The Defence of the Realm (167 page)

93
 Security Service Archives.

94
 Recollections of a former Security Service officer.

95
 Security Service Archives.

96
 Security Service Archives.

97
 Recollections of a former Security Service officer. Born in 1909, Catherine Morgan-Smith changed her name by deed poll in 1938 to Weld-Smith (later Weldsmith). She retired on her marriage in 1963, taking her husband's surname Gibb. After his death she remarried and took the name of her second husband, Shackle.

98
 Recollections of a former Security Service officer.

99
 See above,
pp. 56
,
94
,
96
.

100
 Security Service Archives.

101
 Holt-Wilson to Audrey Stirling, 10 Sept. 1931, CUL Holt-Wilson papers. I am grateful to Dr Nicholas Hiley for drawing my attention to this correspondence.

102
 Holt-Wilson to Audrey Stirling, n.d. (‘Sunday–Midnight'), CUL Holt-Wilson papers.

103
 Audrey Holt-Wilson to Holt-Wilson, 12 June 1940, CUL Holt-Wilson papers.

104
 Hinsley and Simkins,
British Intelligence in the Second World War
, vol. 4,
p. 9
.

105
 Recollections of a former Security Service officer.

106
 
Security Service
,
p. 142
. Security Service Archives. TNA KV 2/2733, 2734, 2735.

107
 
Security Service
,
p. 373
.

108
 Security Service Archives.

109
 
Security Service
,
pp. 69
–
76
.

110
 See below,
p. 176
.

111
 Security Service Archives.

112
 Security Service Archives.

113
 Christopher Andrew, interview with Sir Dick White, 1984. Andrew,
Secret Service
,
p. 542
.

114
 Security Service Archives.

115
 Security Service Archives.

116
 Security Service Archives.

117
 Christopher Andrew, interview with Sir Dick White, 1984. Andrew,
Secret Service
,
p. 542
.

118
 Andrew, ‘Secret Intelligence and British Foreign Policy',
pp. 22
–
3
.

119
 See below,
p. 185
.

120
 TNA KV 2/1021. Petrie,
Communism in India
,
pp. 95
–
6
.

121
 TNA KV 2/611–15. Petrie,
Communism in India
,
pp. 103
–
5
.

122
 An HOW was first taken out on Spratt at the request of IPI on the grounds that he was ‘suspected of being engaged in revolutionary activities in India and known to be in receipt of instructions from certain persons in this country. It is desired to ascertain who his associates in this country are.' Security Service Archives.

123
 H. Burgess to Holt-Wilson, 8 Nov. 1929, Security Service Archives.

124
 Itinerary in Security Service Archives. While on the tour, Holt-Wilson suffered a personal
tragedy. One of his two sons by his first marriage, Lieutenant Charles Holt-Wilson of the Royal Artillery, was accidentally killed while serving in Bombay. Holt-Wilson had one other son, a naval lieutenant, and a daughter, from his first marriage.

125
 Security Service Archives. CUL, Holt-Wilson papers.

126
 Holt-Wilson, ‘Security Intelligence in War', 1934, IWM Kell MSS.

127
 ‘Paper on SIME compiled for Hinsley's official history', Security Service Archives; ‘Report on the operation of Overseas Control in connection with the establishment of DSO's in the British colonies & liaison with the security authorities in the Dominions during the war of 1939–1945', TNA KV 4/18.

128
 Shelley, ‘Empire of Shadows'.

129
 Security Service Archives.

130
 
Security Service
,
pp. 396
–
7
.

Chapter 1: The Red Menace in the 1920s

1
 Andrew and Gordievsky,
KGB
,
p. 83
.

2
 Andrew,
Secret Service
,
pp. 57
–
8
.

3
 MacMillan,
Peacemakers
,
p. 5
.

4
 Andrew and Gordievsky,
KGB
,
pp. 84
–
5
.

5
 Kell, lecture to Scottish chief constables at Edinburgh, 26 Feb. 1925, IWM Kell MSS. This lecture was probably typical of those to other chief constables.

6
 Ullman,
Anglo-Soviet Relations
, vol. 2,
pp. 130
–
31
. Thomson, ‘A Survey of Revolutionary Feeling in the Year 1919', CP 462, TNA CAB 24/96.

7
 Report of the Secret Service Committee, 1 Dec. 1925, published as Annex E in Bennett,
‘A most extraordinary and mysterious business'
.

8
 Andrew,
Secret Service
,
p. 380
.

9
 Kell, memorandum, 24 Nov. 1922, TNA WO 32/3948 5/Bills/1873. ‘Seditious Literature etc', Jan. 1932, TNA WO 32/3948 110/Gen/4638. There are further details of MI5 pressure for new legislation in TNA WO 32/3948.

10
 B1a (W. A. Alexander), memo, 24 June 1930, TNA KV 4/199, s. 42a. Alexander noted that there were ‘no exact detailed figures available prior to 1927'. I am grateful to Dr Victor Madeira for this reference.

11
 B3, HOW application for Harry Pollitt, Minute 12, 26 Nov. 1926, TNA KV2/1034.

12
 HOW for David Ramsey, 30 June 1929, TNA KV 2/1868, s. 160a.

13
 HOW for Robert Robson, 9 May 1923, TNA KV 2/1176, s.2a.

14
 Unusually among leading Communists, the HOW on him was first taken out by the Special Branch; HOW, 19 April 1921, TNA KV 2/1186, s. 3a. When Campbell later moved house, however, it was MI5 which took the initiative in applying for the HOW to be updated; HOW, 4 July 1927, TNA KV 2/1186, s. 27a.

15
 HOW for Robert Stewart, 30 Jan. 1921, TNA KV 2/1180–83, s. 3a.

16
 
Security Service
,
p. 93
; ‘Eva Collet Reckitt', TNA KV 2/1369.

17
 Major O. N. Solbert to DMI Washington, 30 Oct. 1920, NAW RG 165 9944–A–165.

18
 Major R. F. Hyatt to DMI Washington, 15 Dec. 1920, NAW RG 165 9944–A–166.

19
 ‘War Book 1926. War Book Chapter',
p. 70
, TNA WO 33/1077. ‘Field Security Police', 1923,
pp. 2
–
3
, TNA WO 33/1025. Kell, Lecture to Scottish chief constables, 26 Feb. 1925, IWM Kell MSS.

20
 See above,
p. 56
.

21
 Security Service Archives.

22
 Freeman, ‘MI1(b) and the Origins of British Diplomatic Cryptanalysis',
p. 216
.

23
 Andrew,
Secret Service
,
pp. 376
–
7
.

24
 Ibid.,
pp. 377
–
94
.

25
 Freeman, ‘MI1(b) and the Origins of British Diplomatic Cryptanalysis',
pp. 217
–
18
. The decrypts are in TNA HW 12/332; copies of many of them are in HLRO Lloyd George MSS.

26
 Andrew,
Secret Service
,
pp. 377
,
384
–
8
,
394
.

27
 H1 summary of reports on Klishko from 1 September 1915 to 9 September 1918, TNA KV 2/1411.

28
 ‘Nicholas Klyshko' [
sic
], 21 Feb. 1918, TNA KV 2/1410.

29
 Report by M. W. Bray (G4), 11 July 1918, TNA KV 2/1411. Bray served in MI5 from May 1917 to January 1919; Security Service Archives.

30
 ‘Clandestine Activities of William Norman Ewer 1919–1929', September 1949,
p. 1
, TNA KV 2/1016, s. 1101a.

31
 On SIS operations against Soviet Russia in the 1920s, see Jeffery,
Official History of the Secret Intelligence Service
, part II.

32
 Andrew,
Secret Service
,
pp. 398
–
400
.

33
 Note by A. G. Denniston (GC&CS Director), 16 April 1921, TNA KV 2/501 SZ/2132.

34
 Taylor,
English History
,
pp. 269
–
70
.

35
 Kell to Troup (Home Office), 2 May 1918, enclosing ‘Return no. 2' of cases considered for prosecution with ‘remarks by MI5', TNA HO 45/10743/263275.

36
 See above,
p. 116
.

37
 Marquand,
Ramsay MacDonald
,
pp. 314
–
15
. Andrew,
Secret Service
,
pp. 425
–
7
.

38
 Andrew,
Secret Service
,
p. 426
. When Winston Churchill returned to power in November 1924, eager to catch up on the backlog of intercepts from GC&CS, he discovered that ‘In MacDonald's time he was himself long kept in ignorance of them by the Foreign Office.' Churchill to Austen Chamberlain, 21 Nov. 1924, BUL Chamberlain MSS AC 51/58.

39
 Roskill,
Hankey
, vol. 2,
p. 358
.

40
 Barnes, ‘Special Branch and the First Labour Government'.

41
 Williams,
Not in the Public Interest
,
p. 134
.

42
 SIS Report CX/9668, ‘Counter-Bolshevik report: Soviet Propaganda in the British Colonies', 2 July 1924, TNA KV 2/1183, SZ/2514.

43
 Jeffery and Hennessy,
States of Emergency
,
pp. 79
–
86
.

44
 Industrial Unrest Committee Interim Report (with memorandum by Home Secretary summarizing intelligence on the CPGB), 30 April 1924, CP 273(24), TNA CAB 24/166.

45
 Ibid.

46
 Cabinet conclusion 32 (24) 5, 15 May 1924, TNA CAB 23/48.

47
 The most authoritative study of the Zinoviev letter, and the only one to draw on SIS archives, is Bennett,
‘A most extraordinary and mysterious business'
.

48
 B3 noted during a 1928 inquiry: ‘CSI [Kell] asked me to prepare a statement showing that the Zinoviev Letter contained nothing new or different from the intentions and propaganda of the USSR prior to the issue of this particular letter on 15/9/24.' Security Service Archives.

49
 
Security Service
,
p. 59
.

50
 On Makgill and Finney, see above,
p. 123
.

51
 Bennett,
‘A most extraordinary and mysterious business'
,
p. 36
. Bennett,
Churchill's Man of Mystery
,
p. 81
.

52
 Director B (Jasper Harker) later noted that the date of the distribution of the Zinoviev letter to army commands on 22 October 1924 and related contacts with SIS on the two previous days had been ‘verified by Colonel Holt Wilson from the files'. Security Service Archives.

53
 Statement by Donald Im Thurn read to the Commons by the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, on 19 March 1928; reprinted in the
Morning Post
and other newspapers on 20 March.

54
 Bennett,
‘A most extraordinary and mysterious business'
, ch. 2. Further details of the careers of Im Thurn and Alexander from Security Service Archives.

55
 See above,
p. 126
.

56
 Andrew,
Secret Service
,
pp. 436
–
8
.

57
 Bennett,
‘A most extraordinary and mysterious business'
,
p. 26
.

58
 The Labour vote actually went up by more than a million (by 3 per cent of votes cast in a higher turnout). What made the 1924 general election so decisive was what happened to Labour's Liberal coalition partners, whose vote fell to well under 20 per cent. Clarke,
Hope and Glory
,
p. 127
.

59
 Taylor,
Beaverbrook
,
pp. 223
–
41
.

60
 Andrew, ‘Secret Intelligence and British Foreign Policy',
p. 20
. By permission of the then Foreign Secretary, Christopher Andrew presented a re-enactment of this remarkable episode in the Foreign Secretary's room for BBC2
Timewatch
in 1987. On 4 November 1924 a committee chaired by MacDonald reported to the final cabinet meeting of the outgoing government that they had ‘found it impossible on the evidence before them to come to a conclusion on the subject'.

61
 Bennett,
Churchill's Man of Mystery
,
pp. 82
–
3
.

62
 Security Service Archives.

63
 Security Service Archives.

64
 See above,
p. 123
.

65
 In 1969 when Milicent Bagot was preparing a report for the Security Service on the Zinoviev letter, about which controversy had revived, she informed Director B that Boddington (then retired) had been ‘a particular help to her in her enquiries' and ‘had in fact provided her with the key lead on which her report is likely to be based'. Boddington received an official letter of thanks and a Christmas hamper; Security Service Archives. The ‘key lead' was the information that ‘Finney' had not provided the corroboration of the Zinoviev letter's arrival which Morton said he had and which led Eyre Crowe to assure MacDonald that there was ‘absolutely reliable' evidence that the letter had been discussed by the CPGB leadership (information kindly supplied by Gill Bennett).