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the St Ermin’s Hotel, as well as the names of certain officers. He also insisted that his work had revealed to him serious corruption in the British intelligence service and that it was run by Jews. He claimed to be well posted with regard to current international affairs and said that the Jewry was preparing an attack on Germany, and that England would find an excuse, probably via Russia, to declare war on Germany.
    Obviously unaware that the BUF had been heavily penetrated by informants working for MI5, Owens asserted that the best way to stop this war was through propaganda broadcast from secret radio stations, adding that he wanted to find six men ‘who could be trusted to do what they were told’, and asked whether the BUF could supply them. He offered them moneyfrom Germany to fund the scheme and added that it might be necessary to employ measures more drastic than propaganda: if the BUF had a reliable following who would ‘stick at nothing’ to show the government how much they were in favour of Germany and detested the Jews, he could arrange for a cargo of arms for use in an attempt to seize power.
    He also mentioned that he was keen to get details of naval bases, numbers of anti-aircraft guns, and in particular information about aerodromes in Kent and Essex, including Biggin Hill and Manningtree. He went on to claim to be ‘a direct personal agent of Hitler’. Perhaps suspecting him to be an agent provocateur , the BUF’s leadership ignored Owens, but the approach, monitored by MI5, prompted a secret and urgent memorandum dated 8 July 1938 addressed to Hinchley-Cooke:
    Owens is on the warpath again… Owens is pressing in a good many directions and in a very clumsy manner for photographs and information which are quite clearly intended for his German masters. It would seem that some definite action is required to clip his wings and in this connexion I am not quite sure whether you already have enough evidence on record to prosecute him under the Official Secrets Act.
    Apparently irrepressible, Owens had ventured into dangerous territory, for the BUF was widely regarded as a potential Fifth Column, a pool of political activists, some of them well-connected, who were not only sympathetic to the Nazis, but included Blackshirts thought to be subversive. Led by a former Labour Member of Parliament, Sir Oswald Mosley, the movement espoused patriotism, but within Whitehall contingency plans had been drawn up to apprehend the most dangerous fascists and place them in emergency detention in the event of war. MI5’s role was to identify the ringleaders, so Home Office warrants had been issued to monitor the telephone lines into the BUF’s headquarters in London, and intercept the organisation’s mail. The correspondence from S NOW was found among the intercepted letters.
    Before any decision was made about prosecuting him, Owens made his way to Germany, accompanied by his wife Jessie so that she might have a holiday. Their departure and return were observed by MI5 and the monitoring of Owen’s mail revealed that he had begun communicating with a Dr Wilhelm Wertzel of Hamburg, to whom he sent reports on troop movements and even some political commentaries which included references to the Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden, and his reaction to the German seizure of the Sudetenland: ‘Spent afternoon with War Office officials. Informed thatEden is taking an active part in Czechoslovakia. One official said, “we have been too damned easy with Germany, now we are ready.”’
    In another message he wrote: ‘Feeling against the Jews in military and army circles getting very strong, heard several rumours of desertion.’ And in a further letter he informed Wertzel that: ‘Chamberlain leaving for Germany sometime today. This move is a stall.’
    The correspondence suggested that, operating independently, Owens had developed his relationship with the Germans and had become quite close to Dr Rantzau, having spent time with