No Other Choice—别无选择（乔治·布莱克）（第一章~Section 3）
Be that as it may, the fact is that when I came to 'Y' technical operations were very much 'in' and no self-respecting station commander could afford not to have a microphone operation going or to have one at least in the planning stage. As a result numerous reels with the 'take' from these operations arrived in Head Office and as most of the targets were Russian or Central European it was only natural that Y', with its large numbers of Russian and Polish transcribers and play-back equipment, should be given the task of processing this material.
【尽管如此，当我来到'Y'的时候，技术操作非常“流行”，没有一个有自尊心的官员能够承受不进行窃听操作带来的损失，或者至少在计划阶段就得有一个。结果，从这些行动中获得的大量资料被送到了总部，由于大多数窃听目标是俄罗斯或中欧人，因此很自然地，'Y'部门拥有大量的俄罗斯和波兰语转录人员和回放设备，负责处理这些资料。】
Although, as I have said, several such operations were in progress in the sense that the microphones were actually installed on the target premises and working, the amount of audible conversations obtained was very small. There were several reasons for this. In the first place it was often difficult to get access to the flat or office itself and the microphone had to be installed through a so-called probe from adjoining premises. Since in practice this could only be done with the co-operation of the intelligence service of the country in which the target was situated this restricted microphone operations to those countries with intelligence services with which SIS had a close liaison. Furthermore the offices or living quarters in which a microphone was placed were often not chosen because of the importance of the official who occupied them but because of their accessibility. There were other difficulties. Lack of knowledge about the precise use of the rooms in a flat frequently reduced the operation to a game of chance. It might be found that the microphone had been installed in a nursery or in a seldom-used guest room. Where conversations were recorded, background noises such as the radio, playing children or street noises through open windows made large parts of what was being said unintelligible. It is true to say that in all the material obtained from microphone operations that came my way during the time I worked in 'Y' we found not a single item of valuable intelligence. Of course, those were the days when that kind of operation was still in its infancy and it is quite possible that since then a lot has changed. As equipment and techniques improved and experience was gained, and with a certain amount of luck which is always an important element in intelligence operations, I do not exclude the possibility that there have been cases when important information was obtained that way.
【虽然如我所说，有几次类似的行动正在进行中，窃听器实际上已安装在目标房舍并正在工作，但所获得的有用的谈话非常少。这有几个原因。首先，要进入公寓或办公室本身往往很困难，窃听器必须从邻近的房舍通过所谓的探头安装。由于这只能在目标所在国家的情报机构的合作下才能实现，因此对那些与SIS有密切联系的情报机构的国家才可以顺畅进行窃听操作。此外，选择放置窃听器的办公室或生活区，往往不是因为其工作人员的重要性，而是因为他的可接近性。还有其他困难。由于缺乏对公寓房间具体用途的了解，安装窃听器的行动常常沦为一场碰运气的游戏。可能是在保育室或很少使用的客房安装了窃听器。在记录谈话的地方，背景噪音，如收音机、孩子们的玩耍声或透过开着的窗户传来的街道噪音，会使谈话中的大部分内容难以听懂。的确，在我在'Y'部门工作期间从窃听器获得的所有材料中，我们没有发现任何有价值的情报。当然，那时候这种技术还处于起步阶段，从那以后很可能发生了很大的变化。随着设备和技术的改进和经验的积累，加上在情报行动中一直是一个重要因素的运气，我不排除这样一种可能性，即曾经有过通过这种方式获得重要情报的情况。】
My work necessitated contact with all the departments in 'Y' and soon I made friends both among the transcribers and the officers who analysed the material. These contacts and friendships arose because I liked the people concerned and they responded and not because I had an ulterior motive and specially sought them out. In my position I had access to all the relevant information in the normal course of my work and there was no need to milk people for more. In general I have never used my friendships and contacts in SIS for intelligence purposes and my relationships with people have always been based on mutual liking. Quite apart from the fact that inquisitiveness would have attracted attention and possible suspicion, the information I was able to obtain in the normal course of duties was sufficiently valuable and authentic not to have to ferret out additional facts from gossip and hearsay.
【我的工作需要与'Y'的所有部门联系，很快我就在抄写人员和分析材料的官员中结交了朋友。这些接触和友谊的产生，是因为我们兴趣相投，而不是因为我别有用心，特意去找他们。在我的职位上，我可以在正常的工作过程中获得所有相关的信息，没有必要从别人那里榨取更多的信息。一般来说，我从来没有把我在SIS的友谊和联系用于情报目的，我和人们的关系总是建立在相互喜欢的基础上。除了好奇会引起注意和怀疑这一事实外，我在正常的工作过程中获得的信息足够有价值和真实，不需要从八卦和道听途说中寻找更多的情报。】
In the secretaries' room, adjoining mine, very much the principal person was Pam Peniakof, Tom Gimson's Personal Assistant. She was the widow of 'Colonel Popsky', the legendary White Russian who became famous during the war as the daring leader of a commando group operating in the Western desert. Her Russian name disguised a very English personality. She was tall, slim and very elegant. Her determined character and witty but sharp tongue made her a rather formidable figure. Tom Gimson, a man of gentle nature himself, was I think, a little afraid of her. But she was good fun and together with the three younger secretaries we formed a small working team which got on very well together.
【在毗连我的秘书室里，最主要的人物是帕姆·佩尼亚科夫，汤姆·吉姆森的私人助理。她是“波普斯基上校”的遗孀，“波普斯基上校”是一位传奇的白俄人，在战争期间，他是在西部沙漠中作战的敢死队领袖。她的俄文名字掩盖了她非常英国人的个性。她身材高挑苗条，非常优雅。她坚毅的性格和机智而尖刻的言辞使她成为一个相当令人敬畏的人物。汤姆·吉姆森本人性情温和，我想他有点怕她。但是她很有趣，和三个年轻的秘书一起，我们组成了一个小工作团队，相处得很好。】
The girls must have thought that the new man they were working for had some strange habits. Although I had returned from Korea in good health, the conditions in which we had been forced to live for nearly three years had left their mark on me. This took some time to wear off. For instance not having worn proper footwear, shoes were a heavy strain. As soon as I sat down at my desk and had reason to think that I would be undisturbed, off went my shoes and I felt a wonderful relief. The secretaries could not fail to notice this unusual habit which I don't think they had so far come across in other people they had worked for. When I explained the reason they were very sympathetic and one even brought me a pair of slippers. They showed equal understanding in the case of another habit which I had developed, and which personally worried me more. In Korea, where we lived in a small farmhouse without any work and for very long periods with nothing to read, the only pastime we had, apart from talking, consisted of walking up and down in a small courtyard. Our only lighting was a primitive oil lamp the oil supply for which frequently ran out. In the winter it was extremely cold and the days were short. In Korean houses the heating system consists of a fire which heats the stones of the mat-covered floor. It is a good heating system providing there is enough fuel. But it meant that in order to keep warm we had to lie on the floor and cover ourselves with old padded clothes. So boredom and the need to keep warm forced us to spend a great part of our time sleeping. In this way my organism had got used to a lot of sleep by day as well as by night and for quite a while after my return I found it almost impossible to keep my eyes open after lunch and experienced an almost irresistible urge to lie down and sleep. Fortunately it so happened that I was able to indulge in this without much difficulty. In the storeroom adjoining my office, the bath was still there but had been covered by boards. When I felt the urge to sleep too strongly, I would tell one of the girls who would then say to anyone who was looking for me that I was out. Having taken this precaution, I would lock myself in the bathroom and lie down on the boards with a pile of stationery under my head and soon be fast asleep. Half an hour later the girls would wake me and, much refreshed, I would carry on with my work. Only gradually did this sleepy sickness wear off. But thanks to the ideal arrangement of my office and the understanding attitude of the girls, knowledge about it remained restricted and it did not get me into difficulties.
【女孩们一定认为她们的新上司有一些奇怪的习惯。虽然我从韩国回来时身体很好，但我们被迫生活了将近三年的条件在我身上留下了印记。这种感觉过了一段时间才消失。例如，没有穿合适的鞋子，鞋子是一个沉重的负担。当我在我的办公桌前坐下来，并且有理由相信我不会被打扰时，我脱掉了我的鞋子，我感到一种奇妙的解脱。秘书们不可能不注意到这个不寻常的习惯，我认为到目前为止，他们在其他为他们工作的人身上是不会发现这种习惯的。当我解释原因时，他们非常同情我，甚至给了我一双拖鞋。对于我养成的另一个习惯，他们也表现出同样的理解，而这个习惯对我个人来说更让我担心。在韩国，我们住在一个小农舍里，没有工作，很长一段时间没有阅读的东西，除了聊天，我们唯一的消遣就是在一个小院子里走来走去。我们唯一的照明设备是一盏原始的油灯，但油灯经常用光。冬天非常寒冷，白天也很短。在韩国住宅中，供暖系统由火组成，它加热铺着席子的石头。如果有足够的燃料，这是一个很好的供暖系统。但这就意味着，我们必须躺在地上，用旧棉衣来保暖。因此，无聊和保暖的需要迫使我们花大部分时间睡觉。这样，我的身体就习惯了白天和晚上都要睡很多觉。午饭后有好长一段时间，我发现自己几乎睁不开眼睛，一股想躺下睡觉的不可抗拒的冲动涌上心头。幸运的是，我可以毫无困难地沉浸在这其中。在我办公室隔壁的储藏室里，浴室还在，只是被木板盖住了。当我太想睡觉时，我会告诉其中一个女孩，她会对任何找我的人说我出去了。采取了这一预防措施后，我就把自己锁在浴室里，躺在木板上，头下枕着一堆资料，很快就睡着了。半小时后，姑娘们把我叫醒，我精神焕发，继续工作。这种困倦的病只是慢慢地消失了。由于我的办公室布置的很理想，加上女孩们的理解态度，我对办公室的了解还是比较有限的，也没有遇到什么困难。】
Another effect of my Korean captivity was what amounted to almost an obsession with food. Three years of nothing else but a small bowl of rice and a little boiled cabbage three times a day, and sometimes not even that, had given me a keen appreciation of the pleasures of the palate. I took therefore to visiting various London restaurants two or three times a week, especially the smaller and more intimate ones which were springing up at that time in great profusion in the Chelsea and Kensington area. Naturally, I did not go there by myself but went with friends or invited a-girlfriend. One of these was Gillian Allan, the youngest of the secretaries in the next room, a tall, attractive girl whose company I much enjoyed and whom I started to take out more and more often. I was at that time relatively well off and could afford to indulge in this fairly costly pastime. On my return, I had been paid my full accumulated salary for the three years I had been interned and, in addition, been given £500 in compensation for the loss of my personal effects. This made we wealthy to a degree I had never been before though, of course, in present terms my bank account was quite modest.
【我在韩国被囚禁的另一个影响是对食物的痴迷。三年来，我一天三次只吃一小碗米饭和一点煮白菜，有时甚至连这也不吃，这使我对美味有了深刻的体会。因此，我每周都要去伦敦的各种餐馆光顾两三次，尤其是那些当时在切尔西和肯辛顿地区大量涌现的小而私密的餐馆。当然，我不是一个人去的，而是和朋友或者女性朋友一起去的。其中一位是吉莉安·艾伦，隔壁房间里最年轻的秘书。她身材高挑，很有魅力，我很喜欢她的陪伴，也开始越来越频繁地邀她出去。那时候我的生活还算宽裕，可以花不少钱来消遣。回国时，我拿到了三年的全部工资，此外，还得到了500英镑的个人财物损失赔偿。这使我们富裕到了我以前从未有过的程度，当然，就目前而言，我的银行存款相当有限。】
I had been working in 'Y' only a fortnight, when one day in the middle of September I received an urgent call from R5, the department in SIS responsible for counter-espionage and liaison with MIS. Melinda Maclean, the wife of the missing diplomat, Donald Maclean, had disappeared with her three young children from the address in Switzerland where she had been staying with her mother. It was suspected that she had fled to the Soviet Union to join her husband.There was a possibility that she might have travelled from Switzerland to the Soviet zone of Austria and been taken from there by military aircraft to Moscow. We were asked to look out for any unusual telephone conversations, especially on the Soviet air force lines, which might give an indication that this was so. We checked all the material of the relevant period carefully but found nothing that pointed to Melinda and her children having passed through Austria. Many years later in Moscow when we had become good friends I told her this story. She was highly amused that I should have been involved, even in a very indirect way, in the search for her. As it happened she had indeed passed through Austria and been taken from there by car to Prague from where she had been flown to Moscow.
【我在'Y'工作才两周，9月中旬的一天，我接到了来自SIS负责反间谍部门和军情五处的紧急电话。外交官唐纳德·麦克莱恩的妻子梅林达·麦克莱恩和她的三个年幼的孩子从她和母亲住在瑞士的地址失踪。有人怀疑她逃到苏联是为了和丈夫团聚。有一种可能性是，她可能从瑞士到苏联在奥地利的地区，然后从那里被军用飞机带到莫斯科。我们被要求留意任何不寻常的电话交谈，特别是在苏联空军线路上，这可能会证明这是事实。我们仔细检查了有关时期的所有材料，但没有发现梅林达和她的孩子曾经过奥地利。多年以后在莫斯科，我们成了好朋友，我把这个故事告诉了她。我觉得很好笑的是，我竟然参与了寻找她的活动，即使是以一种非常间接的方式。事实上，她确实经过了奥地利，从奥地利用汽车把她送到布拉格，再从那里乘飞机到莫斯科去。】
