When I researched Churchill's Secret Enemy back in 2003, I visited the
National Archives (Public Record Office as it was then) and looked at
the declassified MI5 file for Right Club Leader Archibald Ramsay. It
contained a list of 224 names of Right Club members. I knew that
Joseph Ball had secretly met with Archibald Ramsay in June 1939 at the
Conservative Carlton Club to discuss Ramsay's fears of a Judeo-Masonic
plot against Ball's patron and confidant Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlain. Ball submitted a report of the meeting to MI5 but left out
an information relating to the associated Right Club organisation the
Nordic League. Ball has long been suspected as a member of the Right
Club and I was surprised to see that when the Weiner Library published a
list of the Right Club members contained in the infamous Red Book, a
Ball, JP was listed as the 115th member of the anti-semitic club,
following member 114 Ainslee Tait and before member 116 Mr Shipman. On
the MI5 list held at Kew , the 115th member was Mr Shipman, following Mr
Ainslee Tait, any mention of a Mr Ball was omitted.
A strange
cover-up considering that it is probable that Mr JP Ball was not MI5's
Sir Joseph Ball but actually Charles JP Ball Stockbroker and member of
the Anglo-German Fellowship.
Sir Joseph was far too cany to
have his name on the list, instead he kept himself informed by his Right
Club representatives Ramsay and Mrs Newnham, wife of his editor Henry
Newnham who met with other Far Right Leaders including Ramsay and Mosley
secretly in 1939 and 1940.
Curious cover-up but MI5 have very little to say about Ball and with good reason.
Sir Joseph Ball , despite the death of
his patron Neville Chamberlain in October 1940 continued to enjoy access
to the corridors of power whilst been kept under close scrutiny by
Churchill and his personal intelligence advisor Desmond Morton. Ball
was as deputy director of the Security Executive which held ascendancy
over MI6, MI5, Scotland Yard , NID and SOE was in a key position at the
time of the Rudolf Hess Peace Mission in May 1941 and as Director of the
Security Intelligence Centre (SIC) he kept an active hand in monitoring
the Fifth Column whilst secretly controlling the Anti-Semitic and
Pro-Fascist magazine Truth, which finally came under parliamentary
scrutiny in October 1941 when Captain Wedgewood exposed the anti-war,
pro-peace and pro-fascist views and it's control by Ball, the National
Publicity Bureau and Ultra Right Conservative Chamberlainites like Ball.
He stated : "It has now become a public danger.Not
only is it perpetually putting forward the policy of peace and
reconciliation, and generally the old isolationist policy, but it is
also, as it were, the nucleus of the controlled Press which would spring
up if this country were successfully invaded.I
have to prove that the policy of this paper is dangerous to our war
effort. I say that it is pro-Fascist, it is anti-Semite, it is
pro-peace, it is anti-Churchill, it is anti-American, it is pro-German,
and it is now anti-Russian. On the 9th August 1939 it wrote "The
'Link' is quite open about what it is doing. Many anti-Government
propagandists pretend to be actuated by national welfare, but their plan
is to push Britain, by hook or by crook, into a war with Germany."
On 14th February, 1940, they said: If
peace were concluded with Germany, and there is good reason to believe
that it could now be concluded on terms which would satisfy any
reasonable person. … Again, on 23rd February they spoke of the peace
policy of the B.U.F., that is the British Union of Fascists, before and
after the war as the same: Mind Britain's business. It says: Hitler
bears close resemblance to Mr. Churchill. That was just a month before
the war, at a time when Mr. Churchill was not in a position to influence
our policy. Then, after the war: Mr.
Churchill added another distinction to his conquest in the course of
his speech on the wireless. He is the first man to call the Germans '
Huns.' Again: ''Whenever during the last war Mr. Churchill edified us
with a cocksure pronouncement on the progress of hostilities it was
always invariably the prelude to a bad reverse.'' On
16th December, 1939, it says: Imagination boggles at Mr. Hore-Belisha
and Mr. Winston Churchill wondering a single second over the failure of
their Departments to meet their obligations. What they would worry
themselves sick about would be if their own salaries were not paid
promptly. On 23rd February, 1940, it says: Now that the sound and fury
of Mr. Winston Churchill has been hushed awhile "— He was not Prime
Minister then— when our Prime Minister quits his post in a middle of a
war to cross the Atlantic we expect him to return with something more
substantial than even an Eight Point Declaration. The humiliating
impression is conveyed of the British Prime Minister standing cap in
hand on America's doorstep or gang-plank. That was on 22nd August, 1941.
In October, 1939, there was this statement: There is only one man in
England who, in Mr. Churchill's reckoning, is fit to govern and that
man, of course, as you will guess, is Mr. Churchill. That is the
attitude of mind towards not merely a man in office but a man who has
put up the best fight for us against the Germans. I now come to the
paper's anti-American attitude On 29th September, 1940, they said:
America is willing to fight to the last Englishman. On 6th October,
1940, they said: For 18 months Americans have feared any European who
stood for peace in Europe. The U.S.A. is fiercely anxious for Europe to 1458
go to war because when Europe is at war, American industry booms. I ask
the House to consider not only the effect of all this on our morale but
on our relations with other countries. On 3rd November last year it was
stated: Germany is not one of the favoured belligerents because she has
no money. If that disability were removed America would supply arms to
Germany as willingly as to us. On 19th September, this year, the paper
said: While one welcomes the Prime Minister's assurance that every
effort will be made to secure a peaceful settlement in the Far East, it
is imprudent to put oneself into a position where one's life depends on
blood transfusion from an expectant and an ambitions heir "— that is
America— Even if America is willing to save the patient, what will her
fee be? Home consumption is cut down to the bone. This is a decisive
moment in a war, into which, if we had been influenced by their
importunity, we should have plunged a year earlier when we were more
unprepared. On 15th August, 1941, they said: We are glad to co-operate
with Americans, not to pull their chestnuts out of the fire. Is this
what one would call "helping the war effort"? In connection with the
meeting in the Atlantic it was said: I suggest to Mr. Alexander and Mr.
Brendan Bracken that the appropriate name for our next battleship to be
launched would be H.M.S. Hollywood. There was, as hon. Members know, a
moving film taken of the service that took place on board. As to their
pro-peace attitude, I will give one quotation, dated 6th October, 1940:
The fact which appalled me was the state of mind that had been reached,
in which peace itself should be a threat. They know as well as we know
that peace would not be peace, but a truce. The basis of all the
propaganda against us to-day is that we should be sensible and shake
hands with Germany to-morrow, and have our throats cut about five years
later. Let me give another quotation to show how they are pro-German. In
a reference to the right hon. Gentleman who is now Home Secretary,
before he became a Minister, they speak of him as "London's little
dictator," and say: London's little dictator suggested to Sir John
Anderson that he should watch the people who up to the outbreak of war
wanted to strengthen relations with Germany. Mr. Winston Churchill on
the Treasury Bench nodded his head in vigorous approval. 1459
On 24th November, 1939, there was a column letter by Major-General
Fuller white-washing, German concentration camps by way of counter-blast
to the Government's White Paper on German atrocities. Major-General
Fuller was connected with Joyce in the Fascist movement. He backed up a
book called "The Truth About This War," one of the pacifist publications
which came out during the "phoney" war. On 26th July, 1940, there was a
leading article insisting on Germany taking her proper place in the
leadership of Europe. That was just after France went out of the war. As
to their attitude to Russia, here is a quotation dated 8th August,
1941: Let us not deceive ourselves. If Russia does succeed in turning
the tables on Germany, it would be she who would issue the invitations
to the peace conference and we should be lucky if we got one. I think I
have read enough to show even those people who think that "Truth" is the
old newspaper they used to read when they were young, that at the
present time this newspaper has become a positive danger, and that it is
putting over propaganda which is very dangerous to our relations with
other countries and dangerous to morale in this country.
I
have said all I wanted to say, except that all through these
kaleidoscopic changes there appear the figures of Mr. Crocker and Sir
Joseph Ball, not as directors of but as connected with "Truth." I
understand these people are also on the Swinton Committee. It is
improper that people in any sort of way connected with this matter
should be on a committee which has the decision as to whether "Truth"
should continue to exist. There is a great deal of secrecy about the
committee, but if there is any connection between people who are
connected with this paper and the Swinton Committee it is bound to
create an unsatisfactory feeling throughout the country. I am more
anxious to get the attitude of the Swinton Committee towards the
Fascists and towards the Jews changed than even to get a change in the
editorship of "Truth." That will give us a decent national line, and
effective support of this Government. Better that than even to see the
paper suppressed."
Both
Ball and Crocker had by 1942 resigned from the Security Executive aka
Swinton Committee and from directorships of the Truth. Democracy does
work if we give a chance bravo Colonel Wedgewood.
It appears that Sir Joseph Ball began to invest in South African
Apartheid prior to his departure from Downing Street in 1940. As early
as 1936 he was chairing the AGM of Sir Abe Bailey's Henderson Transvaal
Estates before taking over. The Financial Times (11th June 1936) show
him boasting of South African profits and being listed as a being on the
Board along with John MilnerBailey (Sir Abe Bailey's son) who would be a
member of the Pro-Nazi Right Club in 1939 having been divorced from
Winston Churchill's daughter Diana in 1935. Also on the board Mr W E
Lawson-Johnson (presumably Lord Luke's younger son)
In his speech to investors Ball boasted: "The present era of prosperity
is undoubtedly largely due to the high price of South Africa's prinicpal
product -namely gold...It would be to deny that the adverse influence
of unsettled conditions in europe may yet cause a setback to the
economic progress and prosperity of the Union. But, excluding any
unforeseeable international complications, there would seem to be no
reason why, under the sound and sane government which now controls it's
affairs South Africa should not continue the progress which it has
achieved during the past 3 years and why this company should not
continue to enjoy it's share of increased prosperity."
Don't forget that the National Government of South Africa included Prime
Minster Hertzog whose reforms in the 1920's & 1930's increased
discrimination against Black Africans "In a sense, therefore, the discriminatory social and economic policies
pursued by the Pact Government helped pave the way for the eventual
establishment of the Apartheid state" including
the deregistration of Black Africans in 1936. Hertzog refused to enter
the Second World War on the British side with Pro-Nazi Oswald Pirow he
formed his own breakaway party NNP. Interestingly Hertzog thought highly
of Neville Chamberlain and the reported the fact the Queen Mother in
conversation.
Sir George Joseph Ball (1885-1961) for many historians, politicians, filmmakers,and members of the intelligence community remains a figure of fascination, embarrassment and revulsion. This Security Services Officer held the key operational role in MI5 for it's formative years between 1915-26. He was headhunted out of MI5 to run first propaganda at Conservative Party Central Office and then the Conservative Research Department. In recent years he has come further into the public domain with characterisations of him appearing in the following movies, particuarly the brilliant 2009 film "Glorious 39" by Steven Poliakoff.
Steven Poliakoff wrote in History Today about how the Character Joseph Balcombe was based closely on Sir Joseph Ball , MI5 Officer.
The Film Glorious 39 explored the sinister side of appeasement.
A cloud of sinister suspicion surrounds Ball, even Conservative writers such as Michael Dobbs and Alistair Cooke (Baron Lexden) talking about his activities in dark terms. (Cooke refers to activities such as burglary and murder "- Its first Director, Sir Joseph Ball, was one of the most successful and
least scrupulous officers that MI5 has ever had. A murder or two in the
course of a spying operation was all in a day’s work." Dobbs - a household name from his "House of Cards books and TV political thrillers highlights the Activities of Ball and his Civil Service Eminent Grise Sir Horace Wilson in a similar vane in his 2003 book "Winston's War"
My own contribution to the debate about Ball's activities has taken me 11 years to research and write, and is published in March 2012 by Lulu.com
I drew heavily on seven unpublished boxes of Sir Joseph Ball's Private Papers which were acquired by the Bodelian Library at Oxford University and form part of the Conservative Party Archive. The archival material is closed to the general public and can only viewed by academics and researchers. Cooke and Dobbs as conservative writers may have had privileged access to the 2 boxes of the seven still closed by the Conservative Party which must contain matters too sensitive for scrutiny some 80 years since their occurrence.
For those interested in the information I did discover (including Ball's connection with honours trafficker Maundy Gregory, his masterminding of the Zinoviev Letter Forgery Election Fraud of 1924, his links to far right Pro-Nazis in Britain, his sponsorship of backchannels to Nazi Germany ,his implication in honours funding of Neville Chamberlain's appeasement policy by Tax Dodging Bahamas Gold Magnate Sir Harry Oakes and the Watergate Dirty Trick campaigns against Liberals, Labour and Anti-Nazi Conservatives such as Winston Churchill my research is available in "Churchill's Secret Enemy"
For Information on my next book "His Majesty's Secret" - available from Lulu.com on January 1st 2013.
PRE-RELEASE MEDIA ATTENTION
26 Feb 2012 Sunday Express Article
- "How this crook saved the Queen Mother" - article by Royal Author
Christopher Wilson revealing some of the new evidence regarding George
VI and the Queen Mother such as the MI5 file and Royal Correspondance
proving links to Maundy Gregory contained in "Churchill's Secret Enemy"
published in 2012 and to be expanded upon in "His Majesty's Secret" in
2013.
