PEOPLES BOOK SHOP, 19 HINDLEY STREET, ADELAIDE.
The Surveillance video above was of the Communist Party of Australia, Adelaide Section, it was recorded in 1956. It isn't particularly long but there are some interesting aspects that you might spot. It's an exercise in observation, what do you see?
Please add a comment and we can get a group idea of what was or could have been happening during this clip.
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The next post will look closer at the Security arrangements in South Australia in the years following the end of WW2 hostilities. I think you'll find it quite revealing, and perhaps it will add weight to some of the statements made by Paul Lawson regarding the political leanings of some members of the SA Police service particularly during the post-war years. Coming soon.
People ariive (start), some of the people leave (lunch break), then come back (resume meeting), and then leave (end of meeting). But not everyone (maybe committee meetings or a social function).
ReplyDeleteStanislaw is last to arrive and first to leave on each occasion. At the break he goes to his bike and retrieves something or places something - a dead letter drop?
I should have asked for the time on the line when the instances occurred. There are comings and goings that's for sure but some are different people. What we don't have is the time of day, and we are also assuming that it was all on the same day.
ReplyDeleteI think he was retrieving something from the handle on the bike, I don't think it was necessarily his bike.
Do you think it was Stanislaw? Do we have a description in terms of height amongst the documents?
I am confused. If that was the 1956 conference, then what was this?
ReplyDeletehttp://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/scripts/AutoSearch.asp?O=I&Number=30485242
It says it was the same conference, yet the location appears to be different and the people photographed don't appear in the video.
Same time and same conference but different venue? Maybe they had a couple of streams happening? Could be that the published conference venue was one thing and the People's Book Shop meeting was another.
ReplyDeleteA few things to look at:
ReplyDelete1. at 44 second mark, man with beret and bomber jacket
2. at 47 second mark, man with beret joins conversation, back to camera
3. at 54 seconds mark, man with beret stands in front of the doors
4. at 58 seconds man with beret steps away to let someone in and then back to stand in front of the doors
5. at 1 min 25 seconds another man with jacket enters doors, lady appears with kettle, kettle is not hot, she moves out of shot at 1 min 33 secs
6. at 1 min 40 seconds, nan with jacket, beret, knapsack and wearing boots enters shot
7. man with knapsack remains in shot, chats with group.
8. at 2minutes mark, man parks bike and removes trouser grips and puts then over the handle bars, enters shop
9. at 2mins 47 seconds, man gets out of A35 car or similar, goes to open the door of the shop but it seems to be guarded against the other side momentarily. First man with beret and bomber jacket is probably the door guard.
10. at 2 minutes 52 seconds bike man leaves. (Notice man on crutches, he appears in another video arriving at an airport)
11. at 4minutes 31 seconds, bike man returns and leaves again at 4 minutes 38 seconds, he removes the grips from the handlebars and then leaves again as though he was walking away.
12. at 4minutes and 38 seconds, man walks out of doors carrying kettle, appears to be full?
There are other comings and goings of various people but this is the sort of note taking we were taught to do way back when.
I agree with you Pete that the bike man looks like Stanislaw. The book shop was in 19 Hindley Street which is quite some distance from Hindmarsh where the conference was held. Also of note is that, un the current map at least, there is a Police station right opposite the Peoples Book Shop. That could mean that the camera was installed there.
Worth checking just where Len Brown found the copy of the Rubaiyat he used to compare the torn piece with. I also wonder whether that bookshop sold copies of the Rubaiyat, very convenient way to organise delivery and/or exchange of copies?
Certainly looked a hive of activity, there is an advert for this bookshop on TROVE date 26 Aug 1944, interesting that NZ book is mentioned, I wonder if they had a stock of Rubiyat books inside? Clive
ReplyDeleteThey had a shop up in Cairns, same name and similar books and publications from the CPA. Even an essay from LL Sharkey. Don't know if there were branches in other capital cities?
ReplyDeleteThere certainly was a Communist Party bookstore in Perth, on corner Bulwer and Lord st. Nice block of flats there now.
ReplyDeleteDo you have a name for that bookstore Pete?
ReplyDeleteI think it was called the Progress bookstore. I think they had a print works by the same name
ReplyDeleteThere used to be an army museum on the same intersection I believe, diagonally opposite
ReplyDeleteASIO wrote down the address in Perth for us. 75 Bulwer St.
ReplyDeletehttp://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/scripts/AutoSearch.asp?O=I&Number=8194889
What's interesting about the surveillance of the Perth Office, besides the photo's clearly showing the front entrance of the Bulwer St front door, meaning that ASIO had a camera set up at the Australian Army Museum, is the level of detail in their reports. For example in this volume on Samuel Aarons http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/scripts/AutoSearch.asp?O=I&Number=12017358 it is quite clear that the informant could only be 1 of 3 people, Samuel himself, his girlfriend, or his wife. Given the disparaging remarks about the girlfriend, then I assume that the ASIO informant is his wife.
ReplyDeleteAnd the police station is still facing # 29, though the old bookshop has now been demolished. Clive
ReplyDeleteDo you know if the PS was there in 48?
ReplyDeleteThere was a bookshop called The Radical Bookshop, 264 William St, Perth-it was at that location circa 1934-1940 at least. Clive
ReplyDeleteSome news from PeteDavo, it looks as though Stanislaw Kilanski who died 14/8/23 was a 'rebirthed' agent. Pete found a record for Stanislaw, http://www.nekrologi-baza.pl/zlista/166, with the date matching the Stanislaw found hanged in Adelaide.
ReplyDeleteThis brings back memories of Tibor Kaldor, apparently a rare name but in 1945, 2 men of that name died within days of each other in Prague. They had both survived the horrors of the camps.
Stanislaw is obviously linked to Adelaide, I think he arrived there in 1950 just less than 2 years after the finding of the body of the Somerton Man. I stand to be corrected on the year of his arrival. What's different here is that we have what we now believe to be a Soviet agent seen attending a CPA meeting.
My understanding was that such men would keep at a distance from such gatherings to avoid linking/detection by sharp eyed Intelligence man. It doesn't add up somehow.
From the SM case perspective Pete has found proof of a rebirth event. The Somerton Man may have his origins in that circumstance, it would explain to an extent why people didn't recognise him, but there are other reasons for that as well.