Theresa & Miss X

To his Australian acquaintances, Soviet Embassy First Secretary Ivan Feodorovich Skripov seemed a likable sort, as Soviet diplomats go. He was a good talker, an enthusiastic partygoer and a back-slapping practical joker who often laced his guests' beer with vodka, guffawing when they caught on. But amiable Ivan was more than a spoofer. He was also a spy.

His escapades began early in 1961, when he met a trim young woman identified only as "Miss X" at the zoo in Sydney's Taronga Park and recruited her as a Soviet agent. She seemed willing, but to test her trustworthiness, he conducted a couple of tests, feeding her money--$952 in all--and handing her minor assignments. Once she had to pick up a small cylinder concealed in a water meter; another time she found one hidden in the iron railing of a stairway.

The Black Cross. Skripov then sent her a letter written in invisible ink and signed "Theresa." With chemical capsules furnished by Skripov, Miss X brought the writing out, learned that she was to pick up a parcel concealed under a tombstone in a cemetery, "the third from the one with a black cross with the letters IHS."

Convinced by now that Miss X was trustworthy, he handed her a big job. She was to deliver a paper-wrapped parcel to a man in Adelaide who would identify himself with a password. What Skripov did not know was that Miss X had been working for Australian intelligence all along, and she simply turned the parcel over to government agents. Inside they found coded transmission timetables for a Soviet radio station, along with a small, high-speed radio message sender. After waiting two anxious months for Miss X to carry out her task, Skripov last week learned what had gone wrong. The Australian government sent a note to the embassy ordering him out of the country in seven days for having made "elaborate preparations for espionage." Australian officials would not say what secrets Skripov had been seeking, but last week thousands of workers at the big Woomera missile range--some 750 miles from Canberra--were undergoing interrogation.

Lovable Diplomat. Australia's swift expulsion of Skripov is understandable. In 1954, MVD Colonel Vladimir Petrov, who also had been posing as a lovable diplomat, defected to the West with an armful of secret documents that described widespread Soviet snooping operations Down Under. Caught Redhanded, the Russians broke off diplomatic relations, did not reopen their Canberra embassy for five years.

This time, Australia had equally convincing proof--25 photos taken of Skripov's meetings with Miss X. For the moment, there was no talk of a new breakoff in relations. Moscow prudently announced that Skripov's boss, Ambassador Ivan F. Kurdiujov, home on sick leave, would not be returning to Australia.

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