The 1919 Mutinies & Police Strike ~ The Federated Press of America ~ The School

In months leading up to the July 1919 police strike, James Marston’s fortunes as NUPPO General-Secretary dwindled, coinciding with the rise of his successor, Sergeant Jack Hayes. The element of surprise that ensured the success of the 1918 walkout was non-existent a year later; Hayes understood another successful strike would be impossible and so pushed for a different approach. Both inside and outside police circles, many saw this as a sign of moderation. He is of singular interest both as NUPPO leader and, it turned out, as a talent-spotter, facilities agent and probable agent of influence for Moscow. In these roles, Hayes enabled the earliest known Bolshevik penetration of the British Government, leading to a scandal in 1929 that changed how Britain’s secret machinery operated.

This chapter investigates the impact of post-Armistice military and police unrest on British assessments of subversion. Army mutinies, unionisation attempts in the Royal Navy (RN) and another police strike – in addition to growing industrial strife – stoked official fears of revolution. Using Hayes’s activities as a convenient link, this chapter concludes by re-visiting the 1 November 1919 establishment of GCCS, the peacetime cryptographic successor to the Admiralty’s Naval Intelligence Division (NID) 25 (better known as Room 40) and the War Office’s MI1(b). At a time when telling subversive capability from intent was vital, the School proved critical; unsurprisingly, it was an early target for Bolshevik intelligence.

In a December 1918 report, only a month after the Armistice ended the war, Basil Thomson stated revolutionary feeling was at its highest ever in Britain. Yet a few lines later, he explained how the suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst acknowledged in an intercepted letter ‘the working man’s interest in Bolshevism was flagging. …