Intelligence

MacDiarmid was Soviet secret agent (or so MI5 reckoned)

The Scotsman - Top Stories - MacDiarmid was Soviet secret agent (or so MI5 reckoned)

NATIONAL ARCHIVES

STEPHEN MCGINTY

HUGH MacDiarmid, Scotland's greatest 20th century poet, was the subject of covert surveillance by MI5, who considered the author of A Drunk Man Looks At The Thistle to be a potential threat to the security of the British nation.

Declassified files from MI5 and Special Branch, released to the National Archives in Kew, reveal that there was a debate among the authorities over whether MacDiarmid, who died in 1978, should be arrested.

The files, which cover the years 1932 to 1943, tell how MacDiarmid, whose real name was Christopher Murray Grieve, was closely monitored by the security services because of his strong Scottish nationalism and his brief membership of the Communist Party, amid fears he may have been a spy.

The files, which cover the years 1932 to 1943, tell how MacDiarmid, whose real name was Christopher Murray Grieve, was closely monitored by the security services because of his strong Scottish nationalism and his brief membership of the Communist Party, amid fears he may have been a spy.

Informers briefed both MI5 and Special Branch about private meetings he attended and public talks he gave, while personal letters between the poet and his wife and friends were routinely copied and their contents analysed to see if he could be a danger to the state.

"This man is a menace," wrote one army major, while an informer wrote of MacDiarmid and his second wife, Valda Trevlyn: "This man and his wife are dangerous to the state."

Today, MacDiarmid is considered a giant of 20th century poetry, comparable to TS Eliot and WB Yeats.

But in the 1930s and early 1940s, he was a struggling writer and political activist.

He first attracted the attention of the security services in 1932 when John Summerfield, the novelist, attended a meeting of communists in the Three Tuns pub in London's Fleet Street and suggested that the party contact MacDiarmid, "who was known to him as a communist".

An informer then attended a meeting of the National Party of Scotland, where MacDiarmid was quoted as saying: "It is time that we in Scotland put England in its proper place. We should lean and turn to Europe, for it is there that our future prosperity lies."

He then went on to state that the Border did not end at the Cheviots, but that Lancashire was its rightful boundary. This would make Scotland the "richest and biggest" commercial centre in the British Isles and that London would "wither and die".

He further advocated a Celtic Union between Scotland, Ireland, Wales and the Isle of Man.

The security services also obtained a letter from what they described as the "inner circle" of Scottish nationalism, which described MacDiarmid as "dishonest and fond of drink".

MacDiarmid, his wife and young son, Michael, moved from London to the island of Whalsay, Shetland. In 1940 MacDiarmid organised a meeting to try and interest the local men in the workers' struggle.

News of the meeting reached a Sergeant R Stuart Bruce, who wrote to the home secretary: "This man and his wife are dangerous to the state, and should be prevented from tampering with the loyalty of young men called to the colours."

As a result, two plainclothes officers were sent to the island to investigate. They were told that he was "in no way dangerous" but that his wife had made outspoken comments such as: "I would like to cut the Queen's throat." This, however, was dismissed as a "foolish remark".

Writer Carl MacDougall, presenter of the BBC programme Writing Scotland and a friend of the poet, said yesterday that he was surprised by the revelations. "I find it reassuring that a poet can be considered a danger to the country, that the act of writing could be threatening to the guardians of our establishment," he added.

Downing Street cat 'wore a swastika'

THE German government utilised fake newspapers, bizarre recipes and even suggested the Downing Street cat wore a swastika round its neck in an attempt to demoralise the British people, according to secret files released yesterday.

Propaganda experts smuggled a variety of printed material into Britain in an attempt to depress the population and sow seeds of distrust towards the government of Winston Churchill.

The MI5 documents released to the National Archives show that the Germans attempted to lay the blame for the Second World War on "British warmongers". They also claimed the government was covering up just how badly the Allies were faring.

A fake copy of the Evening Standard newspaper dated 17 February, 1940 is headlined: "The massacre of the RAF: secret session of Parliament demanded".

The front page reads: "Despite the hush-hush tactics on the part of our defence chief the true facts of the air war situation are gradually leaking out. Our airforce has not only lost a perturbing number of its most up-to-date bombers and fighters, but a far higher percentage of its crack flyers than has been admitted."

In a more bizarre approach, the Germans attempted to play on the issue of rationing by insisting that the public would have to eat frogs.

One section headed "Economy recipes" claimed a French culinary expert, Monsieur Boulestin, had come up with a solution to the British breakfast. "There are billions of frogs, of considerable size, hopping merrily round the British Isles. Their vitality should be harnessed."

Another section reported that the Downing Street black cat had been seen wearing a swastika round its neck.

And a pamphlet called "Pick me up" contained a fake report claiming to be a secret statement by Prime Minister Winston Churchill to MPs stating: "There is no genuine hatred against Herr Hitler."

Hitler's secret weapon: the exploding chocolate bar

GERMAN saboteurs plotted to use exploding bars of chocolate to cause mayhem during the Second World War.

The Nazis also designed bombs to be disguised as tins of English plums, throat pastilles and shaving brushes, and even planned to stuff dead rats with explosives.

The "slab of chocolate" hand grenade is illustrated in the documents released to the National Archives in Kew, together with an explanation of how it would blow up seconds after unwitting Britons snapped a piece off.

"The bomb is made of steel with a thin covering of real chocolate," the note says.

"When the piece of chocolate at the end is broken off, the canvas shown is pulled, and after a delay of seven seconds the bomb explodes."

Photographs released include a diagram showing how a tin of processed peas could be turned into a bomb.

A three-man team were captured after they landed on the south-west coast of Ireland in July 1940 and interned by the Irish authorities.

They were carrying three or four metal boxes of explosives, including a number of tins labelled "Prepared French Peas" containing small slabs of nitro-cellulose.

An informer who was held with them in prison told the authorities they had been heading for England to "blow up Buckingham Palace".

MI5, which was in close contact with the Irish authorities, was however sceptical.

"This seems a little fantastic, when it is known that the explosive materials in their possession were of the most primitive kind," it said.

INVISIBLE CRYSTALS FOILED SPY

A NAZI double agent who parachuted into Scotland on a secret mission was foiled when invisible ink crystals were found hidden in his rotten tooth, according to MI5 files made public yesterday. Nicolay Hansen, a Norwegian, landed at night near Fraserburgh in September 1943, wearing civilian clothes and a boiler- suit, after being instructed to relay secret messages about the movement of British convoys.

He was detained until the end of the war, but was never charged.

September 5, 2005 at 01:01 AM in KGB | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home