Gareth Jones
[bas relief by Oleh Lesiuk]
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Public Records Office
information on Wostwag and Adam Purpis[s].
Ref KV2/1655
[For private and academic use only]
After information from Soviet defector Krivinsky in 1938,
MI6 opened up a case file, but Wostwag appears to have already been under
surveillance in 1936. There is a cross-reference to another case file on
Wostwag at the PRO (PF45633) – but unfortunately it appears to have been
‘lost’.
Wostwag was originally a German company with outlying
branches trading on a barter system and mainly in the lucrative market of furs
in exchange for machinery, vehicles and airplanes.
On the advent of Hitler’s power, the Nazis wanted to
‘natzify’ the main office in Berlin, so the branch stations became autonomous
and broke all links with Germany, under the new name of ‘Far Eastern Fur
Trading Company', with the main financial clearing office in Upper Thames Street
in London.
There are references of at least two major transactions into
Purpis’ bank account of $150,000 (to set up The Oriental Trading and
Engineering Company in New York) and (I seem to remember reading in the file of
another transaction, but have not got a photo of it) for $100,000 into his
Shanghai account from Martins Bank, London. Purpis also in one report appears to have set up as a sole trader in
1938.
He made several trips to Europe – first noted in September
1936, under a false Honduran passport. Purpis eventually is observed arriving
in the US in late 1938 and then his whereabouts becomes unclear, but was
clearly in business there.
The Far Eastern Fur Company was during 1940 broken up by the
British and the directors interrogated, as it was considered to be a ‘company
trading with the enemy'.
I start this document with a curio – a letter from Philby's opposite number
at MI5, Department Head Roger Hollis, departmental head of Soviet &
Communist affairs. In 1945, Philby was, according to his autobiography 'My
Silent War', responsible; "under the [MI6] Chief, for collection and
interpretation of information concerning Soviet & Communist espionage and
subversion in all parts of the world outside British territory."
[cited from p100 - N.B. The Jane Archer mentioned below worked for Philby as an
Intelligence Officer in Section IX, but had previously been the officer in
charge of Krivitsky's interrogation by the British in 1939. Bob Carew-Hunt was
entrusted by Philby with the composition of background papers on Communism,
becoming MI6's acknowledged expert on the subject.]
At the end of the document I have added a provisional conclusion with respect to GJ.
ADAM PURPIS -- CV
Krivinsky did not defect until 1938 – this evidence shows that MI5 were monitoring Wostwag back in 1936 before his revelations – note Purpis was being tracked in the cellotaped section below from London Airport, to Amsterdam and Berlin in late September 1936 – a long way from Kalgan!
Purpis False Passport Claim, Liddell Correspondence and 1938 Travel
1945 FBI Report with specific reference to Wostwag
It is a real shame that the original Wostwag MI5 file has
been lost.
Nevertheless the FO were aware of Wostwag in Gareth’s file
from October 1935. In reply to Sylvester (Lloyd George’s secretary) who
reported that Adelaide Ferry Hooker had thought after seeing Wostwag Company
and bullet ridden car in Kalgan, that they were a German company trading as a
Soviet front. Kitson of the FO
wrote: “According to ‘Oriental Affairs’
for Sept [1935] ‘Wostwag’ is believed to have good Soviet connections otherwise
they would not be able to get the necessary trading permits for Mongolia, which
no other foreign firm can get.”
Unfortunately, it does not look like any connection with GJ's kidnapping from the (NKVD associated) Wostwag's vehicle
was made by MI5 – though this report of Kitson was sent to the British
Embassies in both Berlin and Peking.
When London ‘Wostwag’ was
busted in 1940 at the start of the war, for trading with the enemy, Gluckmann said
under interrogation that Wostwag were very
worried from 1932 onwards about Japanese expansion in Manchuria would stop them
trading in the area.
This is an important point – Wostwag was a real cash-cow to
the Soviets – after GJ’s murder they were able to buy at least nine DC Douglas
aircraft and three Fokkers.
Whether Wostwag just wanted a cover for their driver to see
what was happening in Dolonor or had more sinister intentions, they got a
result – they were able to continue to trade in the area until probably the
Rape of Nanking in 1937 – after which Purpis set up a company in New York in
1938.
We do know that Mueller was persuaded by an unknown third
party to take GJ on this ‘free’ journey courtesy of Wostwag, but was this an
opportunist offer made by Purpis in Kalgan, or made by Mueller in Pekin and
possibly arranged as far back as when Gareth was in Tokyo, staying with NKVD
agent Gunther Stein, who allowed his apartment to be used by the Soviet spy
Richard Sorge??
Stein had only just arrived in Tokyo just before GJ and,
coincidentally was the Berliner Tageblatt correspondent in Moscow back
in 1933 and would have known that GJ had embarrassed the Soviets, maybe he also
knew of the Soviets concerns over loss of trade in Manchuria? It is believed
that Stein was on special NKVD work as he was not allowed to officially join
Sorge’s spy ring. Could you the Soviets have
colluded with the Japanese 'Strike-South' political faction so as to weaken the
'Strike -North' faction who had designs on Outer Mongolia and Siberia as well as
Northern China?
We do know however, that there were two Japanese observers
with the first set of kidnappers – perhaps the Japanese in Dolonor were tipped
off by Mueller / Anatoli of GJ’s ‘importance’ being connected with Lloyd George
– and they then organised an incident like the Mukden Incident, which would
allow them to legitimately expand their borders in order to protect their own
interests in this lawless area.
But it went wrong for the Japanese, possibly by Soviet
design or intention and the result was that Gareth’s murder was indeed able to
‘pay-back’ the Soviets with interest, for his former embarrassment of exposing
the famine.
Soviet retribution was complete…
© Nigel Colley 2004-07. All Rights Reserved.
KV2 /1902 - Newly released Wostwag File in 2005 at PRO
Newly released PRO file
of Wostwag has the following appraisal of Purpis - KV2 /1902 Note from
Mr Adam PURPSS
It is stated that Chase has not been informed of the full list of directors but understood that Mr. CLARKE is a Director as is Mr. JOHN E. KLIEBEL of New York. It is stated that Mr. PURPISS told the Shanghai Branch of Chase that he was formerly General Manager of the predecessor company for several years; and previous to that, had been in business on his own account. He is a Latvian by birth but travels under a Honduran passport. It is stated that he is considered one of the shrewdest and cleverest men in the Far East and in the past has made his headquarters in Kalgan. The memo continues to state, “it is reported further that he was one time associated with Cheka, Soviet Russia’s extraordinary secret service organization, and also that he was forced to leave Kalgan owing to threats against his life. It has also been rumored that Mr. PURPISS is associated with the Third International and reportedly he was previously in Hamburg, Germany, and had experience in hog casings and furs. Of recent years, it seems he has been the domineering factor in the Far Eastern business of “WOSTWAG”.
Important newly discovered cross-reference:
According to Nigel West's 2005 book; "Mask: MI5's Penetration of the Communist Party of Great Britain", which has as an appendix ,an MI5 report on the intelligence it gained from interviewing Krivitsky in 1940. In a summary of personalities named by Krivitsky, it describes Purpis thus; "A Lett, he travels on a Honduras passport. The OGPU illegal rezident in the UK 1931 - 1934, during which time Arnold Deutsch was his assistant. Recalled to Moscow to the OGPU's headquarters staff." [Deutsch one should remember was involved in recruitment and handling of the Cambridge ring.]
Now, if this report of Purpiss being the UK Illegal Rezident {i.e. the NKVD agent operating outside the embassy] is true, then it makes Purpiss a very big Soviet fish indeed... However, IMHO it seems unlikely that this is the same Purpis known to Gareth in Kalgan. More likley, the presence of two agents with the same name of Purpis' in different theatres of influence was designed to cause confusion within the British/Western security services as to the exact whereabouts of Soviet agents. Furthermore, from the British PRO dossier on Dr Herbert Mueller, it is quite possible that another Soviet agent of exactly the same namewas operating in India at the same time as Gareth's Mueller was in China....