A talk with the representatives will enable you to form your own judgement as to the feasibility of their ideas.
I am introducing this scheme to you thinking it might perhaps replace the other big scheme you were working on but which fell through in such disastrous manner. Incidentally, you would help me considerably by taking the matter up. The only thing I ask is that you keep our connection with this business from the knowledge of my department as, being a government official, I am not supposed to be connected with any such enterprise. I know your interest in such business where patience and perseverance against all sorts of intrigues and opposition are required and I know also you will look after my interests without my having to make some special agreement with you.
Please let me know where to address letters to you in the future.
Kindest regards and best of luck. Please also remember me to your wife.1
‘California’, according to Pepita Reilly, ‘stands for Russia, the verse from Omar Kahyam (sic) for a cipher message: the big scheme which fell through disastrously was the Savinkov affair. The letter means in fact that there is in operation a strong anti-Bolshevik group, having at its head some of the members of the Bolshevik government’.
Clearly intrigued by this unexpected letter, Reilly replied to Boyce from his office at 25 Broadway, New York:
I am kicking myself for not being in Paris, and thereby missing the Californian couple. You must understand that although I am here I am not losing touch with the situation at all and am in constant correspondence with the different manufacturing groups in the various countries.
I fully realise the possible importance of the scheme which the Californian promoters have in hand. Since the failure of the big scheme on which I was working, and especially since the recent fight for share control which has been going on in the board of directors, I have finally convinced myself that the initiative must come direct from the present minority interests. I believe that the time is gradually getting ripe for the minority interests to realise that the whole business will go to wreck and ruin unless they make up their minds to sacrifice a good portion of their original ideas and come down to earth in a manner which will be acceptable both to the internal and international market. Whether minority interests have already reached this mental attitude or not it has been impossible for me to discover in any definite form, and, therefore, I regret so intensely missing the Californians.
After treating Boyce to a long and drawn-out discourse on how the ‘Californians’ should proceed, he turns to the ‘minority interests’, who he states are:
…fully acquainted with the internal market; they know exactly what is required, and they know how and by what means the business can be reorganised, but what they probably lack is, first – money, and secondly – an understanding with the leading personalities in the international market.
In conclusion, Reilly states that:
…as regards a closer understanding with the international market, I think that to start with only one man is really important, and that is the irrepressible Marlborough. I have always remained on good terms with him and last year, after the disaster of my big scheme, I had a very interesting correspondence with him on the subject. His ear would always be open to something really sound, especially if it is emanated from the minority interests. He said as much in one of his very private and confidential letters to me.
Clearly now hooked, he ended the letter by confirming that:
I would welcome it very much if the Californian promoters would get in touch with me, either by coming here or by correspondence. I am sure that it will be of mutual benefit, not only to the whole situation but to each of us individually.
As a result of Reilly’s positive response, Boyce put him in contact with one of his Helsingfors-based agents, Nikolai Bunakov, code name ST28. On 27 March Reilly wrote a revealing letter to Bunakov, in which he outlined his thinking on anti-Soviet strategy. The letter would later be quoted in the Russian and foreign Communist press as evidence of the West’s hostile intentions towards the Soviet state and of their perception of Reilly as a terrorist. Whether the letter constitutes a genuine plan of action on Reilly’s part or is simply another example of his ‘Walter Mitty’ bravado is very much open to debate. Although he may well have taken part in one of Savinkov’s guerrilla raids into Belorussia in December 1920, there is little if any evidence that Reilly had any realistic plans to use terror as a vehicle for achieving the overthrow of the Soviet state. As we shall see later in this chapter, his objectives were somewhat more materialistic.
According to the letter, Reilly saw terror as a measure without which a solution (in terms of ousting the Bolsheviks) was not possible. He also set out for Bunakov a justification for this point of view:
Terror should be directed from a central point, but carried out by small independent groups or persons against individual prominent representatives of the Soviet government. The aim of terror is always a double one. The first and less important is the removal of dangerous persons. The second and more important is to bring the morass into the movement, to put an end to lethargy, to destroy the legend of the invulnerability of the authority. If there is no terror it means there is no spirit in the movement.3
Going on to anticipate objections to the practicality of his proposal, Reilly continued:
You may say that it is easy to speak of terror when one is safe abroad, but I tell you that I know people who have expended tremendous energy in its preparation (suitable to the present situation and the latest technical improvements) and are prepared to begin immediately the necessary means are placed at their disposal.4
After several further exchanges of correspondence, Reilly wrote to Boyce on 4 April to confirm that:
I fully agree with the board that the simplest and most effective way to gather all the necessary data and to arrive at a complete understanding as to the future operations and improvements of manufacture is for me to come out and to inspect the factory personally.