The Defence of the Realm

by Christopher Andrew

  37 Security Service Archives.

  38 Recollections of former Security Service officers.

  39 On 28 October 1953 White wrote to Shaw: ‘Now that my plans for the reorganisation of the office have come into effect, the Overseas Division of which you were the Director no longer exists. For the time being you have accepted the special responsibility for seeing that the new organisation is properly geared to the requirements of our overseas representatives. I feel, however, that the job of Director of Overseas Service is bound to suffer a gradual run-down as the new organisation finds its feet and, in the circumstances, have suggested, and you have agreed, that the date of your retirement should be fixed for the end of the year, 31 December 1953.’ Security Service Archives.

  40 Darwin, Britain and Decolonisation, p. 167.

  41 Chin Peng, My Side of History, pp. 171–90. Much about Lai Teck’s career remains mysterious; Bayly and Harper, Forgotten Wars, p. 350.

  42 SIFE, which was responsible for ‘the collation and dissemination of security intelligence affecting British territories in the Far East’, was established in 1946 at the request of the Chiefs of Staff, prompted by a Mountbatten memo. Soon after its establishment, about twenty-five of its staff of sixty-five came from the Security Service (among them SIFE’s head). Information from a former Security Service officer.

  43 Security Service Archives. On SIFE see the pioneering MPhil thesis by Samuel Roskams, ‘British Intelligence, Imperial Defence and the Early Cold War in the Far East’.

  44 Guy Liddell diary, 18 Nov. 1947, Security Service Archives.

  45 Bayly and Harper, Forgotten Wars, pp. 427–8. Aldrich, Hidden Hand, pp. 496–7

  46 Chin Peng, My Side of History, pp. 212–14. Roskams, ‘British Intelligence, Imperial Defence and the Early Cold War in the Far East’, pp. 70–71.

  47 On his earlier career in the Middle East, see above, pp. 352–3.

  48 Security Service Archives.

  49 Blake, View from Within, p. 89. Roskams, ‘British Intelligence, Imperial Defence and the Early Cold War in the Far East’, pp. 69–70.

  50 This replacement of MSS had also been proposed in a report by Colonel Gray, who had been sent out from London to conduct an inquiry and later became commissioner of police in the Malayan Union. Security Service Archives.

  51 Aldrich, Hidden Hand, pp. 496–501.

  52 Bayly and Harper, Forgotten Wars, pp. 523–4. Aldrich, Hidden Hand, pp. 502–3.

  53 Hennessy, Having It So Good, p. 304.

  54 Chin Peng, My Side of History, pp. 268–9.

  55 Bayly and Harper, Forgotten Wars, p. 524.

  56 Smith, ‘General Templer and Counter-Insurgency in Malaya’. Miller, Jungle War in Malaya, chs 8, 9. Smith provides a balanced assessment of conflicting accounts of Templer’s contribution to victory.

  57 Security Service Archives.

  58 White’s minute to Sillitoe turning down his appointment as director of intelligence in Malaya did not, understandably, mention his ambition to succeed him as DG. He gave three reasons. He considered his present post in MI5 to be more important; he wished to be on the MI5 Board of Directors when the new DG was appointed; and, for domestic reasons, he did not wish to accept a foreign posting. Dick White, Security Service Archives.

  59 Security Service Archives.

  60 Templer wrote in a letter of thanks on Morton’s departure: ‘You must . . . know how much I personally shall miss you. I used so very much to enjoy our talks together.’ Morton’s Indian memoirs in Security Service Archives.

  61 Smith, ‘General Templer and Counter-Insurgency in Malaya’. Miller, Jungle War in Malaya, chs 8, 9.

  62 Chin Peng, My Side of History, pp. 324–6.

  63 Security Service Archives.

  64 Security Service Archives. Morton’s successor as director of intelligence, Arthur Martin, was less successful and caused such ructions by his attempts to reorganize the Special Branch that Bill Magan had to be sent out to pour oil on troubled waters. Recollections of former Security Service officers.

  65 Bayly and Harper, Forgotten Wars, pp. 496, 524.

  66 See above, pp. 251–2.

  67 ‘Interrogation. Notes on the Administrative, Technical and Physical Problems involved in the running of an Interrogation Centre’, March 1961. Earlier, undated lecture notes reach the same conclusion, for example:

  Physical violence or mental torture – apart from moral and legal considerations – opposed to – shortsighted – like wilfully damaging engine of car wanted for long journey – under violence anyone will talk – you may get a confession to prevent torture but it will not be the truth – Intelligence gained usually useless.

  68 Security Service Archives.

  69 Comber, ‘The Malayan Special Branch on the Malayan–Thai Frontier during the Malayan Emergency’, pp. 88–94.

  70 Recollections of former Security Service officers.

  71 Comber, ‘The Malayan Special Branch on the Malayan–Thai Frontier during the Malayan Emergency’, pp. 88–94. The Emergency continued, informally, until well into the 1960s in the form of the ‘Confrontation’ in Borneo. At the height of the ‘Confrontation’, the Security Service had SLOs and supporting staff in Sarawak and North Borneo, as well as in Malaya, Singapore and on the staff of C-in-C Far East.

  72 Security Service Archives.

  73 Security Service to D. Bates (CO), 31 Oct. 1946; TNA CO 537/3566, s. 2. Security Service to Sir Marston Logan (CO), 3 Dec. 1946, TNA CO 537/3566, s. 6.

  74 Nkrumah, Autobiography, pp. 45–6. On Nkrumah and WANS, see Walton, ‘British Intelligence and Threats to National Security’, pp. 291–2. The TNA sources in the remainder of this paragraph were first identified by Dr Walton.

  75 B. H. Smith (MI5) to Special Branch, 29 June 1946, TNA KV 2/1847, s. 3a.

  76 Telephone check on CPGB headquarters, 5 June 1947, TNA KV 2/1847, s. 11a.

  77 C4, ‘Note’, 1 Nov. 1947, TNA KV 2/1847, s. 28a.

  78 Captain R. W. H. Bellantine to Sir Percy Sillitoe, 16 March, 1948, TNA KV 2/1847; Nkrumah, Autobiography, p. 65.

  79 On Nkrumah’s post-imperial vision of sub-Saharan Africa, see, inter alia, his books I Speak of Freedom and Africa Must Unite.

  80 G. T. D. Patterson (B3C), Minute 50, 1 April 1948, TNA KV 2/1848. M. J. E. Bagot (B1B), Minute 58, 30 April 1948, TNA KV 2/1848.

  81 Andrew and Mitrokhin, Mitrokhin Archive II, p. 426.

  82 Guy Liddell diary, 20 Dec. 1949, Security Service Archives. There appears to be no surviving written reference to ‘nigger’ by any other Security Service officer.

  83 ‘Personality Note’, June 1948, TNA KV 2/1847, s. 61b.

  84 R. Stephens to Director General, 17 June 1949, TNA KV 2/1848, s.100a.

  85 Walton, ‘British Intelligence and Threats to National Security’, pp. 302–4.

  86 Guy Liddell diary, 21 Dec. 1950, Security Service Archives.

  87 TABLE extract, 11 June 1951, TNA KV 2/1848, s. 160b; TABLE extract, 1 July 1951, TNA KV 2/1848, s. 174c; Sir John Shaw, Minute 209, 1 Jan. 1952, TNA KV 2/1850. Walton, ‘British Intelligence and Threats to National Security’, pp. 300–310.

  88 Walton, ‘British Intelligence and Threats to National Security’, p. 260.

  89 Security Service Archives.

  90 Security Service Archives.

  91 Security Service Archives.

  92 Security Service Archives.

  93 Hennessy, Having It So Good, p. 302.

  94 ‘Record of the Conference of Colonial Commissioners of Police at the Police College, Ryton-on-Dunsmore’, April 1951, p. 24, TNA CO 885/119.

  95 Lonsdale, ‘Jomo Kenyatta, God, and the Modern World’, pp. 31–3.

  96 DG (Sillitoe), draft letter to Sir Evelyn Baring (marked ‘not despatched’), 9 Jan. 1953, TNA KV 2/2542, s. 374a. A shorter letter making the same point was despatched on 12 January; TNA KV 2/2542, s. 376a.

  97 Walton, ‘British Intelligence and Threats to National Security’, pp. 319–21.

  98 ‘Visit t
o England of the General Secretary of the Kikuyu Central Association, Johnstone Kenyatta’, Jan. 1929–Feb. 1930, TNA CO 533/384/9. ‘Johnstone Kenyatta’, 11 Nov. 1931, TNA KV 2/1787, s. 2a.

  99 Superintendent E. Parker, ‘Secret Report on Communist Party Activities in Great Britain Among Colonials’, 22 April 1930; cited in Howe, Anticolonialism in British Politics, p. 66.

  100 MI6 to Captain Miller, MI5, 9 July 1930, TNA KV 2/1787, s. 1y.

  101 Suchkov, ‘Dzhomo Keniata v Moskve’. McClellan, ‘Africans and Blacks in the Comintern Schools’. Andrew and Mitrokhin, Mitrokhin Archive II, pp. 4, 423–4.

  102 MPSB to MI5, 6 Dec. 1933, TNA KV 2/1787, s. 19a.

  103 McClellan, ‘Africans and Blacks in the Comintern Schools’.

  104 Kell to D. C. J. McSweeney (CO), 16 Dec. 1933; Sir Vernon Kell to Commissioner of Police, Kenya, 18 Jan. 1934, TNA KV 2/1787, s. 13a.

  105 Home Office Warrant, 3 Jan. 1934, TNA KV 2/1787, s. 23a; Cross-reference, 18 Jan. 1934; Jane Archer, Minute 60, TNA KV 2/1787, ss. 9, 27a. Walton, ‘British Intelligence and Threats to National Security’, pp. 311–12.

  106 Andrew and Mitrokhin, Mitrokhin Archive II, pp. 4, 423–4.

  107 O. J. Mason (MI5) to J. D. Bates (CO), 29 Dec. 1945, TNA KV 2/1788, s. 248a.

  108 B. M. de Quehen, SLO Central Africa, to DG, 23 July 1951, TNA KV 2/1788, s. 333b; cited by Walton, ‘British Intelligence and Threats to National Security’, p. 316. For corroboration of this report, see Andrew and Mitrokhin, Mitrokhin Archive II, pp. 504–5 n. 8.

  109 DG (Sillitoe), draft letter to Sir Evelyn Baring (marked ‘not despatched’), 9 Jan. 1953, TNA KV 2/2542, s. 374a. A shorter letter making the same point was despatched on 12 January; TNA KV 2/2542, s. 376a.

  110 Security Service Archives.

  111 Berman, ‘Nationalism, Ethnicity and Modernity’.

  112 Anderson, Histories of the Hanged, pp. 59–60. Lonsdale, ‘Authority, Gender and Violence’, pp. 59–60.

  113 C. R. Major (SLO East Africa), to DG, 17 Nov. 1952, TNA KV 2/1788, s. 357c.

  114 SLO East Africa Quarterly Review, 20 Oct. 1952, TNA KV 2/1788, s. 357b; Lonsdale, ‘Kenyatta’s Trials’.

  115 Lonsdale, ‘Kenyatta’s Trials’. Anderson, Histories of the Hanged, pp. 62–8.

  116 Recollections of a former Security Service officer. Broadbent was SLO in Kenya from February 1953 to July 1954, and in East Africa from July 1954 to May 1957.

  117 Recollections of a former Security Service officer.

  118 Recollections of former Security Service officers. Prendergast went on to become chief of intelligence in Cyprus (1958–60), director of Special Branch in Hong Kong (1960–66), and director of intelligence in Aden (1966–7).

  119 Anderson, Histories of the Hanged, ch. 7. Elkins, Britain’s Gulag, gives an even bleaker assessment of the horrors of the police state. The accuracy of her account, however, has been challenged by Elstein, ‘The End of the Mau Mau’.

  120 Sir G. Colby to Colonial Secretary, telegram no. 485, 7 Sept. 1953, TNA CO 0115/457, no. 1; published in Murphy and Ashton (eds), Central Africa, document 98.

  121 Murphy and Ashton (eds), Central Africa, p. 247.

  122 Security Service Archives.

  123 Murphy, ‘Creating a Commonwealth Intelligence Culture’, p. 140. Aldrich, Hidden Hand, p. 517.

  124 Security Service Archives.

  125 Security Service Archives.

  126 Security Service Archives.

  127 Security Service Archives.

  128 Security Service Archives. On British Guianan business interests, see Drayton, ‘Anglo-American “Liberal” Imperialism’, pp. 327–8.

  129 Security Service Archives.

  130 Security Service Archives.

  131 Churchill to Lyttelton, 2 May 1953, TNA PREM 11/827; cited by Gallagher, ‘Intelligence and Decolonisation in British Guiana’.

  132 Andrew and Mitrokhin, Mitrokhin Archive II, pp. 169–70.

  133 See below, pp. 478–9.

  134 Cabinet papers (3908), Sept. 1953, PREM 11/827; cited by Gallagher, ‘Intelligence and Decolonisation in British Guiana’.

  135 Security Service Archives.

  136 Churchill to Lyttelton, 27 Sept. 1953; Memo for the Prime Minister, 6 Oct. 1953; Savage to Lyttelton, 7 Oct. 1953; Lyttelton to Savage, 7 Oct. 1953, TNA PREM 11/827; cited by Gallagher, ‘Intelligence and Decolonisation in British Guiana’.

  137 Annual Register, 1953, pp. 125–6.

  138 See below, p. 480.

  139 Security Service Archives.

  140 See below, pp. 479–80.

  141 See below, pp. 478–9.

  Chapter 8: The End of Empire: Part 2

  1 Security Service Archives.

  2 Security Service Archives.

  3 Security Service Archives.

  4 Security Service Archives.

  5 Aldrich, Hidden Hand, pp. 571, 579.

  6 Security Service Archives.

  7 Aldrich, Hidden Hand, pp. 572–3.

  8 Ibid., p. 574.

  9 Security Service Archives.

  10 Aldrich, Hidden Hand, p. 575.

  11 Security Service Archives.

  12 Horne, Macmillan, vol. 2, p. 100.

  13 Security Service Archives. Magan’s terms of reference, approved 16 Oct. 1958, were as follows: ‘Brigadier Magan is accredited to the Governor of Cyprus under whose authority he will apply himself, in close association with the Cyprus intelligence authorities, especially to those aspects of intelligence best calculated to assist in the capture of Grivas and his principal assistants. The duration of the appointment will not exceed six months.’

  14 Security Service Archives.

  15 Security Service Archives.

  16 The final version of Bill Magan’s 57-page personality profile of Grivas, dated 11 March 1959, was ‘written in the last week of EOKA’s existence’. Security Service Archives. Sir Hugh Foot wrote after Magan’s departure: ‘All of us here were tremendously impressed with the way he tackled the job, spending long hours going over all the documents and all the evidence and gradually piecing together a picture of Grivas and his character and abilities and his weaknesses, and then putting in hand several courses of action . . .’ Security Service Archives.

  17 The Colonial Secretary Lennox Boyd (succeeded in 1959 by Iain Macleod), cited by Brendon, Decline and Fall of the British Empire, p. 565.

  18 Aldrich, Hidden Hand, pp. 577–8.

  19 Security Service Archives.

  20 Horne, Macmillan, vol. 2, p. 103.

  21 Security Service Archives.

  22 Security Service Archives.

  23 Security Service Archives.

  24 Security Service Archives.

  25 Security Service Archives.

  26 Edgerton, Mau Mau, ch. 7.

  27 Security Service Archives.

  28 Security Service Archives.

  29 Walter Bell, who had served in Nairobi previously as assistant SLO 1949–50 and as SLO in 1950–51, returned to Nairobi as SLO in June 1961.

  30 DG (Hollis), Note, 11 Oct. 1963, enclosed with J. A. Harrison (Security Service) to J. N. A. Armitage-Smith (Colonial Office), 17 Oct. 1963, TNA CO 1035/171, s. 8.

  31 Horne, Macmillan, vol. 2, pp. 389–90.

  32 Security Service Archives.

  33 See above, p. 454.

  34 Kellar to W. S. Bates (CAO), 5 Sept. 1962, TNA DO 183/480, no. 1; published in Murphy and Ashton (eds), Central Africa, document 331.

  35 Murphy and Ashton (eds), Central Africa, p. 327.

  36 Security Service Archives.

  37 Security Service Archives.

  38 The SLO in New Delhi had written in 1959 that he was ‘quite closely integrated in the Political Division of the High Commission. This seems to me a sound development for which we should perhaps strive in the younger commonwealth countries . . .’ Security Service Archives.

  39 Security Service Archives.

  40 Security Service Archives.

  41 Security Service Archives.

 
42 Security Service Archives. DG (Hollis) to Sir Burke Trend (cabinet secretary), 18 Nov. 1965, TNA CO 1035/187, no serial number.

  43 Recollections of a former Security Service officer.

  44 Security Service Archives.

  45 Andrew and Mitrokhin, Mitrokhin Archive II, pp. 435, 582 n. 22. Rooney, Kwame Nkrumah, p. 226.

  46 Security Service Archives.

  47 Andrew and Mitrokhin, Mitrokhin Archive II, p. 434.

  48 Ibid., pp. 434–5. The text of Nkrumah’s letter to Johnson, dated 26 February 1964, is published in Rooney, Kwame Nkrumah, pp. 243–5.

  49 Security Service Archives. Hollis replied that he regretted that he could not extend Thomson’s tour of duty. Security Service Archives. Smedley wrote to Hollis after Thomson’s departure: ‘John Thomson’s contribution to this post has gone well beyond his work as Security Liaison Officer. His sincerity of heart and purpose and genuine liking for Ghanaians have brought him a host of friends outside his official contacts, while his knowledge of Ghana going back many years has been of great value to me and my staff here.’ Security Service Archives.

  50 Security Service Archives.

  51 Recollections of a former Security Service officer.

  52 Security Service Archives.

  53 Security Service Archives.

  54 Security Service Archives.

  55 Security Service Archives.

  56 Security Service Archives.

  57 Security Service Archives.

  58 Recollections of a former Security Service officer. The SLO later commented that, but for the Civil War, his role would have been much less important.

  59 Christopher Andrew, interview with former deputy head of Kenyan Special Branch in Sydney, NSW, 1987.

  60 Security Service Archives.

  61 Security Service Archives.

  62 Percox, Britain, Kenya and the Cold War, pp. 171–2. Edgerton, Mau Mau, pp. 227–8. KGB active measures sought to portray Kenyatta as in the pay of the CIA. Andrew and Mitrokhin, Mitrokhin Archive II, pp. 441, 584 n. 55.

  63 The main training courses then run by the Security Service were for police and administrative personnel in colonies on the verge of independence and other parts of the Commonwealth, rather than for its own staff; see above, p. 334.

  64 Security Service Archives.

  65 Recollections of a former Security Service officer.