When Reilly made an application to the War Office for intelligence work in January 1918, he was careful to submit glowing testimonials and references.
The watch on his Ryder Street lodgings and interviews with others at the address led MI5 to report that he was ‘very respectable, pays bills quite regularly, lunches and dines at the Savoy and Berkeley Hotels and is always in by midnight’.32
At 2.20 p.m. on 14 March, New York’s reply to C’s second cable was received at Whitehall Court:
Your telegram No. 210 of 5th:
Official of National Powder Bank has given us the following confidential statement on man in question whom he has known for several years: A shrewd businessman of undoubted ability but without patriotism or principles and therefore not to be recommended for any position which requires loyalty as he would not hesitate to use it to further his own commercial interests. He has been connected with Government contracts in RUSSIAN–JAPANESE and present wars and has undeniably excellent knowledge of those countries.
Above opinion precisely confirmed by our own estimate of man.
The following day, with no knowledge of the cables that had been criss-crossing the Atlantic on his behalf, Reilly presented himself at 2 Whitehall Court to keep his appointment with ‘C’.34 Meeting ‘the Chief’ was a formality that all potential agents had to undertake, and Reilly was no exception. Paul Dukes, a future friend and SIS colleague of Reilly, gave a rare and unique account of this no doubt awesome experience in his book, Red Dusk and the Morrow. On arrival at Whitehall Court, Dukes was met by a nameless colonel and escorted to C’s office:
MI5’s surveillance of Reilly proved no easy task.
We entered the building and the lift whisked us up to the top floor. Leaving the lift my guide led me up one flight of steps so narrow a corpulent man would have stuck tight, round unexpected corners, and again up a flight of steps.
‘The sanctum of the Chief’ was ‘a low dark chamber at the extreme top of the building’. The colonel knocked, entered, and stood at attention. A nervous Dukes followed. He recalled:
The writing desk was so placed with the window behind it that on entering everything appeared only in silhouette. It was some seconds before I could distinguish things. A row of half a dozen extending telephones stood at the left of a big desk littered with papers. On a side table were numerous maps and drawings, with models of aeroplanes, submarines and mechanised devices, while a row of bottles of various colours and a distilling outfit with a rack of test tubes bore witness to chemical experiments and operations. These evidences of scientific investigation only served to intensify an already overpowering atmosphere of strangeness and mystery. But it was not these things that engaged my attention as I stood nervously waiting. My eyes fixed themselves on the figure at the writing table. This extraordinary man was short of stature, thick set, with grey hair covering a well-rounded head. His mouth was stern, an eagle eye, full of vivacity, glanced – or glared, as the case might be – piercingly through a gold-rimmed monocle. The coat that hung over the back of the chair was that of a naval officer.35
Quite what impression C, Mansfield Cumming, made on Reilly is unknown. Cumming himself briefly recorded his impressions of Reilly in his diary for 15 March:
Scale introduced Mr Reilly who is willing to go to Russia for us. Very clever – very doubtful – has been everywhere and done everything. Will take out £500 in notes and £750 in diamonds which are at a premium. I must agree tho’ it is a great gamble as he will visit all our men in Vologda, Kief, Moscow etc.36
The impression that Reilly was ‘very doubtful’ could only have been reinforced by the arrival of the final cable from New York at 2.25 p.m. on 21 March:
Further my telegram No. 201 of 13th:
MACROBERTS reports he likes Reilly personally but knows little of him. Another official of the bank gives me the following information from a man who has known REILLY for years: R is GREEK Jew: very clever: entirely unscrupulous. Present war has made about two million dollars on Russian contracts. Has connections in almost every country including Germany, Japan and Russia. ENDS. In connection with the above may I point out that there must be a strong motive for REILLY leaving profitable business here and wife of whom he is said to be very jealous, to work for you.
C had a reputation as a risk taker who was willing to go against the grain. There could be no greater demonstration of this than his decision to give Reilly a chance in spite of the volumes of negative feedback he had so far received. The risk, in C’s mind, must have been far outweighed by the vital operational need for reliable Russian intelligence. Negotiations between the Bolsheviks and the Germans had been taking place at Brest Litovsk, on and off, since 22 December 1917, and it was becoming increasingly apparent that matters were now coming to a head. While C was still exchanging cables with New York, the two sides finally signed the Treaty of Brest Litovsk on 3 March. It was a bitter pill for the Russians to swallow, involving a great loss of land and swingeing reparation payments. Lenin, however, was determined to pull out of the war, as he knew his infant regime’s survival depended upon it. For the Germans it meant they could now throw their full weight against the Allies on the Western Front.
The War Cabinet in London, and the Allies collectively, now had two potential choices; they could either make a renewed attempt to entice the Bolsheviks back into the war against Germany, or they could intervene in Russia in the hope that the Bolsheviks could be toppled in favour of a pro-war government. Either way, the need for good intelligence sources in Russia was now more important than ever.
On 22 March, the day after the final cable from ‘NG’ was received, C and SIS colleague Col. Claude Dansey visited a diamond dealer in the City of London by the name of Schuyler and purchased diamonds to the value of £75038 for Reilly to take to Moscow.
That same day MI5 were beginning what they thought would be a routine enquiry to confirm the biographical details Reilly had given on his application. Their memorandum, under Reilly’s name, addressed to the headquarters of Irish Command at Parkgate, Dublin, states:
We should be glad to know if a man of the above name is registered as having been born at Clonmel on 24 March 1874, and any partic-ulars you can let us have concerning his parents. Will you kindly let us have an answer as soon as possible, as the matter is urgent.39
By 30 March, with no sign of a reply, MI5 sent a reminder memo. This clearly did the trick, for the following day Irish Command responded:
Reference your 267275/D of 22 and 30 March, the Police Department report that there is no record in the register of this man’s birth in Clonmel. Further enquiries are being made. (for) Major I.H. Price40
It was a further three days before MI5 alerted Maj. Kendall of SIS to the fact that C’s new agent was not all that he claimed. By this point, the die had already been cast, for Reilly, or ST141 as he was now code-named, was aboard the Danish Merchant ship Queen Mary, steaming towards the Russian port of Archangel.
NINE
THE REILLY PLOT
Four days after his departure, C sent a cable to the British mission in Vologda, alerting them of Reilly’s arrivaclass="underline"
On 25 March, Sydney George Reilli, lieutenant in the RFC, leaves for Archangel from England. Jewish-Jap type, brown eyes very protruding, deeply lined sallow face, may be bearded, height five foot nine inches. He will report during April. Carries code message of identification. On arrival will go to Consul and ask for British passport officer. Ask him what his business is and he will answer ‘Diamond Buying’. He has sixteen diamonds value £640 7s 2d as most useful currency. Should you be short of funds he has orders to divide with you. He will be at your disposal, utilise him to join up your organisation if necessary as he should travel freely. Return him to Stockholm end of June. More to follow.1