Today -100: October 25, 1924: Of crude forgeries, taxes, and exclusions

Headline of the Day -100: 

This is the “Zinoviev Letter” (full text), which is purported to be a directive from Grigori Zinoviev, the head of the Comintern, to the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), instructing it to stir up shit to put pressure on the government to ratify the trade agreement with Russia. Britain complains to Moscow. The British Secret Service (SIS) has strategically leaked the Letter to the Conservative Party, which in turn has leaked it to the Daily Mail 4 days before the general election. The Russian chargé d’affaires in London calls it a “crude forgery” and says even if it’s real Russia can hardly be held responsible for the actions of the Communist International. The Letter is indeed a forgery. It’s not very different from the sort of exhortations the Comintern routinely sends out, but the start of negotiations in April was accompanied by a moratorium on stirring shit up in Britain. Also, Zinoviev wasn’t in Moscow when he supposedly sent this letter. The CPGB claims never to have received the letter, and there is no evidence now, much less 1924, that it did. The probable source of the Letter is Vladimir Orlov, a tsarist exile and supplier of fake documents to the SIS and others from his forgery factory in Riga.

The British protest was sent by the Foreign Office “in the absence of the Secretary of State,” who happens to also be Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald. He was off campaigning and did not authorize it. Deep State working against Labour? Simple mistake? The FO released the protest to the press less than 3 hours after handing it to the Russian embassy and without telling MacDonald.

The IRS makes tax payments open to public inspection, though local offices are obstructing release of the information to a greater or lesser degree. The Justice Dept confuses the situation further by asserting that publication of such information by newspapers is a crime. Nevertheless, the NYT publishes the tax paid by rich New Yorkers (plus Chicagohoovians, Angelinos, etc), noting that city and state government officials’ income is exempt from federal taxes, so their names won’t appear. Every businessman, banker etc is checking the lists already published to see if their name and tax payments have been released. Coolidge paid $6,643, John W. Davis over $84,000.

Corneliu Codreanu, head of Romania’s fascist Iron Guard, assassinates Constantin Manciu, the Jassy police chief. The story doesn’t seem to make it into the NYT, whose sole story from Romania in this period informs us that the country is adopting the metric system (spoiler alert). Codreanu will be acquitted after arguing that he shot Manciu – in the back – in self defense.

Northern Ireland arrests Éamon de Valera for... coming to Northern Ireland. In violation of an exclusion order. Specifically to Newry, where he came to speak to “my constituents” (he was elected to the UK Parliament in County Down in 1921 but didn’t take his seat) in favor of a Republican candidate.

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