Sir, - Now that the British media is heavily into a cloak and dagger phase it may be worth recalling my experience of what might - or may not - be regarded as an act of espionage in Ireland.
When the embassy of a friendly nation was moving from its Merrion Square premises I secured through auction in the old offices an impressive eight-leg walnut desk with central locking on the drawers.
Wanting to find out how this worked I removed the drawers and picked out pieces of paper that had fallen into the framework. One of these was interesting. It was a handwritten list of the "classified' information to be collected about Ireland - such things as the size of the armed forces, type of equipment employed and depth of water in our harbours. In fact, much of this information could be easily gleaned by a diligent reader of the columns of this newspaper over a period.
The desk was obviously used by a military attache. - Yours, etc.,
Arthur Reynolds, Seapoint, Co Dublin.