You can't judge a book...

Heroes Remember

You can't judge a book...

Transcript

Being the senior officer on the train back to Ankara I was entrusted with the diplomatic pouch to carry to, between the two embassy's so they handed me what looked like an old laundry bag with a draw string on it and a little clamped lead seal on the thing so I carried this in but I did have my own statesroom all by myself and going into the dining room, of course, I carried this with me and I looked across the hall and here was what looked like a typical, one hundred percent American, you know, clean shaven hair and he had a bag that had all sorts of, a heavy leather bag with brass rivets on it and locks galore and he had it beside him so we didn't speak but we knew what each other was doing. So when I got to Ankara and turned my bag over to the fellow that had took it I said, "Why is it you fellows use these miserable laundry bags and anybody could rip a hole in it, I would think and sew up again and the others are doing all these...." He said, "Well, we've been in this business a long time and I could assure you our bags are a lot safer than theirs."

Description

Mr. Beall describes having to deliver a British diplomatic bag while in Ankara, Turkey. It's a canvas sack which he feels is more vulnerable than the flashy American leather valises he'd seen. His contact assures him that the British bags are better.

Herbert Beall

Herbert Beall was born in 1908 in Ottawa, Ontario. He attended Lisgard Collegiate, where he commanded the 94th Cadet Battalion, and also joined the Governor-General's Footguards. He entered the Canadian Officer Training Corps at university, and received his commission in 1931. In 1932, Mr. Beall joined the Royal Canadian Signal Corps. In February, 1941 he transferred to the RCAF as a Flying Officer with the rank of Lieutenant. His service in England saw him at radar stations in the Orkney Islands and the Isle of Wight. He later went to the Middle East, where he set up and maintained portable radar systems in Egypt, and to a lesser extent Kuwait and Jordan.

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