Compton Mackenzie

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Compton Mackenzie COMPTON MACKENZIE LO SCRITTORE CHE SI PRESE GIOCO DELLA BUROCRAZIA DEI SERVIZI PAOLO BERTINETTI Scrittore inglese di origini scozzesi, Edward Montague Compton Mackenzie raggiunge il successo nella prima metà del XX secolo. Inizialmente apprezzato, poi deluso da recensioni poco lusinghiere perché i testi sono ritenuti frutto di fantasia, decide di ricorrere alla narrazione autobiografica e ricostruire la propria esperienza di agente segreto. Se l’intento in Greek Memories è di ricostruire fedelmente le vicende vissute, il tono è quello di un thriller ma con digressioni ironiche sul funzionamento della burocrazia dei Servizi segreti, che gli costano persino la condanna per aver violato l’Official Secret Act. La narrazione si fa ancora più pungente in Water in the Brain, dove evidenzia l’ossessione dei Servizi segreti britannici per i regolamenti in materia di segretezza. Edward Montague Compton Mackenzie (1883-1972), oltre a essere stato uno dei fondatori dello Scottish National Party – circostanza che non gli fu di aiuto quando si trovò nel mirino delle autorità Sirbritanniche – fu uno dei protagonisti della scena culturale inglese della prima metà del Novecento. Nato in Inghilterra da una fami- glia di attori di origine scozzese e laureatosi in Storia al Magdalen College di Oxford, giunse al successo letterario con Sinister Street (1914) e il sequel Vita e avventure di Sylvia Scarlett (1918), romanzi apprezzati da scrittori del calibro di Henry James, Ford Maddox Ford, Francis Scott Fitzgerald. D.H. Lawrence sostenne addirittura che il libro relativo a Sylvia Scarlett era «come la vita». Lo stesso cinema ne ripropose il fascino attraverso il film che ne trasse George Cukor nel 1935, che tuttavia si rivelò un clamoroso fiasco: Syl- via, esuberante e disinvolto personaggio interpretato da Katharine Hepburn, almeno per l’America di quei tempi era troppo osé; da noi un po’ meno, ma la versione italiana, tanto per mettere le mani avanti, fu significativamente intitolata Il diavolo è femmina. Un bel successo fu invece Whisky Galore! (1947), film tratto dal romanzo omonimo − pub- blicato l’anno precedente − che è uno dei libri più popolari di Mackenzie, ancora di re- cente adattato per la televisione e il teatro. RIVISTA ITALIANA DI INTELLIGENCE 257 PAOLO BERTINETTI COMPTON MACKENZIE Il periodo tra quest’ultimo romanzo e Sylvia Scarlett comprende gran parte della Ad Atene era dunque Samson a ricoprire entrambe le responsabilità, e fu produzione romanzesca di Mackenzie che annovera anche due spy story − Extremes lui a trovare per Mackenzie il giusto incarico. Atteso che il locale titolare Meet (1928) e The Three Couriers (1929) − che s’ispirano alla sua esperienza nel Ser- del controspionaggio non si mostrava particolarmente efficiente ed era vizio segreto britannico durante la guerra. Molti recensori giudicarono le opere es- stato coinvolto in qualche attività opaca, con un pretesto se lo tolse dai sere frutto di fantasia, come lo erano quasi tutti i romanzi di spionaggio dell’epoca, piedi e al suo posto nominò Mackenzie il quale, in poco tempo, creò con l’eccezione relativa di The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915) di John Buchan e Ashenden un’efficace rete informativa, a partire dal reclutamento di un greco che (1929) di William Somerset Maugham, la cui contestuale pubblicazione ridusse lavorava presso la Legazione tedesca. L’uomo, a cui assegnò il nome in notevolmente le attenzioni che Three Couriers avrebbe giustamente meritato. codice di Davy Jones, si rivelò − grazie alla straordinaria memoria e alla Per reazione alle riserve espresse dalla critica sulla veridicità di ciò che raccontava conoscenza di più lingue − una fonte preziosissima, al punto da far dire nei romanzi, Mackenzie decise di fare ricorso alla forma dell’autobiografia, più o a Mackenzie di avere appreso più cose da lui in pochi mesi di quanto gli meno romanzesca. A ritmo serrato, scrisse e pubblicò tre lavori in cui ricostruiva altri agenti e funzionari avessero scoperto dopo una lunga permanenza le vicende che lo avevano visto protagonista quale agente segreto: Gallipoli Memories ad Atene. Al suo ‘ufficio Z’, come venne soprannominato, facevano capo (1929), First Athenian Memories (1931) e – trovando spesso irragionevoli i suoi supe- svariati informatori a cui Mackenzie attribuì i criptonomi di grandi poeti riori e soprattutto gli ordini che impartivano – se ne prese gioco con Greek Memories inglesi – ‘Milton’, ’Byron’, ’Tennyson’ ecc. – grazie alle cui informazioni (1932), libro che lo vide imputato in un processo di cui diremo tra poco. Non pago, riuscì a redigere una sorta di lista nera di possibili spie. Il suo modo di l’anno successivo lavò l’onta con Water on the Brain, una sorta di parodia del ro- agire era tuttavia piuttosto discutibile, vuoi per la scarsa propensione a manzo di spionaggio e della stessa attività spionistica, ritirato subito dopo la pub- non farsi notare, vuoi per le imprudenti prese di posizione. blicazione per iniziativa del governo e ristampato solo nel 1953. In Grecia la situazione era tesissima. Veniamo dunque al lavoro che Mackenzie svolse nell’intelligence. Re Costantino, sposato con la sorella del Kaiser, voleva che la Grecia ri- Allo scoppio della guerra, appena diciottenne, dopo aver prestato servizio per un manesse neutrale. Ma l’ex Primo ministro Eleftherios Venizelos e i suoi breve periodo nel 1st Hertfordshire Volunteer Battalion, si arruolò nei Royal Ma- seguaci del Partito Liberale − che giustamente accusavano il re di avere rines e, con compiti di controspionaggio, partecipò alla sciagurata campagna dei sciolto il Parlamento nel 1915 senza giustificazione alcuna − premevano Dardanelli. L’operazione − intrapresa dagli Alleati nel 1915 sull’area della penisola per l’entrata in guerra a fianco degli Alleati. di Gallipoli − si tradusse in un tragico massacro (oltre 250.000 morti), attribuibile Mackenzie era convinto della bontà delle posizioni di Venizelos e ne aval- tanto all’insipienza quanto al cinismo dei vertici militari. Il 23 aprile 1915, mentre lava la legittimità. Ma la situazione era troppo delicata per consentire un il reggimento di cui faceva parte stava muovendo verso Gallipoli, per setticemia tale aperto sostegno. Ai primi del dicembre 1916, in seguito allo sbarco morì il poeta Rupert Brooke. Il generale Hamilton, preoccupato che pure Mackenzie di 3000 uomini delle forze alleate nel porto di Atene, nella capitale ebbero – altrettanto giovane e noto scrittore – potesse fare la stessa fine nella medesima luogo dimostrazioni e scontri violenti da parte dei sostenitori del re. Dato operazione militare, pur avendone caldeggiato l’invio su quel fronte si prodigò per che si sostenne che gli uomini di Venizelos avessero aiutato gli ‘invasori’, farlo trasferire all’intelligence operante ad Atene dove, con la sigla ‘Z’ restò fino Mackenzie venne a trovarsi nella scomoda posizione di persona non grata. alla fine del 1916. Ne era responsabile il maggiore Rhys Samson, che del suo ope- Ciononostante, nel 1917 fu promosso Direttore dell’Aegean Intelligence, rato rispondeva direttamente a ‘C’, ovvero a Mansfield George Smith Cumming con competenza estesa all’intera area mediterranea, in quanto ‘amico’ (1859-1923), dal 1909 primo direttore di quello che sarebbe poi diventato il Secret della Grecia. In precedenza gli era stata addirittura offerta la carica di pre- Intelligence Service (Sis, noto anche come MI6). Cumming, personaggio spregiu- sidente della minuscola repubblica di Citera, l’isola resasi autonoma nel dicato e di tempra durissima – imprigionato nell’auto in seguito a un incidente, momento in cui la Grecia era rimasta divisa in due – tra monarchici e ve- aveva completato l’amputazione di una gamba con un coltello per estrarsi dai rot- nizelisti – dopo che il blocco navale degli Alleati aveva condotto all’abdi- tami e poter così soccorrere il figlio – era un acceso rivale di Vernon George Wal- cazione del Sovrano. Mackenzie non ricevette ulteriori incarichi, e alla fine degrave Kell (1873-1942), fondatore e da poco primo direttore del British Security della guerra fu ‘congedato’ con grande soddisfazione dell’intelligence bri- Service (Bss), l’MI5. tannica che poco lo amava. Tuttavia non solo ricevette la Legion d’Onore Ma era lui – competente per le attività all’estero – che finanziava gli agenti e le dalla Francia e medaglie al valore dalla Serbia e dalla Grecia, ma nel 1919 operazioni di spionaggio e controspionaggio. fu insignito pure dell’Order of the British Empire. 258 GNOSIS 3/2018 RIVISTA ITALIANA DI INTELLIGENCE 259 PAOLO BERTINETTI COMPTON MACKENZIE In seguito alla pubblicazione di Greek Memories, il suo terzo libro di memo- tasca. In un primo tempo pensò di poter realizzare un qualche gua- rie, Compton Mackenzie, che nel frattempo era diventato Rettore dell’Uni- dagno grazie alla pubblicazione di una versione emendata di Greek versità di Glasgow, nel gennaio 1933 si ritrovò sul banco degli imputati Memories, contando sull’effetto pubblicitario del processo. Chiese per rispondere di violazione dell’Official Secrets Act (la legge posta a tu- alle autorità competenti quali informazioni e/o brani del libro do- tela del segreto di Stato). Era accusato di avere citato parola per parola il vessero essere eliminati in modo da renderlo pubblicabile. contenuto di diversi documenti riservati; di avere rivelato il nome di sedici Gli fu opposto un rifiuto: dato che alcune copie erano entrate co- agenti che ancora potevano essere impiegati e che il controllo dei passa- munque in circolazione, confrontando le due diverse
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