(parent department of MI5), Naval Intelligence.
cotland Yard and the Directors of Military and
Despite jurisdictional conflicts and rivalrie , there was naturally, con iderabl liaison between the Intelligen e agencies. MI5 and SIS offic r pas d information to each other which they considered would be of u e to the ist r Service. One particular xampl of uch liaison i worth mentioning be aus of its possible relevanc to th Zinoviev lett r. In July 1924 Desmond Morton wrote to Major Joseph Ball of MI5 ,7o following an unrecorded t lephon conversation, ending him two 'spe imen copies of reports' concerning 'lett rs from the Executiv Committee of the Third Int rnational to th C ntral Committee of the British Communi t Party'. Th s reports contain d the t xt of the letter of 19 Dec mber 1923 from the Comintern to th CPGB (s p. 17 above), and extract from th lett r of 18 March (p. 18). Morton told Ball: I hay a whole file full of similar on . .. All these letters are addr d in the arne way and signed generally speaking, by th sam p opl . .. Th r i no doubt that th actual copies of these 1 tter d stin d for th ntral ommitte of th Communist Party go from Mos ow t B rlin, and from B rlin to London in the Arcos nt r und by hand to th ir d stination. bag; that th y ar th n Presumably th y ar n t d liv r d op nly at King Stre t [CPG B HQJ, but of that id of th bu in w know nothing. I will not recapitulat what it i w ar out to do, a I think my d cription on th t I phon mu t hay mad it quit cl ar to you. 71 SI had good ur s in B rlin , and nn tions in ARCO which would account for M rton' nfid n r garding th hann Is through which th se P B. H w v r, although parti ular att ntion was drawn i nifi n f thi 1 tt r in th Bagot hi tory of th Zinovi v lett r, it h not pr v d p ibl to tabli h what it wa that Morton wa 'out to d " or what part Ball might play. Morton him If, when interviewed, claim d t hay n m m ry f it. In vi w of th timing, how ver - wh n the
work at in 1 61. A
opp n nt 71 I file s.
t r f Publi ity for on rvative entral Offic in th 1920s and h mb rlain in th 1930. Th oth r, behind the cenes, was a an nd had wy p liti al fixer who d vot d much of his en rgy in dirty-tri k ampaign against both th Labour Party and on rvativ Party it lr (p. 98).