The Herald, 7 July 2010: . . . . Peace’s husband, Walter Clayton, was tracked by ASIO for 50 years until his death in 1997, but no proof has aired of him doing anything illegal, until now. Mr Clayton never wilted under ASIO’s watch, but a new book says a friend taped him admitting that he sent lists of potential Australian Soviet agents to Moscow. The Family File, by Mark Aarons, is released this week.

Talk of Mr Clayton’s past in Melbourne as a communist organiser in the 1930s had circulated around Port Stephens for years, but the book has brought it into focus. Mr Clayton lived most of his life accused of being Klod, a shadowy figure who relayed state secrets to the Kremlin after WWII until the rouse was uncovered by Britain and the United States.

The US government was so angry about Klod’s leaks that it banished Australia from sharing western secrets until it set up a counterintelligence unit. So it appears Mr Clayton was the reason for ASIO. . . .