Enemies Within: Communists, the Cambridge Spies and the Making of Modern Britain. Richard Davenport-Hines
Чтение книги онлайн.
Читать онлайн книгу Enemies Within: Communists, the Cambridge Spies and the Making of Modern Britain - Richard Davenport-Hines страница 47
Название: Enemies Within: Communists, the Cambridge Spies and the Making of Modern Britain
Автор: Richard Davenport-Hines
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Биографии и Мемуары
isbn: 9780007516681
isbn:
The crisis over the shortage of artillery shells in 1915, and general battle experiences during 1914–18, demonstrated that armaments manufacturing capacity was as important to victory as fighting manpower. ‘National armies cannot even be collected without the assistance of the whole modern machinery of national industry, still less equipped,’ wrote the first communist MP, Cecil L’Estrange Malone, after returning from his visit in 1919 to the Soviet Union. Russian revolutionaries knew they had to match the industrial potential of the British Empire, the USA, France and Germany, for ‘without equipment on the modern scale great armies are sheep for the slaughter’, Malone explained. ‘The next war will be won in the workshop,’ General Sir Noel (‘Curly’) Birch, Master General of Ordnance at the War Office turned director in charge of land armaments at Vickers, told Lord Milne, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, in 1929. ‘If we are honest as a nation we must pay just as much attention to the industrial mobilisation for war as we do to our armed forces.’ If the productive capacity of British armaments companies continued to be depleted, as it had been for the ten years of attempted world disarmament, Birch asked, ‘where will be the force behind diplomacy?’2
Intelligence services exist to monitor risks. They amass, collate and analyse information covering the fluctuations of public opinion and national sentiments, they collect diplomatic and strategic secrets, they foster subversion and they practise counter-espionage; and more than ever after 1918, they have supplied industrial intelligence. The remit of British military attachés in Prague included the monitoring of the Škoda munitions works at Pilsen. In 1928 and 1929 James Marshall-Cornwall, then Military Attaché in Berlin, visited Sweden to inspect and report on the Bofors works, which had a working arrangement with Krupp as regards munitions and ordnance. Edwin (‘Eddy’) Boxshall, who was both SIS and Vickers representative in Bucharest, was a director with inside information on the privately owned Cop
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.