London: British intelligence planned to use semen as an invisible ink to write top-secret letters, says a new history of secret intelligence service MI6.
A diary entry belonging to a senior member of the MI6 has revealed that during the First World War it was discovered that semen could act as an effective invisible ink.
In June 1915, Walter Kirke, deputy head of military intelligence at GHQ France, wrote in his diary that Mansfield Cumming, the first chief (or C) of the SIS was "making enquiries for invisible inks at the London University."
In October the same year he noted that he "heard from C that the best invisible ink is semen," which did not react to the main methods of detection. Besides it had the advantage of being readily available, The Telegraph newspaper reported.
A member of staff close to 'C,' Frank Stagg, said that he would never forget his bosses' delight when the Deputy Chief Censor said one day that one of his staff had found out that "semen would not react to iodine vapour."
Stagg noted that "we thought we had solved a great problem."
However, the discovery also led to some further problems, with the agent who had identified the novel use having to be moved from his department after becoming the butt of jokes.
In addition, at least one agent had to be reminded to use only fresh supplies of the "ink" when correspondents began noticing an unusual smell.
The revelations are included in MI6: The History of the Secret Intelligence Service 1909-1949 by Keith Jeffery.
Jeffery of the Queen's University, Belfast, UK, was given access to all of MI6 files between those years. The book was published Tuesday and is being serialised in The Times.
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