Declaration are in our judgment crystal clear and we have no doubt that our readers will draw the same conclusions as we have made in our own mind. Was it because these deductions were so evident and so damning that the Special Board put up their inflated man of straw and then demolished him?80 Howev r misguided their assumptions may hav been, technical inconsistencies and lack of proof convinced the Board of Enquiry that they were barking up the wrong tree in trying to link the franc scandal to the Zinovi v letter, and that Gregory's crime was confined to inappropriate curr ncy sp culation. Yet ther remain many unanswered questions. It is a fact, as the Enquiry's investigations made clear, that Mrs Dyne had r ach d a period of crisis in her financial dealings during October 1924 (little appear in Gr gory's nam at thi time, but they frequently acted for each other and it is pra tically impo sibl to disentangl their dealings). An analysi of her buying and selling transactions revealed that all th se dated befor 31 July 1924 had b n closed by 9 August, but a numb r of large deals nt red into in August were not clos d off until Novemb r. The franc fluctuated considerably during October, falling st adily after th 16th, and Mr Dyne n eded cash to s ttle h r a counts with Ironmong rs: the origin, p rhaps, of her r mark to Viol t Digby about losing ' a lot of mon y' and Gregory having to I ave the Foreign Offic . Y t Gr gory's bank b ok show d that between 29 Octob rand 19 ov mb r h paid £8,258 145 into Mrs Dyne's ac ount in four in talm nts; while Mrs Dyn (who had initially r fu ed the Enquiry access to her bank r cords, but lat r agr d) was abl t make two payments to Ironmong rs of £6,140 and £2,467, on 28 October and 20 November. 81 N oher nt xplanation was given to th Board of Enquiry eith r by Gregory or Mr yne as to what th e sum r pr s nt d or wh r th money cam fr m. in b th of th m profl s ed to k p no r cord of th ir d alings, and to b in th habit of ontinually paying out on th other's b half and th n bing r paid, it wa and i impo ible to mak any firm conne tion betw n thes trans a tion and th ev nts surrounding the publication of th Zinoviev I tt r. In th ir umstan s, how ver, and bearing in mind the eviden e of other witn s ,th po ibility of uch a conn ction must b allow d. But what sort of nn tion? As th Board conclud d, th idea of manipulating th publi ation of th L tt r and its r ply for finan ial advantage s ms impr babl in th xtr m . Mor likely, sur ly, that money might b earn d by selling a opy of th Zinovi v 1 tt r to th pr ss, in advan of publication; p rhap , ind d, b for publi ati n by the FO its If w r d id d upon? A tat d abov ,it ms lik ly that both on rvative C ntral £lic and th pr h d opi s of th 1 tt r by 22 0 tob r at th lat st, and th re i no h "Zin vi v Lett r": he as for a Full lnve tigation', by W.P. Coat with a pr fa M xton M.P. Th Anglo-Ru ian Parliam ntary Committe , May 1928, p. 19. 81 B rd f Enquiry mi Han ous d uments, T 281/36 and 38.
80 '
b j.