Out of
the Box Coaching and
Breakthroughs with the Enneagram,
Mary R. Bast, Ph.D.
Copyright © 1999. All rights reserved. Revised:
October 05, 2008
"Snow" & "Biscuit:" More of the Same
In Change: Principles of Problem Formation and Problem Resolution Watzlawick, Weakland, and Fisch tell the following story:
"'…in May 1940, aboard a British trawler on its way to a secret meeting with a German intelligence officer, Major Ritter, south of the Dogger Bank in the English Channel, (were) two "double cross" agents, code-named Snow and Biscuit… Snow had done excellent work for British intelligence in the past and was considered by the Germans one of their star agents in Britain. Biscuit, a man with a long criminal record, had turned into a very reliable police informer and was now to be introduced to Major Ritter as Snow's subagent, to be trained in Germany and then sent back to England. For one reason or another, British intelligence considered it advisable that neither agent should know that the other was also working for the British side, but apparently both men eventually guessed this fact. This led to a nightmarish impasse: Biscuit formed the opinion… that (Snow) was acting genuinely in the interest of the Germans and would undoubtedly reveal his position as a controlled agent as soon as he met Ritter. Snow… appears to have been… under the impression that Biscuit was a genuine German agent who would undoubtedly reveal his, Snow's, ambiguous position when their meeting with Ritter took place. As a result of this he did everything in his power to convince Biscuit that he was acting genuinely in the German interest, and thereby redoubled Biscuit's suspicions.'
In this strange situation, then, both parties were trying hard to do what under the circumstances seemed to be the best thing, but the harder they tried the more hopeless the situation became. Finally, in the interest of his own safety and to avoid what seemed to turn into a disaster for British intelligence, Biscuit locked Snow into his cabin and returned the trawler to Grimsby without attempting to meet Ritter. Thus, in his sincere attempt to prevent ultimate failure he produced it."