as these may as a consequence of such an event, come to an agreement all the more easily with the Communists. 46 The authenticity of this letter would seem to be corroborated by a despatch sent by the US Legation in Riga to the State Department on 9 June 1924, enclosing a confidential report of a meeting called by Zinoviev on 18 March at which plans for anti-British propaganda were discussed. Zinoviev 'roundly accused' the Central Committee of the CPGB of 'lack of energy, weak organisation and incompetence in the selection of workers', and suggested that they should be sent a programme for an agitation campaign, the main points of which he had drawn up. These points, which appear to have formed the basis for the 18 March letter, included the following: 'In carrying out the agitation campaign . . . the Central Committee must be especially careful to avoid at all costs anything aimed at the overthrow of th MacDonald Government, as this would not suit the interests either of the Sovi t Governm~nt or of the IKKI' .47 It is worth mentioning on other document, interesting in that it ' does not appear to hay reached IS in the same way as other such documents, and indeed did not com to light until a copy was found at CPGB Headquarters when they w re raid d by th police on 14 October 1925: it was not available as evidence during the Zinoviev affair. This is a memorandum by Zinoviev dated 26 March 1924, entitled 'The Situation in and the Immediat Tasks of the British Communist Party.'48 Its reasoned rather than polemical tone suggests that it wa intended for an internal readership. Zinoviev argues that the tim has om 'when a mass communist parry must be at last formed in Britain': for the first tim, with th Labour gov rnment, 'real objective conditions' exist for the stablishm nt of such a party, but 'quite frankly ... the British Communi t Party is far from having come up to this task'. Zinoviev's pr s ription for th correct cour of action on the part of the CPGn 1 arly nvisag making us of th Labour government to achieve their ends, inducing th 'mas s' to put their d mands to the government while at the sam tim drawing th gov rnm nt into r pressive measures which would expos Labour in its true colours: In a word, C mmunists must now not act as the advocates of the unit d fr nt with Macdonald' Cabinet ministers, but as men able to organis a r al unit d front with the advanced sections of the workers in th trade union and among th unemployed, as men who can politi ally tak the imp rialist 'Labour Party' by the throat. This lett r, r eived by SI Scotland Yard.
46
47
Riga de pat h No. 2181 to
See Ann x D below. h Exe utive mmitte f th authenti .
48
from its Riga station, was also cir ulated to the Foreign Office and tate Departm nt of 9 June 1924, NARA, RG 59, 841.00B/38. fa t that a 0PY of th m morandum appear in the files of the mint rn (Russian entre, RC 495/100/135) suggests that it is