, became MI8, and MO9, the postal censorship, became MI9. Many other fascinating numbers could also be expounded on, but Cecil knows there is only so much excitement the Teeming Millions can stand.
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