WALLY CLAYTON: VENONA CODE NAME 'KLOD'
Wally was the conduit between the Soviets and the Communist Party of Australia
SOUTH AUSTRALIAN POLICE
In 1948, various officers within the SA Police had contributed to a document that was recorded and is
on file that focused specifically on 'Communist speakers and selling of communist literature'. That document is being researched at present and will be made available here once we have the full copy.
In that same time frame of 1948, both the Returned Sailors, Soldiers and Airmans Imperial League (RSS/AILA) petitioned the Premier of South Australia to have the communist party declared an illegal organisation. That petition was handed to SAPOL for action, that document is also being researched.
An interesting fact unearthed recently is that the South Australian 'Intelligence Branch' was set up in 1939 and disbanded in 1945. The Special Branch as such did not come into existence until 1949
However, another unit was introduced in 1947, it was known as the Subversive Section. The lack of attention to the growing influence of the communist party within Australia and especially South Australia, it being the hub of secret weapons development, in the years 45 to 47 in particular and extending out to 1949 meant that the left flank of Australia was exposed.
COMMUNIST INFILTRATION
The CPA was highly organised, it set itself up to infiltrate society via a number of avenues and not just the main party proper. Various organisations that were either already in existence or where specifically formed and were made full use of.
Here's the list of known organisations that were, in fact, communist-controlled published in the Advertiser in September 1948:
1. The Eureka Youth League
2. The New Theatre League
3. The New Housewives Association
4. The Women's Charter Movement (Early Feminists organisation)
5. The Consumer's Protection League
6. The People's Housing Committee
7. The Rosewater and Ottoway Progress Association
To this list must be added the left-leaning Unions and elements of the then Labor Party as well as groups within various Universities.
Unions concerned include:
- Ironworkers Union
- Seamans Union
- Miners Union
- Waterside Workers Union
Members of these groups were defacto members of the SA communist party which was estimated to have 800 core members plus the membership of the groups which could well have doubled that number. Nationally there were 15000 members. The aim of all was to overthrow the then-current systems of Government.
In 1948, the Subversive section alone was hardly sufficient to combat the rising communist infiltration. That task plus the work of guarding against known Soviet espionage agents meant that the section was quickly overwhelmed.
HIGH LEVEL INFILTRATION OF GOVERNMENT
The Australian Russian Society was a known communist front organisation that had many senior politicians amongst its membership including NSW State Government ministers EJ Ward and Clive Evatt, Clive was the brother of the Federal Minister for External Affairs, Doc Evatt.
SECURITY AGENCIES AND SUPPORT
Who was guarding the nation's security and secrets at the time?
The list of formal security organisations included The Commonwealth Security Service, Miltary Intelligence, Naval Intelligence, and Air Force Intelligence. None of which were focused on the high levels of political infiltration and it was that issue that brought about the involvement of The Association unofficially led by Field Marshall Blamey. This group boasted 75000 members in New South Wales, 50000 in Victoria, and just 1000 in South Australia. For the Association it was about numbers of men who if called upon would take to the streets and protect society from the communist threat. They were armed and they were highly organized and had strong leadership. The published numbers included many members of the RSS/AILA mentioned earlier, Many of the Association's leadership held senior positions within that organisation.
No coincidence then that the Soviets used this exposed flank to distract and tie up scarce security resources and concurrently infiltrate Government at the most senior levels leading to the intervention of the IK Government and the visit of MI5 to warn Chifley of the communist threat and the leaks that were occurring from Doc Evatt's Department in particular.
In 1948, the push was on, Communists fielded members in elections for both public and union roles and in the filed Soviet agents were working feverishly at setting up their networks of spies and sub agents. It has been said that 1948 was the year that Australia came closest to a Civil War.
In 1948, the push was on, Communists fielded members in elections for both public and union roles and in the filed Soviet agents were working feverishly at setting up their networks of spies and sub agents. It has been said that 1948 was the year that Australia came closest to a Civil War.
The communist Cold War infiltration was about to spill over into a violent war in which there would be casualties as Australia responded to the threat. The Somerton Man was destined to be amongst the first.
In the next post we will look at the 1947 to 1949 time frame and what occurred within it.
In the VENONA cables here are a number of mentions of BEN, the NSW Police officer (Alfred Hughes) and member of the CPA who worked with Wally Clayton in supplying secret information to the Soviets. This information included details of files kept on TEKNIK (Nosov) and other employees of TASS news agency. Importantly the following information was also found amongst the cables:
ReplyDeleteSeptember 1948: long report from KLOD re information received from BEN concerning the Australian Security Services - the Commonwealth Investigation Branch, the Federal Police, State police forces, sections of the NSW Police and their responsibilities, including organisations being investigated e.g. Political Research Society Ltd ‘a reactionary organisation set up by the Liberal Party to combat left-wing organisations’; ‘the materials we are sending by
post’
Effectively, with this information, BEN had neutralised the effectiveness of Australia's Security network. The way in which jobs were handled, the connections between services and more was revealed to the Soviets via BEN and KLOD.
In other documents, BEN was said to have revealed names of agents who had or were about to infiltrate the CPA. Even after BEN's removal from his position, another high level agent believed to be in the ranks of ASIO continued to inform the CPA of the names of infiltrators.