Percy Glading

Indian expedition

First edition cover of Glading's 1931 India Under British Terror.

In 1925 Glading was the first member of the CPGB to travel to India^[3]—under the pseudonym Robert Cochrane^{[3][note 5]}—as part of the traditional CPGB policy of promoting revolution in Britain's colonies.^{[41][note 6]} Arriving on 30 January, he visited various cities^[43] and met individuals who were later to be central to the Meerut Conspiracy Case.^[3] This occurred in 1929 when a number of Indian men—all members of the Communist Party of India, then an illegal organisation—were arrested and tried for organising a railway strike the in 1925.^[44] They were charged with conspiring to form a branch of the Comintern in India and overthrow the government. Glading, says Robinson, "saw this as a violation of fundamental civil liberties"—particularly as the group had to wait over two years to even be brought to trial—and "the final justification for the eventual overthrow of the ruling class" in India.^[45] Glading had been arrested along with M. N. Roy (a "paid Comintern agitator") and fifty-six other men, but, there being insufficient evidence to hold him, Glading was released. The Indians were less successful, and had to wait three or four years before their case even came up.^[18] Roy, has been suggested, both opposed Glading's expedition and had been "irritated" by it, as he believed that the CPGB had been opening and reading the letters they had promised to pass to Roy.^[46]

Glading's original purpose in India, on behalf of the CPGB, was seeking to forge links with Roy as well as to study Indian working conditions specifically and to more generally promote the Communist Party.^{[31][note 7]} Glading was, it appears, unimpressed by the efforts of the Indian Communist Party to organise the workers.^[47] Indian Political Intelligence noted that Glading had particularly focussed his attention on "shipyards, munitions works, dockyards and arsenals where Strike Committees or "Red Cells" existed."^{[1][note 8]} Dutt, in Glading's 1970 obituary, reported that Glading was eventually "deported under the authority of the Viceroy."^[4] Covert journeys to India such as these were common for the CPGB during this period. Pollitt was to persuade Olga Gray to make such a trip in 1934^[48] in order to transfer funds from Glading to the Indian communist movement.^[49] She left England on 11 June 1934, and met Glading in Paris to receive the money and instructions.^[2] On her return, Glading obtained for Gray employment as Pollitt's secretary.^[6]

Return from India

Based on his experiences in India, Glading wrote articles for The Labour Monthly and produced two books: India Under British terror in 1931, and The Meerut Conspiracy case two years later. The first he self-published, but the second was published by the CPGB.^[51]

Glading left India on 10 April 1925.^[43] He returned to Britain by way of Amsterdam, where, in July 1925, he presented the results of his studies to a communist conference that was taking place.^[31] R.W. Robson later reported how

On Saturday morning I met two trains arriving from Flushing, expecting to intercept Glading and others who were to be present at the Conference, but as they did not arrive I again visited the contact address and discovered that Glading, Dutt and Uphadyaya were already there, having arrived by an early train and gone to the meeting place immediately.^[27]

Also attending the conference were M. N. Roy and his wife, Henk Sneevliet, Gertrude Hessler, N. J. Uphadayaya, Clemens Dutt and R. W. Robson, also of the CPGB.^[52] Glading reported that "no Indian Communist groups existed at all,"^[43] and that those he had met "were useless."^[27] Roy disputed this. He claimed that Glading had not encountered any Indian communists because they were unsure whether to make themselves known to him.^[53] Either way, Glading had clearly found a communications problem between Indian communists and those aiding the movement from the outside.^{[54][note 9]}

Recruitment by Moscow

Letter of 20 December 1933 from the Postmaster General authorising the interception of Percy Glading's mail.

MI5 believed that it was in the mid-1930s that Glading turned his attention from "domestic subversion to international espionage."^[75] The KGB's own files (file number837) states that he had been recruited by June 1934 by Ignaty Reif.^[76] He may have felt, as others did, that to be a "good communist" one should "carry out intelligence work which strengthened the USSR."^[77] Either way, the first indication that Glading was shifting his focus came in 1936 when he resigned from the CPGB.^{[note 16]} Like Glading, all his agents were either present or ex-members of the CPGB. Whereas his agents were mostly employed, Glading was not; not only did he not have a cover story, but he never organised one.^[78] John Curry, in the official history of MI5, notes that Glading—indeed, all Soviet CPGB recruits—effectively ceased all party activity from the point that they were recruited.^[79] These were effectively "fake resignations" (and, indeed, were described as such later by Pollitt himself, who was almost certainly aware of Glading's espionage career).^[12] The Soviets gave him the codename "GOT," and named their "G" Group—based in Copenhagen—after him.^[80] It seems likely, says David Burke, that the Woolwich spy ring was originally created by the NKVD in order to gain possession of a top-secret large naval gun that the Arsenal was believed to be researching.^[81] Glading had been informed of these plans—of which only five copies were ever made—at some time in 1935 by contacts in the War Office and Admiralty:^{[note 17]} He was to be both "well-informed about its arrival [at Woolwich] and prompt in obtaining it."^{[83][note 18]}

Glading was the subject of frequent covert surveillance operations. On one such occasion in July 1936, he was observed at Cambridge Circus meeting up with Charles Moody.^{[note 19]} Much of Glading's operation at this would have been concerned with the deadlock at the Montreux Convention, which saw Britain, France, Italy and Russia deadlock dispute proposed access to the Black Sea with Turkey. At the same time, a faction within the government led by Sir Samuel Hoare was urging for swift British re-armament, and claiming that Russian re-armament made the Royal Navy look a "mere bagatelle." Doubtless, says Davenport-Hines, Glading and Moody (who "repaired to a public house") found much to discuss in the "implicit threats to Soviet security being revealed at Montreux and Southampton."^[85] Also in 1936, Glading vouchsafed for Maly and Deutsch to Klugman.^{[note 20]}. The latter was in Paris and was requested to travel to England to assist in their mission to recruit the Foreign Office civil servant John Cairncross. But Klugman refused to meet them, says Davenport-Hines, "until they had been endorsed by a CPGB member whom he trusted." Glading did so, and Cairncross was soon recruited.^[89]

It was not for "several years" years before Gray discovered his spying, however.^[31] Glading maintained a network of contacts from when he worked at the Arsenal,^[79] such as George Whomack (an assistant foreman of the Works),^[90] Charles Munday (an assistant chemist at the Royal Arsenal),^[33] and Albert Williams (an examiner in the Inspectorate of Armaments Department)^{[91][note 21]} all of whom later provided Glading with secret material and blueprints.^[93] Glading's group was one of two active in England in the early 1930s; little is known of the other but it is thought to have been associated—as Glading himself had been—around the Russian Oil Products front.^[94]

In January 1937, after Maly's recall, Glading was summoned to meet Maly's successor as controller of the Royal Arsenal ring. This was Mikhail Borovoy, a member of the OGPU's Technical Section, who, with his wife were travelling under false Canadian passports (as Willy and Mary Brandes) and had arrived in London in October 1937. They lived in Forset Court off the Edgware Road.^[95] With Maly the Soviets' resident spy, the Brandes' were to act independently of the rezidentura and deal specifically with the Soviets' special assets: the Cambridge (and, to a lesser extent, Oxford) spy ring.^[93] To Glading they went under the names "Mr and Mrs Stevens," but they only stayed in London a few weeks before making their way to Paris. In that time, Glading met them at Forset court, itself, says William Duff, a "highly unusual step," but essential in assessing the material Glading expected to collect and the resources he needed to do so.^{[93][note 22]} They also met Glading's agent within Royal Arsenal, George Whomack, and photographed some secret documents in the Holland Road safe house.^[97] Glading and the Stevens also received blueprints from George Whomack in Hyde Park.^[33] Mrs Stevens, who was travelling in the guise of a photographer for a furniture company, assisted with the photography during their stay.^[98] It was immediately after Glading met the Brandes that he instructed Olga Gray to find a suitable flat or apartment (for example, he specified that there should be no porter to espy their comrades' comings and goings).^{[93][note 23]} Glading's operation at Woolwich consisted of George Whomack smuggling out blueprints at the end of a late shift—past military police guards—on the day the document had been released to the arsenal.^[81] Around this time Glading told Gray that he was "doing hardly any work for the party now, it is mostly for other people."^[100]

82 Holland Road

The MI5 mole, Olga Gray—whom Glading had first encountered when she joined the LAI in 1932^[16]——had assisted Glading in his purchase of the ground-floor flat at 82, Holland Road, West London, in 1937;^{[102][note 24]} It is likely that MI5 enabled the sale.^[93] The CPGB paid Glading the flat's annual £100 annual rent^[48] (equivalent to £5,922 in 2016), and he paid Gray the monthly instalments to settle herself.^[104] Glading also provided £60 to buy furniture on hire purchase, including a gateleg table for their large-scale photography work.^[105] Three sets of keys were cut, of which Glading kept two.^[104] During Glading's later prosecution she described some of the activities that went on. The team focussed on photography^[106]—which Glading told her was of "a very secret nature"^[105]—and began extensive testing (on local bus maps) with home-made cameras in order to make the end product as clear to their Russian recipients as possible.^[106] Glading clearly saw Gray as a valuable member of his team: in May 1937, Glading suggested she give up her job, take a professional photography course, and work for him in the flat full-time.^[107] For doing this, he offered to make up her salary to five pounds a week;^{[108][note 25]} Gray accepted, although she was worried that she knew far too little of photography to be of much use; Glading reassured her.^[105] He also paid for her to take a holiday^[90] which she took at the end of June.^[105] Gray was expected to reside at the flat, and Glading promised her that he would only arrive by appointment. On 11 October 1937, Glading instructed Gray to replace the gateleg table with a refectory table[104][104][104] as the former had turned out not to be strong enough to bear the weight of the equipment. In the event, Glading bought one himself from Maple & Co. four days later, and it was installed on the 17th.^[100]

During their tenure in London, the Stevens were regular visitors to the flat. Mrs Stevens assisted with the photography.^[33] Gray met other acquaintances of Glading's at the flat.^[108] In April the same year, for example, Mr Peters, whom Glading described as "an Austrian who had served during the War in the Russian cavalry."^[108] Peters was accompanied by a colleague; both men were later identified as Theodore Maly and Arnold Deutsch. Glading had brought Peters brought to the flat vet her. Glading, Gray later said, found Deutsch an unpleasant individual; Glading told her that he had to tolerate Deutsch "for business reasons."^[108] Deutsch had been running the English network of spies since February 1934, and Glading began introducing other people to Deutsch for recruitment (in one case, a father, swiftly followed by his son).^[112] Throughout this time, says Duff, the flat was under "sporadic" observation by the secret service; occasionally he would spend hours in the flats, sometimes as little as twenty minutes, often, even if he had arrived with her, leaving Gray behind there.^[104] Gray's instructions were to take the photographs and develop them, but not to print the negatives.^[105]

John Curry's Official History of MI5 describes how Glading would receive various important blueprints which he would photograph^[79] at Holland Road,^[113] and return the same night.^[79] The Holland Road safe house was later found to contain a camera, aircraft bomb plans, and even an anti-tank mine.^[72] Glading did not live far from the safe house; he had brought a "salubrious" new build in South Harrow^{[note 26]}

Photographic work

The right-hand door is number 82, Holland Road, W14; the ground floor flat was Glading and Gray's safe-house.

In November 1937 the Brandes^[113] were recalled to Moscow, supposedly for family reasons.^{[note 27]} By now, Glading was "running out of money and patience."^{[113][note 28]} Glading told Gray on 17 January that he would be reduced to borrowing money to fund the operation, "if something did not happen within a week or so."^[116] until their replacements arrived, Glading could not send any of the material which his agents had passed to him since the departure of the Brandes. As for money, Brandes had left him with the best part of £300 to finance operations with before he left. But this had to run out at some point,^[117] especially as Glading had been instructed to purchase gifts for all his agents and contacts, presumably as a means of keeping them in touch. This further irritated Glading, as this was a large number of people, many of whom he already considered as little more than mercenaries. Glading had also been instructed to take at least one of them out for lunch—"a fine figure of a woman," he told Gray, "who had done her best to impress him with her beauty, without success"—and whom he hated. Glading took such a dim view of her—and of his having to reward her—because, as he put it, she only did "about one job in five years," but could not be ignored as she "knew enough to be nasty."^[118]

Glading, said Gray later, was becoming anxious; work seemed to have dried up after the naval gun affair.^[90] On at least one occasion around this time, said Gray later, Glading arrived at the flat drunk and jittery. She also reported his detached attitude towards the recall—and presumed execution—of their controllers. "These blokes," Glading had observed to her, "live on a volcano the whole time they are over here, and when they do go home you do not know if they will ever come back."^[83] Also, she said, Glading was keen to "continue to practice with the photographic apparatus in order to perfect their technique as he did not like being dependent on the vagaries of foreigners."^[81] It was his lack of trust in Brandes' competence that led him to place so much reliance on Gray's newly-learned skills.^[90]

Glading was probably attempting to keep the cell operating under his own aegis. Yet some of Gray's report suggests that his approach to such specialised work bordered on the absurd. The reason he gave her for wanting to take the camera from Holland Road to South Harrow, said Gray, was that his own camera was the wrong size for the stand, and he had had to balance it "on a pile of books."^{[81][note 29]}

Glading's operations within the Arsenal were extremely risky, due to its high-security status. But he no longer had the Russians supporting him and this—combined with his own impatience—increased his chances of capture.^[113] Robinson has described him as "somewhat of an over-zealous renegade who, at times, needed to be reined in by his superiors."^[119] This the CPGB seem to have attempted. In November 1937, the Secretariat wrote to him asking him to reconsider his earlier resignation and re-join the party "of which you were such an active member." Burke suggests that, far from being a solicitous invitation to reconnect with old comrades in struggle, it was "little more than an instruction to sever connections with the 'secret' party and to re-join the 'open' party."^[81]

By the end of 1937, a provisional case against Glading had been established. MI5 knew of Glading's interest in the fourteen-inch heavy naval gun that was now in production at the Royal Arsenal. MI5 knew Whomack was removing the blueprints for it and bringing them to Holland Road for copying.^[120] The copying was done by Stevens in 42 exposures on the evening of 21 October 1937,^[98] and then the blueprint was returned over night^[120] or the next day. Although the men could be searched by the Arsenal's security on entry, even the simple expedient of folding the plans between a folded-up newspaper was sufficient to avoid detection on at least one occasion.^[78] Olga Gray, says Davenport-Hines, brewed a pot of tea for the group "while the films were hung in the bathroom to dry."^[98] Gray was later able—by standing on the edge of the bath—to surreptitiously note down the serial numbers of the pieces of blueprint.^[121] In November, Glading removed the camera to his own house in South Harrow. The following January, Glading informed Gray he had a major operation coming up. This was the copying, not just of a blueprint, but a 200-page manual. For this purpose, the security services laid on extra watchers at Glading's house, where the work was to take place. It began on 15 January; it must have been completed overnight, as the following day, Glading was observed taking a package to Charing Cross station. Meeting another man in the public lavatory, they adjourned to a nearby restaurant where the handover took place. The other man was Charles Munday.^[120]

Capture

The station yard at Charing Cross where Glading and Whomack were finally arrested, as seen in 2007.

Olga Gray was, after a seven-year operation, almost personally responsible for Glading's eventually arrest.^[31] On 20 January he telephoned Gray at the safe house, requesting her to meet him the next day.^[116] Glading took Gray out to lunch at the Windsor Castle bar^[91] to discuss a "significant" operation he had planned for 82 Holland Road that same night. He had brought a suitcase with him; she was to be at the safe house by 6 PM. William Duff quotes Glading as telling Gray that Glading had "got the stuff parked all over London"^[120]—negatives of blueprints he kept at various locations^[91]—and that he mentioned a pre-arranged meeting with someone that evening, again at Charing Cross. This was the cue the security services had been waiting for.^[120] Gray telephoned MI5 and duly reported what Glading had told her.^[116]

That evening, 21 January 1938, Glading was tailed to the station yard.^[122] MI5 did not have the necessary statutory powers to perform arrests, and had briefed Special Branch to so.^[120] This took place almost immediately Inspector Thomas Thompson (of the Special Branch) observed Glading receive an envelope which was later discovered to contain blueprints. This Glading—"with no alibi"—was in no position to explain.^[123] The suitcase he was in possession with was also found to have a false bottom; it was thought that this was the means by which plans were smuggled out of the Arsenal.^[124] The man he received it from—Albert Williams—was also arrested.^[125] The envelope was found to contain a blueprint of some pressurized machinery under development at the Arsenal.^[33] When the police searched Williams' flat, photographic equipment was found.^[33] Whomack, who lived in East London, was arrested the following week.^[72] Williams for one believed that their capture was mainly due to Glading's recklessness which led him to take insufficient precautions, thus endangering them all.^[119]

Glading and Williams were taken to Scotland Yard, where the package they had been caught exchanging was opened in front of them: it contained four blueprints for a pressure-bar apparatus.^[126] Glading and his companions were charged under Section 1, sub-section C of the 1911 Official Secrets Act.^[31][127] A search of Glading's home revealed cameras, exposures of blueprints,^[29] and on a spool of film, a copy of a 1925 military textbook on explosives.^[122] Also found was a diary. This—"cryptic, though decipherable"—revealed that, perhaps as Williams had feared, Glading was "less than thorough" in his tradecraft. One diary entry the secret service was unable to crack made a reference to Melita Sirnis, a fellow NKVD agent who later revealed British nuclear secrets to the Soviets.^{[29][note 30]} Glading's diary listed not only her name, but her family home in Hampstead.^[130] Another made reference to Edith Tudor-Hart.^[110] Also found was photographic film of a book called Manual of Explosives, and also a blueprint of a new aircraft design.^[33] Although Glading had been careful to wear gloves whenever he used the camera at Holland Road, he had slipped up once when he changed a lightbulb: this was all that the police needed. This was found by Chief Inspector Birch of Scotland Yard, who later "melodramatically described to the press how, using his "powerful little microscope," he found a clear impression of Glading's "nasty little fingers"."^[122]

Imprisoned before trial, it is possible that he confessed his leading role in the organisation to a fellow inmate, although doubt has been cast on whether the Woolwich spy ring was ever big enough to warrant a strict hierarchy of its own.^[119]

Olga Gray, although she was able to give her evidence at Glading's trial anonymously, had been "terrified" at the prospect. It has been argued that, at this point, "the reality of her role struck home: that she had effectively destroyed a man who had trusted her implicitly and of whom she had become extremely fond."^[131]

Trial

The case proved to be something of a cause célèbre in both Britain and the United States. The press described the protagonists in florid terms: Gray was—supposedly—of aristocratic lineage, who "had forgotten more about courage than many soldiers ever learned on the battlefield." Glading meanwhile, was made out to be "dark, distinguished, suave...a reader of poetry and a dreamer of revolt under high scarlet banners."^[133]

Hearings began in late January and continued into March 1938, some of which were held in camera for security reasons. This excluded the press.^[125] The CPGB, through the Daily Worker, "remained tongue-tied" over it: "only a sanitised report, of the trial, devoid of comment appeared in the paper"^[12] on 13 March.^{[134][note 31]}

What was reported, however, had the side effect of drawing the general public's attention towards the whole issue of Soviet espionage. On day two of Glading's trial, for example, a welder who had seen anti-fascist agitator Geoffrey Pyke in the AEU offices (and "in very frequent communication with Glading") went to the police with what he knew. This in turn then distracted MI5's attention to Pyke, whom for a time they believed to be the "Mr Stevens" who visited Holland Road. Although politically to the left, Pyke would within a few years be a significant figure in Britain's black ops and propaganda divisions against Nazi Germany. Later that same March, an insurance broker, who had also visited Pyke at AEU headquarters reported similar suspicions to the police. Both men had been prompted by Glading's capture and trial to make their accusations.^[135]

Glading was the only defendant to be charged on all five counts. With Whomack, Glading was charged with possessing a naval plan; with Williams, obtaining an anti-tank mine pistol and of procuring information of use to an enemy^[133] (although exactly which of Britain's enemies was never made clear, being only referred to as a "foreign power"); with Munday, Glading was charged with obtaining information on explosives.^[133] The Soviet Union was never overtly named during the trial, although the reportage made it clear that they were almost certainly the culprits.^[125] Other charges facing him were possession of an anti-tank mine pistol, obtaining plans for a submarine mine fuse, and other plans "calculated to be useful to an enemy." Ironically, in case anyone was in any doubt as to the importance placed upon the naval gun, the Attorney General, questioned by the Judge, emphasised its significance in open court.^[127]

Glading's Old Bailey trial^[136] took place only two months after his arrest; this, says Robinson, is testament to how "clear-cut" the case against him was.^[72] The evidence presented included "a mass of incriminating documents and photographic material."^[10] Glading plead guilty.^[137] His solicitors, instructed by the CPGB, were Denis Pritt, leading, and assisted by Dudley Collard.^{[138][note 32]} They—at the CPGB's request—advised him to change his plea to Not Guilty; this Glading did.^[139] But they presented little evidence in his favour and carried out only minimal cross-examination.^[72] This was at least partially due to the professional behaviour of the Crown's main witness, Olga Gray. A defence barrister later conceded that meant they were unable to raise doubt or question her credibility.^[140] This was in stark contrast to the prosecution, which consisted of some of the most well-known advocates of the day, led by Donald Somervell,^{[note 33][72]} Pritt's defence of Whomack was more energetic, and he lambasted the Official Secrets Act as making it "far too easy to be charged for misdemeanour merely by wandering too close to a dockyard" or anywhere else such secret plans were kept.^[72]

The trial judge, Sir Anthony Hawke, told the accused that Glading was "endeavouring to do anything [he] could to help another country and injure this. This is [his] own country but I cannot quite believe that this had any effect on your mind."^[133] The judge wondered whether, as perhaps evinced by Glading's prosperous existence, Glading might have profited financially from his work with Moscow, and that he was money- rather than ideologically-motivated.^[142] Whatever motive, the outcome was never in doubt. On 14 March 1938,^[107] Glading received a sentence of six years imprisonment^[125] (hard labour),^[143] Williams to four, Whomack to three. Munday's charges were withdrawn by the prosecution; it is possible, argues Duff, that this was the result of his doing a deal with MI5 to turn king's evidence and reveal the tradecraft of Glading's operation at the Royal Arsenal.^[125] Even the others, comments MI5's official historian, received "light sentences by the later standards of espionage trials."^[10] This may well have been quid pro quo for pleading guilty and avoiding the need for a full prosecution.^[144]

Later life

Glading had been "deeply shocked" to learn that Gray was really an MI5 mole.^[156] He spent his imprisonment in Maidstone Gaol (Whomack and Williams were sent to Parkhust).^[133] On at least one occasion Glading was visited by Jane Sissmore, MI5's chief debriefing officer.^[138] She was particularly interested in information that Glading possessed that may have helped prove or deny what she was learning from her then-ongoing debriefing of Walter Krivitsky. Guy Liddell, a colleague of Sissimore's in the secret service, later wrote in his diary entry for 13 October 1939:

When interviewed Glading was rather stuffy at first but gradually, under a great deal of flattery, his own conceit got the better of him. The conversation developed on professional lines and in the end, Glading even softened towards "Miss X", when he realised that he had placed her in a very difficult position. His real grievance was with Special Branch in producing the porter at Fawcett [sic] Court who swore that Glading had visited Brandes' flat. This he said was a lie. Otherwise, he regarded the whole business as a fair cop.

He did not say anything very useful..."^[157]

— Diaries, 1939–42, Guy Liddell

MI5 disagreed with the trial judge's suggestion that Glading was motivated by money. Maxwell Knight concluded that he was clearly ideologically driven, although one who "bafflingly" had an aversion to foreigners.^[133]

Little is known of Glading's life or career after his release from prison. He had become estranged from his wife at some point before his trial.^[133] Nigel West has stated that he was "stripped of his CPGB membership"^[132] and moved to China where he later died.^[158] However, this seems to be far from the truth. He appears to have returned to party work as an industrial organiser on his release from prison in 1944.^[12] John Mahon makes a tantalising reference to Glading's wartime activity. Pollitt's diary entry of 6 July 1944 says, that Glading "has roof and windows [bombed] out, I met him for a chat. Early this year his factory was bombed out, a man from the Air Ministry congratulated him on the way he got the workers to tackle the damage and then continue work on an urgent job in the open air."^[159]

In 1951, as "Bro. P. E. Glading," he was presented with a ceremonial copy of James George Frazer's seminal work, The Golden Bough, by the North London District Committee of the Amalgamated Engineering Union. The book was signed by, among others, Jack Reid and Reg Birch.^[160] Likewise, if Glading went to China, it seems improbable that he died there, since the Labour Monthly—edited by Glading's old comrade from the 1925 Amsterdam conference—published an obituary to Glading in 1970. This stated that he had died on 15 April that year, at the age of 77, at his home in Surrey.^[4]

It is also not certain that the CPGB renounced all contact with Glading as West claims. There was clearly some distancing, but it has been suggested that "once the dust had settled," Henry Pollitt authorised "discreet relations" from the party to Glading.^[161] Certainly, Glading was—for the last few years of his life—on the editorial board of the Labour Monthly, which he contributed to pseudonomynously.^[4] His rehabilitation within the CPGB may have been partly because there was "more than a sense of a honey trap in the case"—but also, suggests Graham Stevenson, because Glading had, after all, "been Harry's best man at his wedding."^[161] Indeed, it is quite probable that West does not know what he was talking about; as Pollitt—who was writing his autobiography whilst Glading was still imprisoned— went to the trouble of acknowledging Glading as his friend.^[162] This was in spite of the fact that Pollitt was well-known to be "extremely suspicious" of spies or anything that could incriminate him in their work.^[163] Glading's obituary does, singularly, omit all mention of his spying activities, merely stating, somewhat disingenuously, that on his return from Russia, Glading "was engaged until his retiral in trade union activities."^[4]

Bibliography