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The Bad News. The Secret Service compounded its original error, says Giskes, by making drops "rigidly and without variation for over a year." There is no telling how long the Secret Service would have kept it up if two agents had not escaped and told London the bad news. After that, London's messages over the ten lines then leading to Giskes' office were uniformly dull. Giskes ended the tragic farce with a final message for the section chiefs he had fooled: "We understand that you have been endeavoring for some time to do business in Holland without our assistance. We regret this the more since we have acted for so long as your sole representatives in this country, to our mutual satisfaction . . . Should you be thinking of paying us a visit on the Continent ... we shall give your emissaries the same attention as we have hitherto."
On D-day and after, a successful visit was paid, but the British Secret Service has still never sent Giskes an answer to his last message. When the book appeared in Britain early this year, it raised a small storm and a parliamentary demand for a full investigation. "It is contrary to the public interest." the government replied, "to publish details of the affairs of secret organizations."