The Secret Intelligence Service and the Case of Hilaire Noulens During the 1920s, the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) achieved considerable coverage of Communist activity in Europe through agents reporting from Rotterdam, Warsaw, Berlin and Vienna. It was a period of anxiety within SIS as they monitored the spread of Communism and the organs of the Soviet party involved in it. The chief of these was the Communist International or Comintern. Founded in 1919, it maintained a professional connection with ‘pure ’ Soviet intelligence organisations and had its own clandestine arm. Towards the end of the 1920s SIS ’s agent coverage was supplemented by the interception of the Comintern ’s clandestine communications from Moscow to Europe (MASK). The arrest in 1931 of Hilaire Noulens, the Comintern representative in Shanghai, heralded a critical period for SIS ’s coverage of the Comintern. Noulens, identified only in 1994 as Jakob Rudnik,1 played an important part in fostering Communist parties across the Asian-Pacific region. Newly released PUSD papers reveal that Valentine Vivian, Head of Section V, SIS ’s counter-espionage section, was responsible for drawing up a report on the value of the papers found upon Noulens. Vivian ’s report, available previously only in sanitised form, has now been released in full along with all its exhibits and enclosures detailing the extent of the Noulens haul. What do we already know? In August 1931, a report prepared by the Intelligence Bureau (Shanghai), observed that it had been known for ‘some considerable time ’ that an individual working out of Shanghai had been acting for the Comintern, distributing funds in the Asia-Pacific for Communist purposes. Yet the Shanghai Municipal Police had no idea of the identity of the individual responsible for these activities, until the information was supplied by the arrest in Singapore of the French Communist and Comintern courier, Joseph Ducroux, alias Serge Lefranc, on 1 June 1931.2 Among Ducroux ’s papers was the discovery of the telegraphic address ‘Hilanoul, Shanghai ’ and an address bearing ‘P.O. Box 206, Shanghai ’.3 Singapore ’s Special Branch immediately alerted the Shanghai Municipal Police.4 ‘Hilanoul, Shanghai ’ proved to have been registered with the Eastern Extension and Great Northern Telegraph Companies in the name of Hilaire Noulens, at 235 Szechuan Road, one Noulens ’ addresses. Further enquiries by the Shanghai Municipal Police showed that Noulens was posing as a Belgian citizen.
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