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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 November 2017
The author and politician Morgan Philips Price (1885–1976) is best remembered today as a sympathetic eye-witness to the Russian Revolution and commentator on events in Soviet Russia throughout his long life. Less well known are his activities in Germany, to which he travelled in 1918 to observe the course of the November Revolution and better communicate his favourable view of Bolshevik Russia to Western Europe, and where he remained until 1924. In the summer of 1919, Price was arrested and held without trial in Berlin's Moabit prison, an incident which he later insisted was instigated by the British authorities. This article examines the extensive files on Price kept by the British security services in order to verify this interpretation of his arrest. In so doing, it will argue that a consideration of the case not only sheds light on an interesting aspect of Price's biography but also reveals much about the prevailing mind-set amongst some leading British military officers, security personnel, and politicians, and the methods by which they sought to neutralize perceived ‘revolutionary’ threats in the months after the First World War.
1 ‘Berlin and the Entente authority: arrest of a British journalist’, Manchester Guardian, 5 July 1919, p. 9.
2 ‘The imprisoned journalist: unconditional release’, Manchester Guardian, 10 July 1919, p. 7. For Price's own account of the affair, see Price, Morgan Philips, My three revolutions (London, 1969), pp. 171–3Google Scholar. See also ‘Berlin and Entente authority’, Manchester Guardian, 5 July 1919, p. 9; ‘Englishman in Berlin prison: no charge’, Manchester Guardian, 7 July 1919, p. 7; ‘Mr Price from Russia’, Times, 7 July 1919, p. 11; ‘Mr Philips Price's arrest: Bolshevist activity suspected’, Times, 8 July 1919, p. 11; ‘Mr Price released’, Times, 10 July 1919, p. 11; ‘Huns expel British writer’, Daily Mail, 7 July 1919, p. 6; ‘Pro-Red writer released’, Daily Mail, 10 July 1919, p. 6.
3 Price, My three revolutions, pp. 172–3.
4 Rose, Tania, Aspects of political censorship, 1914–1918 (Hull, 1995), p. 69Google Scholar.
5 Edmonds, Brigadier-General Sir James, The occupation of the Rhineland, 1918–1929 (London, 1987; orig. publ. 1944)Google Scholar.
6 See Williamson, David G., The British in Germany: the reluctant occupiers, 1918–1930 (2nd edn, London, 2017)Google Scholar; Pawley, Margaret, The watch on the Rhine: the military occupation of the Rhineland, 1918–1930 (London, 2007)Google Scholar; Jeffrey, Keith, ‘“Hut ab”, “promenade with kamerade for shokolade”, and the Flying Dutchman: British soldiers in the Rhineland, 1918–1929’, Diplomacy and Statecraft, 16 (2005), pp. 455–73CrossRefGoogle Scholar; O'Riordan, Elspeth, ‘The British zone of occupation in the Rhineland’, Diplomacy and Statecraft, 16 (2005), pp. 439–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Storer, Colin, Britain and the Weimar Republic (London, 2010), ch. 3Google Scholar.
7 See, for example, Wrigley, Chris, ‘The state and the challenge of labour in Britain, 1917–1920’, in Wrigley, Chris, ed., Challenges of labour: central and Western Europe, 1917–1920 (London, 1993), pp. 262–88Google Scholar; Porter, Bernard, Britannia's burden: the political evolution of modern Britain, 1851–1990 (London, 1994), pp. 186–7Google Scholar and 192–3; Thurlow, Richard, The secret state: British internal security in the twentieth century (Oxford, 1994), pp. 110–25Google Scholar; and Jeffrey, Keith, ‘The British Army and internal security, 1919–1939’, Historical Journal, 24 (1981), pp. 377–88Google Scholar. For the background to this, see Millman, Brock, ‘HMG and the war against dissent, 1914–1918’, Journal of Contemporary History, 40 (2005), pp. 413–40CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
8 See Porter, Bernard, Plots and paranoia: a history of political espionage in Britain, 1790–1988 (London, 1992), p. 136Google Scholar.
9 Rose, Tania, ‘Introduction’, to Price, Morgan Philips, Dispatches from the revolution: Russia, 1916–1918 (London, 1997), p. 2Google Scholar.
10 Price, My three revolutions, p. 21.
11 Ibid., p. 24.
12 Scott praised The diplomatic history of the war as ‘indispensable for a complete study of the events preceding the war’. C. P. Scott to M. Philips Price, 10 Nov. 1914, Guardian Archive (GA): A/P53/7.
13 GA: A/P53/8.
14 Price to Scott, 30 Oct. 1914, GA: A/P53/5.
15 See the memo from the Manchester Guardian accounts department stating that Price ‘was never on our staff and the amounts we sent altogether were far exceeded by his contributions’ (GA: A/P53/23a). See also the correspondence between Scott and A. E. E. Reade, between 24 Feb. and 31 Mar. 1924 (GA: A/P53/24–33); Tania Rose, ‘Philips Price and the Russian Revolution’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Hull, 1988), Appendix xi, pp. ii–vi; and Ayerst, David, Guardian: biography of a newspaper (London, 1971), p. 402Google Scholar.
16 See Price, My three revolutions, p. 37; Price, Morgan Philips, War and revolution in Asiatic Russia (London, 1918), p. 5.Google Scholar
17 Price to Scott, 9 Nov. 1914, GA: A/P53/6.
18 Scott to Price, 12 Aug. 1916, GA: A/P53/13.
19 Price, War and revolution, p. 215.
20 Rose, ‘Philips Price and the Russian Revolution’, pp. 60–4.
21 Price, Morgan Philips, My reminiscences of the Russian Revolution (London, 1921), p. 8Google Scholar.
22 Price to W. R. Price, Nov. 1914, quoted in Rose, ‘Philips Price and the Russian Revolution’, p. 33.
23 Ibid., p. 25.
24 ‘Russian party forces: a moderate wing of the Bolsheviks’, Manchester Guardian, 28 Nov. 1917, p. 5.
25 ‘The Russian class struggle: Bolshevik syndicalism leading’, Manchester Guardian, 5 Dec. 1917, p. 5.
26 Price to W. R. Price, 22 Dec. 1917, quoted in Price, Dispatches from the revolution, p. 108.
27 ‘The Bolshevik idea’, Manchester Guardian, 22 Jan. 1918, p. 5.
28 ‘Russia's democratic system: chances of separate peace’, Manchester Guardian, 2 Feb. 1918, p. 5.
29 ‘Bolshevik policy: a new phase’, Manchester Guardian, 2 May 1918, p. 5.
30 ‘Bolshevik terrorism: how the electors voted’, Manchester Guardian, 15 Dec. 1917, p. 7.
31 Price to Anna Maria Philips, 18 July 1918, quoted in Price, Dispatches from the revolution, p. 137.
32 In a letter to his uncle, Charles Lee-Williams, dated 30 Nov., Price wrote that ‘I am continually getting letters and cables from England and America from editors whom I have never known or met, asking me for an article or for information about this or that subject.’ Price to Lee-Williams, 30 Nov. 1917, quoted in Rose, ‘Philips Price and the Russian Revolution’, p. 157.
33 Price to W. R. Price, 30 Nov. 1917, The National Archives (TNA): KV/2/566.
34 Price, My three revolutions, pp. 110–11.
35 Price to Philips, 7 May 1918, quoted in Price, Dispatches from the revolution, p. 128.
36 Price, My reminiscences of the Russian Revolution, p. 332.
37 Price, Dispatches from the revolution, p. 138.
38 Rose, ‘Introduction’ to Price, Dispatches from the revolution, pp. 10–11, 138.
39 The Call, No. 8, 2 Nov. 1918, GA: A/P53/15.
40 Price to Rev. George Lewis, 1 July 1917, TNA: KV/2/566.
41 Memo on ‘Morgan Philips price of Tibberton Court, Gloucester, Member of the Union of Democratic Control’, undated (1919), TNA: KV/2/258, 22.
42 Comment on an intercepted letter from Price, 15 July 1917, TNA: KV/2/566.
43 Comment on an intercepted letter from Price to C. P. Trevelyan, 8 Aug. 1917, TNA: KV/2/566.
44 W. Parker ‘for Col. V. G. W. Kell’ to R. H. Campbell at the Foreign Office, 8 Sept. 1917, TNA: KV/2/566.
45 R. H. Graham to Sir G. Buchanan, 15 Sept. 1917, TNA: KV/2/566.
46 Buchanan to Graham, 30 Oct. 1917, TNA: KV/2/566.
47 Foreign Office to director of military intelligence, 24 Nov. 1917, TNA: KV/2/566.
48 Hansard, HC, vol. 112, cols. 1103–4 (20 Feb. 1919).
49 MI7 to Foreign Office, 11 Oct. 1918, TNA: KV/2/566.
50 Minutes of correspondence between Major A. W. Foster (MI5) and Major Kerry and R. Farina (MI7), 4–7 Nov. 1918, TNA: KV/2/566, 5.
51 TNA: FO 371.3342.
52 Director of public prosecutions to Foreign Office, 17 Dec. 1918, ibid.
53 See telegram intercept, press cuttings, and letter from Sir Basil Thomson to Colonel Vernon Kell, 22 Nov. 1918, TNA: KV/2/566, 5a–c.
54 Thomson to Scott, 20 Dec. 1918, GA: 335/65. See also Scott's reply dated 17 Jan. 1919 in which he says that ‘Mr Price ought not to have used our name in the way he has done and I propose to take proper notice of the matter’, TNA: KV/2/566, 11.
55 Aylmer Maude to Scott, 17 Jan. 1919, GA: A/P53/16.
56 Scott to Price, 28 Jan. 1919, TNA: KV/2/566, 13.
57 Price to Trevelyan, 8 Aug. 1917, TNA: KV/2/566.
58 Price, My three revolutions, p. 147.
59 Tania Rose, ‘Epilogue’, in Dispatches from the revolution, p. 154.
60 For Price's movements at this period and his relationship with the German Left, see Price, Morgan Philips, Dispatches from the Weimar Republic, ed. Rose, Tania (London, 1999), pp. 19–57Google Scholar; Price, My three revolutions, pp. 159–66; Price, Morgan Philips, Russia forty years on: an account of a visit to Russia and Germany in the autumn of 1959 (London, 1961), pp. 95–8Google Scholar; Carr, E. H., Radek, Karl, and Price, M. Philips, ‘Radek's “political salon” in Berlin, 1919’, Soviet Studies, 3 (1952), pp. 411–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Riddell, John, ed., The German revolution and the debate on soviet power: documents, 1918–1919 (New York, NY, 1986), p. 27Google Scholar.
61 Price, Dispatches from the Weimar Republic, p. 31.
62 Price to George Lansbury, 28 Jan. 1919, TNA: KV/2/566. Price was formally appointed the Herald’s Berlin correspondent in Apr. 1920.
63 See Millman, Brock, Managing domestic dissent in First World War Britain (London, 2000), p. 291Google Scholar.
64 See Englander, David, ‘Discipline and morale in the British Army, 1917–1918’, in Horne, John, ed., State, society and mobilization in Europe during the First World War (Cambridge, 1997)Google Scholar; and Dallas, Gloden and Gill, Douglas, The unknown army: mutinies in the British Army in World War I (London, 1985), pp. 81–8Google Scholar. For a contrasting view that argues that morale in the British Army on the Western Front remained high throughout 1918, see Sheffield, Gary, ‘The British Army of 1918’, RUSI Journal, 143 (1998), pp. 78–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
65 See Rothstein, Andrew, The soldiers’ strikes of 1919 (London, 1980)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Dallas and Gill, The unknown army, pp. 89–121; and Englander, David, ‘Troops and trade unions, 1919’, History Today, 37 (1987), pp. 8–13Google Scholar.
66 The Army of Occupation's chief of staff until March 1920, Sir Archibald Montgomery-Massingberd, later told the complier of the official history of the occupation, Sir James Edmonds, that ‘several unpleasant mutinies’ had taken place in ‘various units’, some motivated by ‘Bolshevism or pure devilment’, but offered no further details. Other sources only make vague mentions of ‘discontent amongst the men’. Sir Archibald Montgomery-Massingberd to Sir James Edmonds, 23 Jan. 1943, TNA: CAB 45/81 (i); and Robertson, Sir William, From private to field marshal (London, 1921), p. 364Google Scholar. For a discussion of disturbances amongst British occupying troops see Jeffrey, ‘“Hut ab”, “promenade with kamerade for shokolade”’, pp. 455–73 at pp. 463–4.
67 General Harrington, Sir Charles, Plumer of Messines (London, 1935), p. 176Google Scholar.
68 Tuohy, Ferdinand, Occupied, 1918–1930: a postscript to the Western Front (London, 1931), p. 49Google Scholar.
69 Williamson, The British in Germany, pp. 32–7.
70 Newton, Douglas, British policy and the Weimar Republic, 1918–1919 (Oxford, 1997), p. 321CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
71 Some on the Left noted approvingly that the ‘contagion’ of revolution was ‘already apparent’ in Britain as early as the spring of 1917 (Walter Baker, ‘The contagion of revolution’, Postal and Telegraph Record, 19 Apr. 1917, 4, p. 395). A year later, Frederick William Wile quoted a German source regarding the ‘plague of Bolshevism’ in the Daily Mail (‘Hun hypocrisy’, Daily Mail, 26 Feb. 1918, p. 4). By the beginning of 1919, such metaphors were becoming common currency in Britain. Churchill was particularly fond of using them, describing Bolshevism in the House of Commons as ‘not a policy…[but] a disease’ and variously as ‘a plague bacillus’, ‘a cancer’, and ‘a horrible form of mental and moral disease’ (see Hansard, HC, vol. 116, cols. 1383–582 (19 May 1919); Churchill, Winston, The aftermath (London, 1941), p. 76Google Scholar; and Rose, Norman, Churchill: an unruly life (London, 2009), p. 146Google Scholar.
72 News of the World, 22 Dec. 1918, quoted in Newton, British policy, p. 245.
73 Edmonds, The occupation of the Rhineland, p. 26.
74 Ibid., p. 70.
75 Ibid., pp. 121–2.
76 Transcript of the trial of Ernst Seidel, Gerhard Bingen, Josef Schopp, Peter Andermahr, Fritz Kemp, Johan Worsdorfer, Charlotte Bauer, and Fritz Spiegelberg, 12 June 1919, p. 7; papers of Captain James Willett, University of Leeds, Liddle Collection: Liddle/WW1/GO/15.
77 Ibid., p. 6.
78 Ibid., p. 7.
79 Second Army, Cologne, to War Office, 6 Mar. 1919, TNA: KV2/568, 4.
80 Director of military intelligence to undersecretary of state for foreign affairs, 4 Apr. 1919, and handwritten minute to the file dated 2 Apr. 1919, TNA: KV2/568, 8.
81 Telegram to Second Army, 10 Mar. 1919, TNA: KV2/568, 7.
82 ‘Mr Philips Price: amazing Murmansk story’, Daily Herald, 15 Oct. 1919, TNA: KV/2/567, 75.
83 Report from ‘a Counter Bolshevik Officer in Switzerland’, 27 Mar. 1919, TNA: KV/2/566, 31.
84 Sir Basil Thomson to War Office, 10 June 1919, TNA: KV/2/568, 14. Minor was arrested in Paris in June, charged with treason for inciting railway workers to strike and held at an American military prison in Coblenz for several weeks. He only avoided a longer period of incarceration (or worse) due to political pressure brought to bear by his well-connected father. See ‘Special Report No. 4: the cases of philips price and robert minor’, pp. 5–6, TNA: CAB/24/83, ‘American writer seized in Paris’, Washington Post, 12 June 1919, p. 1; ‘Robert Minor held by army in Coblenz’, New York Times, 12 June 1919, p. 5; ‘Minor accused as propagandist’, New York Times, 15 June 1919, p. 14; ‘Mystery covers Minor's release’, Los Angeles Times, 10 July 1919, p. 12; and ‘Baker tells how Minor was freed’, New York Times, 24 Oct. 1919, p. 10.
85 Captain Hinchley-Cooke to Colonel Vernon Kell, 18 June 1919, TNA: KV/2/568, 19.
86 National Archives KV/2/566, 39, items 77 and 78.
87 Memo on ‘Morgan Philips price of Tibberton Court, Gloucester, Member of the Union of Democratic Control’, undated (1919), TNA: KV/2/258, 22.
88 Second Army to War Office, 5 July 1919, TNA: KV/2/568, 24.
89 Second Army to War Office, 6 July 1919, TNA: KV/2/568, 25.
90 Thomson to Major Tangye, 7 July 1919, TNA: KV/2/568, 27.
91 Second Army to War Office, 6 July 1919, TNA: KV/2/568, 27.
92 War Office to Second Army, 7 July 1919, TNA: KV/2/568, 30.
93 Director of military intelligence to Second Army, 10 July 1919, TNA: KV/2/568, 2.
94 Second Army to director of military intelligence, 8 July 1919, TNA: KV/2/568, 37. That Major Tangye was ultimately responsible for Price's arrest is confirmed by a handwritten letter dated 30 Mar. 1931 in which Tangye wrote ‘Both [Price and Robert Minor] were arrested by me in 1919, but for political considerations we had to release them…Other of their co-conspirators were sentenced to imprisonment by a military court – They gave information to the effect that Price & Minor were the ring-leaders’, TNA: KV/2/567, 50a.
95 See ‘Berlin and Entente authority’, Manchester Guardian, 5 July 1919, p. 9; ‘Englishman in Berlin prison’, Manchester Guardian, 7 July 1919, p. 7; ‘Philips Price arrested’, Daily Herald, 7 July 1919; ‘In the grip of Noske’, Daily News, 8 July 1919; and Ben Hecht to the Chicago Daily News, 4 July 1919, TNA: KV/2/568/55, p. 2.
96 Director of military intelligence to undersecretary of state for foreign affairs, 11 July 1919, TNA: KV/2/568, 40.
97 Sir Basil Thomson, ‘Special Report’ on Price, 10 July 1919, TNA: CAB 24/83.
98 Memo dated 1 Sept. 1919, TNA: KV/2/567.
99 Memo headed ‘price, M. Philips’, 29 Dec. 1919, TNA: KV/2/567, 56.
100 Captain H. M. Millar to Selwyn Jackson, 1 Apr. 1921, KV/2/567, 160.
101 See, for example, the ‘Note’ from Western Command dated 25 June 1924 complaining that Price ‘has a German wife, a German sister-in-law, and a German nurse with him, and the whole family use the German language rather than English’ (TNA: KV/2/567, 39a), or the letter from Captain H. A. Pringle of May Hill House, Gloucester, dated 26 May 1940, denouncing Price as ‘a traitor in the last war’ who ‘Has a German wife’, TNA: KV/2/567.
102 Rose, ‘Philips Price and the Russian Revolution’, Appendix viii.
103 See ‘Why American soldiers are in Europe’ and ‘Why are you not demobilized! British soldiers and comrades!!!’, papers of Captain James Willett, University of Leeds, Liddle Collection: Liddle/WW1/GO/15.
104 A copy of this can be found amongst a collection of ‘documents relating to Robert minor and Philips price’ collected by Major Tangye. Price is standing on the right of the photograph. Robert Minor is third from right. TNA: KV/2/568, 17.
105 Price, Dispatches from the Weimar Republic, p. 37.
106 Bar-Joseph, Uri, Intelligence intervention in the politics of democratic states: the United States, Israel and Britain (University Park, PA, 1995), p. 256Google Scholar.
107 ‘Englishman in Berlin prison’, Manchester Guardian, 7 July 1919, p. 7.
