SOMERTON MAN MYSTERY: THE LAPSTONE CONFERENCE WATCHERS

 

I suspect that this image of the Lapstone Hill Hotel was taken around 1936/ It was this hotel where the ECAFE Conference was held in December 1948.

(UN Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE) Conference) 

Many will recall that the 30TH. November 1948 not solely because it marked the leaving of a suitcase at Adelaide Railway Station and the first sighting of a man on the beach at Somerton. This date also marked the arrival of the Soviet Delegation to the ECAFE conference to be held at The Lapstone Hill Hotel in the Blue Mountains, NSW.

A wonderful place that, personally I have never visited although I have had the distinct pleasure of staying at the Hydro Majestic at Medlow Bath a wonderful time capsule of a place and time sadly now long gone. Interestingly some of the Soviet Delegation to Lapstone also stayed in this fine establishment.

The conference itself was the focus of an MI5 surveillance operation although there are a number of versions of just why it was chosen. One is that this event had attracted a much larger Soviet Delegation than was expected. Anther says it was a way for MI5 and ROger Hollis to demonstrate how effective such operations could be. This was indeed part of Hollis's plan to have the Australian Government create a separate Intelligence service along the lines of MI5. In a much earlier post, there is a chart that describes the numerous intelligence agencies that existed in Australia at the time. The whole thing was unwieldy which may well have suited some countries very well. Behind the Hollis move was of course the matter of certain leaked documents that proved to be highly embarrassing to the Brits and their relationship with the US. Those documents had been leaked from Australia, a Minister's office no less, I believe that leak occurred in 1947.

(In September of 1948, The Melbourne Herald ran an article, 'New Section To Deal With Spies', something of s surprise public announcement, leaks?)

Thus the surveillance operation was agreed to somewhat begrudgingly, with senior public servant Dr. John Burton being less than impressed,

From the UK side, MI5 officer Hemblys Scales was to take charge and Burton was to organize manpower for the effort.

THE RECRUITS
Burton's idea of manpower differed significantly from that which Hemblys Scales had expected, he had thought that he would be given a team of experienced men, 'Watchers' who knew the ropes of surveillance, Instead Burton had organised a team of first-year diplomatic cadets for this work:

Woodbury, Currie, Osborn, Birch, Sellars Dexter. There were also two female cadets: Miss Warren, Miss Barnett.

Why the list? Well apart from examining the way in which these operations were run, these same people were later to be questioned it seems regarding some more missing Defence Department papers.

The whole Lapstone affair is a big story and it has links, some of which are tenuous, to various Russian Organisations in Sydney at the time. In addition, one of the Soviet delegations had apparently another mission to undertake in Australia, whilst another was later found to be attached to a certain department specializing in the delivery of hard-to-trace poisons.

An introduction to the world of intelligence operations as they were run during the exact time frame within which the Somerton Man and at least one other died under mysterious circumstances.