Colonel Howie's view of Hungarians was biased the report notes: Except for his contacts at the palace he

" Colonel Howie's view of Hungarians was biased, the report notes: "Except for his contacts at the palace he lived an undercover life, almost entirely with the Poles, so that his picture of Hungarian conditions is, as he himself admits, somewhat one-sided. "The intelligence documents also give a glimpse into the mindset of wartime British officials, as they discussed options for infiltrating British agents, and the difficulties of blending in with the Hungarian population: "It would be most difficult for a British officer to impress the peasant. One must remember that most matters connected with Hungary or Hungarians are rather 'Ruritanian'," one report notes.Initially, Col Howie tried to live normally. He had a suit made by a Hungarian tailor, and a fake identity card He frequented restaurants and cafés. His daughter-in-law, Claerwen Howie, now living in South Africa, remembers him as a quiet and unassuming man. "He worked mainly with the Poles, and they would go for drinks and dinner in restaurants with Germans all around them, even though he couldn't speak one word of German or Hungarian. He had an ability to blend into the background," said Mrs Howie, author of An Accidental Agent, the story of Howie's wartime adventures.Admiral Horthy's overtures to the Allies, and his refusal to deport Hungarian Jews, had provoked the Axis leadership and led to the Nazi invasion of March 1944.By the autumn of that year, there was still a chance that Admiral Horthy could have placed himself in the Allies' hands.

It was a time for decisive action, action that could have changed the course of the war. But Horthy dithered, despite the persuasive skills of Col Howie Even his son, Miklos, despaired of his father's weakness. "Father, if we don't do something soon, we will have to leave the palace with a shopping bag in hand," Miklos Horthy Jr said.Eventually the Gestapo's radio experts picked up Col Howie's transmissions and it became too dangerous to continue. Admiral Horthy himself notes in his memoirs the departure of Col Howie for Italy, together with a pro-British Hungarian general, Istvan Naday. "On September 22 I dispatched General Naday and the British [sic] Col Howie by plane for the Allied Headquarters at Caserta, near Naples Col Howie... had been taken by Polish intermediaries to my son who had him smuggled into the palace.

He had hidden in the apartments of my aidede-camp, Tost, until the time came for him to fly to Caserta".By mid-October Admiral Horthy was ready to join the Allies, but it was too late. He was toppled in a German-backed coup by the Arrow Cross Hungarian Nazis Budapest's Jews were rounded up and imprisoned in ghettos Thousands were shot into the Danube. The Admiral and his son were captured by Waffen SS Colonel Otto Skorzeny, the Nazi officer who had rescued Benito Mussolini from imprisonment the year before. Miklos Horthy Jr was taken from the palace rolled up in a carpet, and sent to Mauthausen and then Dachau, where he was liberated by US troops. Admiral Horthy was exiled to Germany, then Portugal, where he died.As for Col Howie, he returned to South Africa, where he worked as a seed merchant for the family business He died in 1993 at the age of 88 In Budapest, the royal palace was rebuilt from the rubble. The rooms where Col Howie negotiated with Admiral Horthy are once again illuminated at night, casting a glow over the Danube.'Surviving Hitler: Choices, Corruption and Compromise in the Third Reich', by Adam LeBor and Roger Boyes, is published by Simon & Schuster at £17.99. Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, the son of the former French president François Mitterrand, was arrested yesterday for questioning about his involvement with alleged illegal arms deals in Africa.

Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, the son of the former French president François Mitterrand, was arrested yesterday for questioning about his involvement with alleged illegal arms deals in Africa. Fraud squad police in Paris were also questioning a French businessman and writer of financial thrillers, Paul-Loup Sulitzer, about his alleged roles in money laundering and in the same arms sales, made to Angola in 1993-94.Mr Mitterrand, 53, a journalist who became an adviser to his father and then a businessman, was questioned this month about his dealings with Pierre Falcone, a FrancoAmerican entrepreneur under investigation for arms dealing, fraud and embezzlement.The eldest son of François Mitterrand, who died in 1996, was arrested at home in Paris yesterday morning and taken to the offices of the Brigade Financiÿre, or fraud squad.The investigation is one of several criminal inquiries into possible financial wrongdoing in the 1990s across the left-right political divide in France. Other people interviewed by police and magistrates in connection with the Angolan affair include an aide of the late president, Jacques Attali (a former head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London) and Jean-Charles Marchiani, a "fixer" for French interests in Africa and close associate of the former Gaullist interior minister Charles Pasqua.Mr Falcone, who has been under arrest since 1 December, is accused, among other things, of breaking arms embargoes to sell Russian surplus military equipment worth £350m, including MiG fighters, to Angola.According to Le Monde, Jean-Christophe Mitterrand is suspected of receiving tens of thousands of pounds in cash from Mr Falcone. The Angolan arms sales, and other deals, were allegedly brokered through the shadowy networks of French influence in Africa.Mr Mitterrand left the news agency Agence France-Presse in 1981 to become an African adviser and emissary for his father. He was nicknamed Papa m'a dit - Daddy told me - by African politicians.Mr Sulitzer, 54, became a bestselling thriller writer with tales of arcane international dealings. He is suspected by magistrates of accepting £200,000 in cash for unknown reasons from Mr Falcone's company, Brenco International.There was a further, mysterious development in the case this week, with the news that funds from Brenco International had been paid to Association Professionelle des Magistrats, a union that defends the interests of public prosecutors and investigating magistrates.The Falcone/Angola inquiry is one of at least eightinto financial wrongdoing in France in the 1990s, covering everything from kickbacks to political parties on public housing contracts to alleged bribery in the promotion of arms sales.. Spain's capital has been transfixed this Advent by the stabbing of an elderly monk at the city's most prestigious monastery in a mystery reminiscent of Umberto Eco's Name of the Rose, prompting calls for calm even from the city's Archbishop. Spain's capital has been transfixed this Advent by the stabbing of an elderly monk at the city's most prestigious monastery in a mystery reminiscent of Umberto Eco's Name of the Rose, prompting calls for calm even from the city's Archbishop. The victim, Eleuterio Perez Garcia, 73, a Franciscan Capuchin monk of the Jesus de Medinaceli monastery in the heart of upmarket Madrid, is in intensive care after the assault by a fellow monk who later fled to the Retiro Park to pray, and to die.Brother Eleuterio had shared a cell for years with Jesus Hernandez Coronado, 69, and there had been simmering resentment between them for a long time.

Brother Jesus was solitary and a bit odd, some of the monks thought, and had become increasingly exasperated with his cellmate, whom he accused of making too much noise when he got up in the mornings.Brother Jesus had difficulties with others in the 18-strong community too, and in recent years had been taking tranquillisers to settle bouts of mental disturbance. In his darker moments he was convinced that the other monks were getting at him and that, for example, they coughed on purpose to provoke him.But he was also said to be popular among the faithful. Every day, crowds of people queued in the Calle de Jesus to seek his advice: mothers with drug-addicted sons, women with depression, fathers with daughters undergoing divorce. They say they liked his energy, his bravery and his combative spirit, but that they sometimes they found him reproachful.On the evening of the attack last week Brother Jesus had been on good form,"exceptionally amiable", the order's provincial superior, Manuel Munoz, said. He had been on duty at the porter's desk, handling calls to the switchboard.The community had just emerged from an Advent concert in the basilica, one of the best-attended churches in Madrid. All 21 pews had been filled with worshippers who had embraced each other and exchanged festive greetings.Brother Eleuterio was heading for the television room where he liked to listen to the nine o'clock news.