REPOSTED 4th April 2022
(Includes Newspaper Ads:)
THE SECOND TELEPHONE NUMBER
C7407
You can see firstly that the telephone number shown near the top left-hand side of this document and highlighted, is indeed C7407.
Now look at the stamp of the Investigative Service Canberra and it shows a received date of 6th December 1948, beneath that stamp you can see the date that the report was typed was 3rd December 1948.
Two days after the discovery of the body on Somerton Beach, this report is typed up. What, if anything, can we draw from that? A coincidence? Or was there some other and maybe a related reason, for that timing?
A short while ago I posted on a find I had made whilst searching and digging deep into the various files on NAA. The above image is from those files and below is the full page image:
Further you will see that it is a report from Adelaide CIS to Canberra CIS and it discusses matters surrounding the Association and whether it existed in South Australia in 1948. You will find it in the NAA documents that I have previously published under 'The Association', there are 2 volumes and around 400 + pages to wade through.
THE DOCUMENT IS GENUINE
If you read the document, you will see near the top and to the left there is a telephone number and it is for the Savings Bank of South Australia. The number is C7407. It is the only number shown on the letterhead which also shows the Attorney General's Department, Investigation service and it is marked secret. It was common practice in those days to use one number for a number of Government Departments, the Savings Bank of SA was Government-owned.C7407 THE ADVERTISER ADS:
These ads contain a contact number of C 7407 which matches the number on the document above. They could be quite innocent ads posted on behalf of employees working in the Offices or perhaps one or more are tailored ads designed to notify and inform other contacts. The ap[proach of using innocent ads and innocent letters for that matter was in use at that time and possibly still is. One example would be the Gold Watch ad placed with a contact number of X 3239 said to be the telephone number of the nurse, Jestyn. Interestingly the former ad has been shown to contain an acrostic code.
1.
12th May 1948, Adelaide Advertiser Page 6
2.
7th April 1949, Adelaide Advertiser Page 14
3.
March 25th, 1950, Adelaide Advertiser Page 15
Below is a screengrab of a comment that Pete Bowes wanted to leave in which he, sadly and once again, makes the inference that the document I posted is dubious. Further as is his wont, he throws in a barbed troll type comment which is best described as 'baiting', a trolling technique. Note the date on your comment Pete, this is the only comment I have as outstanding from you, not as you have suggested on your blog.
I am not going to do all your research for you Pete, it seems to me that all you do these days is to get others to post their views and do little or nothing yourself except, as in this case, launch another campaign that attacks, demeans, belittles and denigrates the person who once treated you as a friend.
I publish only those things I can substantiate and I publish my own work, I do most of my own research and verify work of others prior to publishing it. I have never once knowingly or deliberately set out to mislead anyone and rarely engage in online arguments except when I or my friends are attacked.
I have no idea what goes on in your life Pete but whatever it is I hope you get it resolved. When you do, I will have my hand outstretched in real friendship.
Take care of yourself, Pete, these are difficult enough times for us all without you descending to this level.
Keep Well, Keep Safe.
Pete, What I suggest is that we put this on a more amicable footing. You made some statements that were less than flattering and were designed, I think to call my findings into question. More than that in fact the inference in your comment is quite clear. You have suggested that this piece wasn't researched and, to use your words, it was 'unbelievable' when in fact, as you can see, it was the result of quite lengthy research plus a fair sprinkling of 'luck' based on experience. The more I try, the more I learn and the luckier I get.
ReplyDeleteSo, in the interests of this more amicable arrangement, I suggest that you now acknowledge that your first comment as displayed within the post, was incorrect and you can withdraw it. Once you have done that I will happily publish and respond to your next, as yet unpublished comment. I think that's fair and I think it would be a gentlemanly thing to do.
For everyone's information, this document, showing as it does the name of a bank a single telephone number, the address of the Investigation Service and a letter marked 'Secret', dealing with one of the organisations previously mentioned on this blog, The Association, has the potential to be amongst the top 3 breakthroughs in this case. A lot more digging yet to be done but as always, we'll get into it.
ReplyDeleteSee the advert in "The Advertiser" dated 12 May 1948 Page 6-It mentions an Antique Silver Chain missing in the South Parklands and to ring C7407. Another possible link to all those lost Gold watches? Or, a coded message? Another strange coincidence is that Daphne Page, the lady who had an 'arrangement" with Prosper lived in the same area-coincidence? Clive
ReplyDeleteGreat find Clive, it has the appearance of another dead end ad. I followed your lead and turned up another strange ad. Advertise, 7th April 1949, Starts 'Promise SC flat couple marrying September, Glenelg Brighton' C7407 or F5213.
ReplyDeleteSeems strange in that both this ad and the one you quoted have the number of the Savings Bank of SA and the second ad has that and a further number. Interesting, wonder where it fits.
Turns out that the second number, F5213 is for Curnow and sons, Real Estate agents in Norwood.
ReplyDeleteThe first number is quite definitely the Savings Bank of South Australia, the Commonwealth Attorney Generals Office looks to have been housed in 33 Pirie Street, The Epworth Building, it had and still has 6 floors of offices. There is an ad showing a department within the AGs office at that address. This department had its own telephone number. There's something else interesting about this Clive, will email you.
Which real estate company sold 51 Moseley St Glenelg for Dr Lica Sprod to Dr Arthur Guymer?
DeleteWhich real estate company handled purchase and subsequent leasing of 90A Moseley St Glenelg?
Who was the owner?
Can you share with us the source that links the Rubaiyat to the phone number of the bank/CIS premises?
ReplyDeleteI am working on a number of interesting posts at the moment and the issue of the Savings Bank of South Australia and other numbers is one of them. So please be patient it maybe a little while.
ReplyDeleteCan you find this phone number
ReplyDeleteNews (Adelaide, SA) Wed 14 Oct 1931 Page 8
H. Y. N. SPROD
Member of Stock Exchange of Adelaide.
Stock, Share, and Investment Broker.
30-31 COWRA CHAMBERS RENFELL ST,
ADELAIDE PHONE C 1109.
Dr Lica Sprod's brother in law, (and investment adviser) looks for uranium.
ReplyDelete03 Feb 1954 - Ora Banda North - The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA) http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47567740
The Commonwealth AG's had offices throughout the city, and the fact they had one in the Savings Bank was no secret. What is a little peculiar, is that the Investigative Service within that building was the Sub-office of Trademarks and Design - and it's not immediately clear why they would have had an interest in whether "The Association" was setting up in SA or not.
ReplyDeleteSlightly to the side of that, does anyone know how someone would dial a C number back then? My understanding is that C wasn't one of the prefixes available in Australia, yet premises in the Adelaide city were clearly using it.
It's an interesting lead into the operations of CIS in SA. From documents that I am currently reading, CIS had some 340 employees in Adelaide in 1948. Of course, they wouldn't all be front line investigators, my guesstimate would be around 100 with the rest being support and admin staff. Experience tells me that there would have been a small team of collators bringing together the various reports from operational staff to create an overall picture of the situation in SA. It seems that SA had more CIS staff than Victoria, given the nature of the development work happening there and the political situation it is no real surprise.
ReplyDeleteThe Association wasn't the only group active in those times, there were quite a number and I hope to get that information together during the next week or so. My view is that whilst the Association was hoping to gain more recruits in Adelaide, they were finding it a challenge. There are a couple of Adelaide names mentioned in Commander Long's book, will post them later.
The ASIO published documentation is already extensive, but effectively we are at the beginning and dealing with fragments of a bigger picture which won't be clear until a lot more research has been done and hopefully more files are released. Even then we would have to be mindful of other Intelligence organisations operating in the same time frame, Military Intelligence, Naval Intelligence, MI5 and MI6, CIA and of course the various Soviet groups. Pete Davo would have a handle on British Intelligence operatives in SA I think?
The normal telephone dial had the usual group of letters but why the C wasn't in general use I really don't know. If Clive had been around he may have been able to chase that down. Maybe NAA files?
Pete, The building had a shared switch board, you can clearly see that the number was for the Attorney Generals Department in the document above and as it happens it was in the same building as the SA Savings Bank. It was common practice for Government Departments to share switchboards. This is really basic stuff, it's a pity you can't find your own material to follow up on. Stop using other people's content Pete.
ReplyDeleteOn the issue of 'Clive' if he is the same Clive Turner that worked with me, perhaps he could tell you the wording in his last email to me?