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File ref KV 3/327-332
These six reconstituted files on revolutionary propaganda in the UK in the inter-war years concentrate on Communist revolutionary propaganda activity, and related (mainly anti-war) movements. They include correspondence, lists of activists or suspected activists, and examples of propaganda material and instructions as to its use. As a whole the files provide an insight into the Security Service's monitoring of propaganda activity and the methods used.
KV 3/327 (1919-1927) includes at minute 55a the statement (of October 1926): "Attached may interest you. The original was 'borrowed' from INKPIN's despatch case at the termination of the 8th Annual Congress of the Communist Party last weekend" - to which comes the reply "The material is interesting but the method of obtaining it more so." The material in question is no longer on the file.
KV 3/328 (1927-1929) includes in the minutes traces of activity related to the Zinoviev letter in March 1928, four years after the letter's appearance, related to propaganda activity at the time. The papers to which these minutes refer have been removed to another Security Service SF series file, which has not yet been transferred to The National Archives.
There is an example of an anti-war pamphlet at serial 176a (KV 3/329, 1929).
KV 3/330 (1930) records in the minutes that a decision was taken to comb the waste paper removed from the headquarters of the Communist Party in King Street by the Westminster City Council to obtain information. The note that the move was being considered in July 1930 is at minute 244, and the record that arrangements were being made to collect and examine the waste for a one week trial period is at minute 247. This file also includes notes on the activities of various London Communist Party branches (serial 188a).
File ref KV 3/334-339
This release of Security Service records contains an interesting collection of reconstituted files detailing the activities of Communists and suspected Communists in the Royal Navy dockyards, complementing the files on sabotage included in the last set of released records. There are four files that focus on Communism at Chatham dockyard, starting in 1931 after a Naval Intelligence Division (NID) report to the Service about how unsatisfactory the security conditions at Chatham were. In particular NID disagreed with the local assessment that "Communism has very little foothold in Chatham Dockyard". (KV 3/334, 1931-1934).
The files contain reports, from various sources, of suspected or actual Communist activity, focused mainly on meetings, leaflets and propaganda, and include lists of Chatham communists. There is a 1935 report on general employment and security procedures at Chatham at serial 91a (KV 3/335, 1934-1935), and correspondence on attempts to remove Communists from employment in the yard later that year at serial 148a. Similar material in KV 3/336 (1935-1940) is supplemented by papers on Fascist activity in the yard, too.
The period to the end of the war and beyond is covered in less detail in KV 3/337 (1941-1953), but this does include at serial 253a a report of a meeting of dockyard apprentices discussing a strike in December 1941 compiled by Kent Constabulary PC Ivan Smith from a position concealed in the lavatory in the hall where the meeting was held. His hiding place prevented him from catching all the details of the meeting, and he was forced to remain concealed for several hours. There is also a report of the strike.
Two further reconstituted files contain case details and press cuttings relating to five dockyard workers dismissed on the grounds of sabotage in 1937, four from Plymouth Devonport, one from Sheerness (KV 3/338-339, 1937). The files include reports of reactions to the dismissals in other naval dockyards around the country.