THE STORY OF A MAJOR TORY FRAUD

All Tory governments have been prepared to use secret spies to keep watch on workers' organi. zations. But they have also engaged in the crudest form of anti-communist propaganda in an attempt to frame labour and trade union leaders.

The most notorious example of Tories' lies and deceit this century is undoubtedly 1924, 'Zinoviev Letter' of which played a crucial role in the downfall of the first-ever Labour government.

Largely through the red scare' which the Tory press whipped up in the campaign, Baldwin was returned with a big majority which then allowed the Tories to make direct plans to take on the working class which they were to do in the General Strike of the following year.

portedly ducing a letter, purfrom Zinoviev, President of the Communist International, to the Communist Party of Great Britain, urging them to make preparations for armed revolution and to start work for the creation of a British Red Army, the ruling class, operating through the Foreign Office, the Tory Party, British Intelligence and Fleet Street, was able to scare the middle class and stampede them into voting for Baldwin.

Despite the unquestionable loyalty of MacDonald and his friends to the capitalist system and all its institutions, there was • still considerable opposition to the labour government from the ruling class.

To some sections it was no doubt still an 'unknown quantity', while there was general opposition to its diplomatic recognition of the USSR as well as its plans for the conclusion of a trading agreement with the Soviet state.

The government's downfall at the end of 1924 was directly connected with the build up oi this *red scare'. Dependent upon Liberal support, MacDonald's government fell over the famous 'Campbell case' The offices of the Workers Neekly' organ of the Comnunist Party of Great Britain were raided in 1924 and its editor, J. R. Campbell, was charged under the Indictment to Mutiny Act of 1797 as author of an article urging the troops not to fire on their fellow workers.

After the Attorney-General, Sir Patrick Hastings, had admitted that the charges were to be pressed, they were eventually dropped on the grounds that they rested on no firm legal basis. The Tories let out scream of anger. MacDonald and the Cabinet were 'soft on the Reds'.

The government was defeated on a Commons vote of confidence and MacDonald resigned.

But it was only now that the red scare really started to roll It reached crescendo with the Foreign Office release, five days before polling, of the letter allegedly sent by Zinovier together with a stiff note of protest to the Soviet government, a move designed Right: Ramsay MacDonald, loyal to the capitalist system. Top: G. E. Zinovier who was on holiday at the time. Above: Baldwin authenticate the forgery.

the Tory Press the letter, containing everything a professional anti - Bolshevik could desire, was just what they needed.

ATTACKED Just before the letter was released, the 'Daily Mail' had attacked the plans for a commercial treaty with Russia in terms which were to become familiar:

'It is a fact' declared Lord Rothermere's mouth - piece, 'that a British government is preparing to use the British taxpayer's credit and cash for the purpose of financing a gang of thieves and murderers who repudiate all social and financial morality. The wrong is graver because this gang of alien criminals who have usurped power in Russia wish to destroy the British empire and our civilized system of credit.' But strident though this was the 'Mail' was to improve still further with the publication of the letter.

'Moscow issues orders the British Communists . British Communists in turn give orders to the Socialist government which it tamely and humbly obeys', said its editorial on the day • the letter was released.

And the following Monday it screamed in a seven decker headline. "THE ONLY THING LEFT TO DO IS VOTE CONSERVATIVE'.

The 'Daily Express', ', lacking the advantage of the 'Mail's' 'discovery' of the letter, was slower off the mark. But in the campaign it had showed itself in no way inferior when it came to vitriolic anti-communist propaganda.

•Imagine little darkskinned Indian Communist,' it said about Shapurji Saklatvala, 'harsh voiced, with a curious little "clip" in his accent, the fire of fanatic frenzy always leaping from queerly bright eyes, hatred of almost everything seeming to consume his nervously moving body, a great cataract of words always spouting, frothing, foaming from him in a never-ending stream.' On election day the "Express' splashed in red ink across every page 'DO NOT VOTE RED TODAY' In the face of these vicious attacks, MacDonald's reaction was typical of a Fabian. Although, as we shall see, the Foreign Office released the text of the letter and the accompanying protest note to the Soviet chargé d'affaires in London, Kakovsky, without MacDonald's permission,. he continued to defend the Civil Servants as men of good faith.

I make no complaints. .• • They honestly believed that the document was genuine and on that belief they acted, he said after the event.

Although he doubted the letter's authenticity MacDonald also refused consistently to order any official inquiry into the conduct of the senior civil servants who handled the matter while he was out of London conducting his election campaign.

In fact there were such glarıng contradictions in the form and content of the letter that the Foreign Office must have known it to have been the work of provocateurs.

Indeed many senior servants and police officers took the letter to be the forgery that it was, including the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. But they • kept their opinions to temselves.

In the first place no original copy of the letter was ever seen. Only a transcripted copy reached the British Secret Service, which they then passed to the Foreign Ofice and the 'Daily Mail'!

Second, nobody commented on the fact that, even if the Communist International had wished to give the British Party such ludicrous instructions, they would certainly have transmitted them not in letter form but via one of the many Party members who regularly visited Moscow.

But to an experienced eye the letter could be seen as a complete fraud; not only did it contain all the elements of a cheap spy thriller, which were simply too good to be true: there were innumerable textual inconsistencies and downright errors. • The letter was headed 'Third Communist International'. Yet there was no such thing • as a third Communist international. • Zinoviev used the letters IKKI in the text of the letter instead of the usual English form ECCI for the Executive Committee of the International. • MacManus, one of the letter's signatories, was wrongly spelt as McManus. • Zinoviev signed himself 'Zinoviev' instead of his usual style 'G. Zinoviey'. • Kuusinen signed himself 'Kuusinen' and not Kuusinen' Kuusinen was not the Secretary of the International, as the letter claimed, but merely a member of its Secretariat. • On September 15, 1924, the date of the letter, Zinoviev was actually holidaying in Kislovodsk and therefore could not possibly have signed any official All these points, made by Zinoviev and others at the time, fell on deaf ears as the Tories, pushing aside such trivial matters, rushed ahead with their witch-hunt.

CONTINUED