Papa Spy

by Jimmy Burns

  Wright, Peter, Spy Catcher (London, 1987)

  Ximenez, José Rey, El Vuelo de Ibis (Madrid, 2009)

  Notes

  1. Catholic Roots

  The main source for this chapter is Tom Burns, The Use of Memory (London: Sheed & Ward, 1993)

  p. 1 very English, very respectable, and very traditional: Sir Samuel Hoare, Ambassador on Special Mission (London: Collins, 1946), p. 9.

  p. 2 There is no country: Ibid., p.102.

  p. 2 a new generation of young intellectuals: Author’s conversations with various English Catholics, including Barbara Lucas and Michael Walsh. Also Bernard Wall, Headlong into Change (London: Harvill, 1969), p. 61, and Adrian Hastings, A History of English Christianity (London, SCM Press, 2005), pp. 280–81, ibid., p. 279.

  p. 4 Thank you very much: David Burns’s letters from the front are from Burns Family Archive (BFA).

  p. 5 Stonyhurst considered itself unique: For the most comprehensive history of the school, from its early beginnings to the late twentieth century, see T. E. Muir, Stonyhurst College (London: James & James, 1992).

  p. 5 loyalty to the British state: Francis Irwin, Stonyhurst War Record (Stonyhurst, 1927), p. xxxiv. Also contains account of David Burns’s death in action, pp. 18–20.

  p. 5 John was infused with an adventurous and polemical spirit: I have drawn from correspondence between John and Fr D’Arcy from BFA. Also H. J. A. Sire, Father Martin D’Arcy (Leominster, 1997), p. 48.

  p. 6 Burns and the much older Gwen: Ceridwen Lloyd-Morgan (ed.), Gwen John: Letters and Notebooks (London: Tate Publishing in association with The National Library of Wales, 2004), pp. 162, 164; Susan Chitty, Gwen John (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1981), p. 189.

  p. 8 On the rare occasion that G. K. was neither on a ritual drinking binge with Belloc: On the relationship between the two, see A. N. Wilson, Hilaire Belloc (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1984), pp. 99–100.

  p. 9 the most innovative if controversial of Burns’s early stable of authors: Fiona McCarthy, Eric Gill (London: Faber & Faber, 1989), p. 150.

  p. 9 near his friend Harman Grisewood: Grisewood papers, Georgetown University (GEO). For other private jokes and references in Vile Bodies, see Selina Hastings, Evelyn Waugh (London, Minerva, 1995), p. 209.

  p. 9 a BBC news editor he held responsible: D. J. Taylor, Bright Young People, (London: Vintage, 2008), p. 134.

  p. 10 one time fanatics of the party-going scene: Taylor, Bright Young People, p. 166.

  p. 10 the girl that claimed to have visions of the Virgin Mary urging her to a life of chastity: Sire, D’Arcy, p. 79.

  p. 10 ‘suffered the attention of sea gulls’: Burns, Use of Memory, p. 22.

  p. 11 had filled me with foreboding: Burns, Use of Memory, p. 22.

  p. 12 conflict between Burns and Oldmeadow: Michael Walsh, Tablet (London: The Tablet Publishing Company, 1990), pp. 37–8.

  p. 12 royalties going to the Oxford Jesuit college: Sire, D’Arcy, p. 82.

  p. 13 ‘savagery comitted by communist regimes: Christopher Sykes, Evelyn Waugh (London: Penguin, 1982), p. 206.

  p. 13 ‘rather curved ’: For Greene’s politics at this time see W. J. West, The Quest for Graham Greene (London: Phoenix, 1988), pp. 58, 59, also Michael Shelden, Graham Greene: The Man Within (London, Minerva, 1995), pp. 89, 140, and Norman Sherry, The Life of Graham Greene, vol. 1 (London, Penguin, 1990), p. 161.

  p. 14 It was from Barbara and it was a cry for help: Author’s interview with Barbara Lucas. For Belmonte character and bullfighting, see Ernest Hemingway, Death in the Afternoon (London: Classic Vintage, 2007), Fiesta, the Sun Also Rises (London: Arrow, 1982) and A. L. Kennedy, On Bullfighting (London: Yellow Jersey Press, 1999), pp. 68–79, also bullfighter’s memoirs in Manuel Chaves Nogales, Juan Belmonte, matador de toros (Madrid: Alianza, 1969).

  p. 15 George Steer, the South African-born correspondent: Nicholas Rankin, Telegram from Guernica (London: Faber & Faber, 2003).

  p. 16 Burns signed up Waugh: Sykes, Waugh, pp. 227, 231 and 234 (for influence of Belloc).

  p. 17 the main army conspirators: Luis Bolín, Spain: The Vital Years (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1967); Mariano Sánchez Soler, Los Banqueros de Franco (Madrid: Oberon, 2005); by same author, Ricos por la guerra de España (Madrid: Raices, 2007); J. I. Luca de Tena, Mis Amigos Muertos (Barcelona: Planeta, 1971); for Pollard’s intelligence links, see documents HS 9/1200–5, NA; Diana Pollard’s memoirs were recorded by the Imperial War Museum, London.

  p. 19 On a scale almost Chinese: Martin Gilbert, Churchill (London: Pimlico, 2000), pp. 58–60.

  p. 20 ‘Blood, blood, blood ’: Tom Buchanan, Britain and the Spanish Civil War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), p. 87.

  p. 20 Hillgarth, the Naval Intelligence officer: David Stafford, Churchill and Secret Service (London: Abacus, 1997), pp. 236–7; Hillgarth’s novel based in Bolivia is called The Black Mountain.

  p. 20 Very sure of himself, writes shockers: Waugh, Diaries, 1 July 1927; for account of Son Torella, I have drawn from Mary Hillgarth, ‘A Private Life’ (privately printed memoirs) (BFA).

  2. Authors Take Sides

  p. 24 There’s something obscene: Quoted in Walter Hooper, C. S. Lewis: A Companion and Guide (London: Fount/HarperCollins, 1996), p. 25.

  p. 25 When the left-wing Popular Front won: For Campbell’s experience of the ‘terror’ in Toledo, and other details of his life, I am indebted to his biographers Joseph Pearce, Bloomsbury and Beyond (London: HarperCollins, 2002), and Peter Alexander, Roy Campbell (Oxford University Press, 1982), as well as Campbell’s own memoirs, Light on a Dark Horse (London: Penguin, 1971), and Anna Campbell Lyle’s memoir of her father, Poetic Justice (BFA).

  p. 26 more for my sympathies: Burns, Use of Memory, p. 74.

  p. 26 The Catholic weekly the Tablet: Buchanan, Civil War, p. 179.

  p. 26 Campbell followed Burns’s instructions: Alexander, Roy Campbell, p. 172.

  p. 27 the young Cambridge graduate: For Peter Kemp’s own account of his involvement in the Spanish Civil War, see his memoir, Mine Were of Trouble (London: Cassell, 1957). Further insights are provided by Priscilla Scott-Ellis, who met Kemp while working as a nurse on the Nationalist side. See her diary, The Changes of Death (Norwich: Michael Russell, 1995), and a more critical account of her activities in Paul Preston, Doves of War (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2002).

  p. 27 propaganda efforts: A detailed examination of media coverage of the Spanish Civil War is provided by Paul Preston, We Saw Spain Die (London: Constable & Robinson, 2008).

  p. 28 survey of British writers: Buchanan, Civil War, p. 159.

  p. 28 Burns’s takeover of the Tablet: Detailed in Walsh, Tablet. Graham Greene’s collected journalism for the magazine is examined in Ian Thomson’s edited Articles of Faith (Oxford: Signal Books, 2006).

  p. 28 Greene contrasted the political rantings of the 1930s: the Spectator article is quoted in Shelden, Greene, p. 225.

  p. 29 For this account of the propaganda war waged over Gernika, I have drawn from Rankin, Telegram from Guernica. See also Preston, We Saw Spain Die.

  p. 29 More recently Basque investigators: author’s interview with Basque journalist and author Iñigo Gurruchaga.

  p. 31 A broader attack on the claims made: A copy of the Jesuit George Burns’s (brother of Tom) letter defending Nationalist propaganda is in the Basque National Archive (BNA), Fundación Sabino Arana.

  p. 33 joined Longman, Green & Co.: Hastings, Waugh, p. 315.

  p. 35 Beverley Nichols entertained leaders of the Hitler Youth to lunch at the Garrick Club: Taylor, Bright Young People, p. 245.

  p. 38 ‘To those men who watched the creeping disorder’: Gabriel Herbert papers.

  p. 38 ‘To a people tired of injustice’: Gabriel Herbert papers

  p. 40 Philby continued to use his journalism as a cover for espionage: Preston, We Saw Spain Die,

  p. 165; Kim Philby, My Silent War (New York: Random House, 2002), pp. 1–6

  3. Ministry
of Information

  p. 46 Mass and Communion: Waugh, Diaries, p. 439.

  p. 46 Churchill was not taken seriously: Burns, Use of Memory, p. 83.

  p. 46 Yes, I heard Chamberlain’s grand little speech: David Jones (ed.), Dai Greatcoat: A Self-Portrait of David Jones in His Letters (London: Faber & Faber, 1980), p. 88.

  p. 46 I am deeply impressed by it: Ibid., p. 92.

  p. 47 pull strings for me: Burns, Use of Memory, p. 171.

  p. 47 The new Pope was Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli: Two essential books of reference on the controversial Pius XII are John Cornwell’s Hitler’s Pope (London: Penguin: 2000) and Gerard Noel’s Pius XII: The Hound of Hitler (London: Continuum, 2008).

  p. 48 This is the first chance of writing: Grisewood papers, GEO.

  p. 53 ‘Darling, here I am alone: Burns/BL letters.

  p. 54 thrush-like beauty: Hugo Vickers, Elizabeth, The Queen Mother (London: Arrow Books, 2005), p. 52.

  p. 55 My darling Ann: All letters from Tom Burns to Ann Bowes-Lyon are from BFA.

  p. 55 I keep thinking of you: Ibid.

  p. 56 Darling little heart: Ibid.

  p. 56 Richey was looking for a job: Information based on author’s interview with Richey (24/8/2005) and Richey papers at GEO.

  p. 57 Burns moved into the Ministry of Information: No government records appear to have survived detailing the precise sequence of events that led to Burns’s recruitment although it is possible to deduce from Burns’s memoir, The Use of Memory, the kind of networking that may have influenced matters. Grisewood was by then a rising star in the BBC and increasingly involved in wartime propaganda. Lord Howard of Penrith was another of Burns’s male friends from the 1920s, the first of to achieve a peerage. Francis Howard had just inherited the title following the death of his father Esme, a senior figure in the diplomatic service and former ambassador to Washington.

  p. 57 the future poet laureate: See Bevis Hillier’s condensed biography of the poet (London: John Murray, 2006) and Channel 4’s The Real John Betjeman (text in Channel 4’s portrait gallery). Recalling their first encounter in the 1920s, Burns in Use of Memory described Betjeman as the ‘first Protestant I’ve ever met’. They were introduced to each other by a mutual friend, Billy Clonmore, a former Anglican priest who had converted to Catholicism. Betjeman spent only slightly more time at the MoI HQ than Burns before being posted to Dublin as press attaché – his job involved him advocating Ireland’s alliance with Britain against Germany and reporting on the activities of the IRA. ‘The boy who had been teased as a “German spy” had grown up to be a British spy’ (Channel 4, Real Lives).

  p. 58 Most of us indulged in an unscrupulous and crazy scramble: Sir Kenneth Grubb, The Crypts of Power (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1971), p. 107.

  p. 59 if English life had run as it did in the books of adventure: Evelyn Waugh, Put Out More Flags (London: Penguin, 2000), p. 50.

  p. 59 too tall, too handsome, too well-born: Ibid., p. vii.

  p. 59 history of the Jesuits: According to Waugh’s biographer, Selina Hastings, the author decided not to write the book after he returned from his trip to Mexico in October 1938. The decision was welcomed by Waugh’s agent A. D. Peters who felt that Burns’s proposal ‘could not from any angle be regarded as commercial’. See Hastings, Waugh, p. 380.

  p. 60 I shall be delighted to do such a preface: Belloc papers, Burns Library, Boston College (BC).

  p. 60 Burns enlisted the help of his friend and political ally Douglas Jerrold:‘I am sure this would be invaluable both from the Catholic and national point of view,’ Jerrold wrote of the ‘pamphlet’ he commissioned Belloc to write. Ibid.

  p. 60 browbeaten, by people who talk of a large and powerful Catholic body: Quoted by Wilson, Belloc, p. 365. Belloc’s anti-German pronouncements contrast with his more controversial statements on the Jewish race. A more recent biography by Joseph Pearce, Old Thunderer: A Life of Hilaire Belloc (London: HarperCollins, 2002), was criticised for ‘skating’ over the question of Belloc’s anti-Semitism, which the reviewer, Hywel Williams, describes as the ‘central disfiguring fact of his oeuvre‘ (Guardian, 17/8/2002). Critics accuse Belloc of fuelling anti-Semitism among some fellow Catholics through his writings, blaming Jewish elements for the influence they had in promoting the forces of materialism. But in The Catholic and the War, published in 1940, Belloc condemned Nazi anti-Semitism. p. 60 Before the war … violent polemics were carried out by literary men: Wall, Headlong into Change, p. 169.

  p. 61 D’Arcy began to broadcast frequently: For the Jesuit’s involvement in the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War see Sire, D’Arcy, pp. 88–9 and p. 121.

  p. 61 Waugh wrote to Basil Dufferin: see Sykes, Waugh, p. 26. On the suspicions agencies like MI5 might have of Waugh’s political reliability, Sykes comments: ‘He [Waugh] was to show that he was not reliable in the sense of being politically subservient in all things. In the sense of not being prone to treason, he was politically wholly reliable’, ibid., pp. 269–70.

  p. 61 His social contacts during the 1930s extended to families like the Mitfords: The emotional attraction Waugh felt for Diana Mitford (he dedicated his 1929 novel Vile Bodies to her) has been well documented by his biographers. See Hastings, Waugh, pp. 217–18. For Oswald Moseley’s close relationship with the Nazis, and his attempts – aided by Diana and her sister Unity – to support Hitler’s regime see Stephen Dorill, Black Shirt (London: Viking: 2006). Dorill suggests that a member of Mosley’s early circle of friends was a rebellious and polemic Oxford contemporary of Evelyn Waugh’s, Peter Rodd, who the author used as a model for Basil Seal in Put Out More Flags.

  The diaries of Guy Liddell, the deputy MI5 chief during the Second World War, and other recently declassified MI5 files show that British intelligence had been tracking the personal involvement of Diana and Unity with the Nazi regime through the 1930s. Unity shot herself in Munich at the outbreak of the war and lived out the rest of her short life as an invalid. Diana became Mosley’s mistress before marrying him in 1936 in Joseph Goebbels’s Berlin drawing room. Apart from the witnesses, Goebbels and Hitler were the only guests. Both Diana and her husband were interned by the British until November 1943, when they were placed under house arrest for the remainder of the war.

  p. 62 Burns, thanks to his friends in the Foreign Office: The most influential of these was Eric Drummond, the 16th Earl of Perth. A descendant of one of the oldest Scottish clans and a staunch Catholic, Drummond developed a close personal and professional relationship with Burns during the 1930s when he served as British ambassador to Rome. With the outbreak of the Second World War Drummond was appointed by the Foreign Office as Director General designate of the MoI and subsequently the department’s chief adviser on foreign publicity. Drummond’s son, the (Benedictine) Downside-educated John, a contemporary of Burns, served in the intelligence corps in France and was sent, when Burns was at the MoI, to the US to lobby for its involvement in the war.

  p. 62 Evelyn turned up at the Ministry of Information: Burns, Use of Memory, p. 64.

  p. 62 George Orwell, 1984 (London: Penguin, 1959). For the topography of 1984, see D.

  J. Taylor, Orwell, A Life (London: Vintage, 2003), p. 388.

  p. 63 Graham Greene, The Confidential Agent (London: Vintage, 2001).

  p. 63 Mike on leave: Barbara Lucas, personal diary and interview with the author.

  p. 65 Franco’s triumphant state entry: A detailed description is given in Paul Preston, Franco (London: HarperCollins, 1993), pp. 329–30.

  p. 66 It is clear that if friendship and understanding: Quoted by Michael E. Williams in St Alban’s College, Valladolid (London: C. Hurst & Company, 1986), p. 217.

  p. 67 Pope Pius XI’s letter against Nazism: Ibid., p. 217. For an example of how the forthright anti-fascist encyclical was contrasted by Catholics with Pacelli’s later failure to publicly condemn Nazism, see Charles R. Gallagher, Vatican Secret Diplomacy (London: Yale University Press, 2008), p. 91.

  p. 67
The appointment of such a priest: Williams, St Alban’s, p. 217.

  p. 68 Until England breaks definitely: Ibid., p. 218.

  p. 68 Cowan was a former member: For account of Chetwode commission, see Hugh Thomas, The Spanish Civil War (London: 1977), p. 854. For documentation on Cowan controversy, see Foreign Office files FO 371–245526 at NA.

  p. 70 He was excellent company: Burns, Use of Memory, p. 85.

  p. 71 the contrast and the change: From Hilaire Belloc’s Many Cities (London: Constable, 1920), quoted in Jimmy Burns, A Literary Companion to Spain (London: John Murray, 1994), p. 3.

  p. 71 Whereas uniforms had been everywhere: Burns, Use of Memory, p. 86.

  p. 71 the yellow land, the red land: From José Ortega y Gasset, Viajes y Países (Madrid: Revista de Occidente, 1957), quoted in Burns, Literary Companion to Spain, p. 5.

  p. 71 The long road from Burgos to Madrid: For a photographic and anecdotal record of the suffering and destruction suffered by the Spanish capital and its inhabitants during the long siege of the Spanish Civil War, see Carmen and Laura Gutierrez Rueda, El Hambre en el Madrid de la Guerra Civil (Madrid: Ediciones La Liberia, 2003).

  p. 72 A group of journalists: Burns, Use of Memory, p. 86.

  4. Reconnaissance

  p. 74 The clientele was very young then: Martha Gellhorn, The View from the Ground (London: Granta Books, 1989), p. 337.

  p. 74 A copy of ABC: For source material on this period, editions of the newspaper during the Second World War were researched at the Local Newspaper Library of the Madrid City Council, Hemeroteca Municipal del Ayuntamiento de Madrid.

  p. 76 Don Bernardo … was a fervent Catholic: Burns, The Use of Memory, p. 87.

  p. 77 Burns found Hillgarth a likeable and entertaining tutor: For the background to Hillgarth’s appointment as naval attaché in Madrid, see British Admiralty files at NA. In August 1939, the Director of Naval Intelligence, Geoffrey Cooke, wrote a memo supporting Hillgarth’s posting on the following grounds: politically, Hillgarth would help exploit the Anglophile tendency in the Spanish navy against the influence of German and Italian naval attachés. Hillgarth had an advantage in that nearly all the principal units of the Spanish navy were equipped with British materiel and had been built in the partly British-owned naval shipyard of El Ferrol. Hillgarth had built up his contacts with senior pro-Franco naval officers while serving as Consul in Mallorca during the Spanish Civil War.