LIBERAL AND THE SIEGE OF SYDNEY STREET (1911)

STORY OF A CONTROVERSY

Student: Samira SNOUSSI Lecturer: Michael PARSONS – THE LIBERAL PARTY

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………3

The Outrage and the ………………………………………..4

The Siege Of Sydney Street……………………………………………………………………..6

Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………...14

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INTRODUCTION

Everyone, who has got the least knowledge, knows who is Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, who played such a major role during World War II that he was – and still is – considered as a hero in the United Kingdom, and at least in all European countries. To say a few words about his political path, he entered politics in 1900 as a Conservative member of parliament for Oldham. He switched parties in 1904 to become a Liberal, as he disagreed with the Conservative policy of protectionist tariffs preferentially favouring trade with the British Empire. As a Liberal, he had a rapid ascent, as he held major positions such as Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, President of the Board of Trade, Home secretary, First Lord of the Admiralty, Minister of Munitions, Secretary of state for War, then for Air, then for the Colonies. He ended up rejoining the Conservative Party again in 1925 and became Chancellor of the Exchequer, and later on, in 1939, Prime Minister to play ‘the role of his life’. All of this can be found in the first article or book about Winston Churchill, of course. Yet, what is really interesting in Churchill’s biography is the fact that, before becoming a hero, he had been much controversial, especially as Home Secretary, to the extent that he had a ‘reputation for being a frenetic and far-from-calm Home Secretary’.1 When I started working on Winston Churchill as a Liberal, I found those many allusions to him as a controversial personality, and this is due to many statements, actions and attitudes he had, starting with the fact that he switched parties from Conservatives to Liberals then back to Conservatives again. He even remarked: “Anyone can rat, but it takes a certain amount of ingenuity to re-rat.”2 The fact is that we can do extensive research around a lot of facts showing how controversial Churchill was, and I chose two of what seemed to me to be the most interesting events that shook the British public opinion or at least many of Churchill’s political fellows. Then, when looking closer in one of them, in other words the Siege of Sydney Street, I found it interesting to go far deeper in it rather than look merely at the surface of several events. So, the aim of this file is to try and clarify The Siege of Sydney Street issue, to which Churchill was linked as a Liberal Home Secretary, and for which he was much criticized, both by his political fellows and by the People and understand the circumstances as well as the role Churchill played, but also the reasons why he was criticized, by whom, and if there were good reasons for that criticism.

1 JENKINS, Roy, Churchill, A Biography, Ed.MacMillan, 2001 in (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill_in_politics:_1900%E2%80%931939#Home_Secretary) 2 TABER, Jane, Like Winston Churchill Nicole Turmel is a Rat - 2011 (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/like-winston-churchill-nycole-turmel-is-a- rat/article2117220/) 3

THE AND THE HOUNDSTICH MURDERS

Many sources link the Siege of Sydney Street, more popularly known as ‘Battle of ’, to another famous affair called the Houndsditch Murders. Yet, Donald Rumbelow, in his book The Houndsditch Murders and the Siege of Sydney street3, gives detailed accounts of the gang of Russian Latvian refugees that were behind this event and other sensational crimes in London between 1909 and 1911, among which there was what was called the ‘Tottenham Outrage’ in 1909, the Houndsditch Murders in 1910 and the famous Siege of Sydney Street on New Year’s day in 1911.4

In fact, there was a Latvian refugee society in London’s East End who had escaped from Russia upon the suppression of the revolt in their country in 1905. They lived and supported their continuing revolutionary actions by committing robberies on which they put the splendid expression ‘expropriations’.5 They were referred to as East End Anarchists.6 Many sources reported that they were under the leadership of someone called ‘Peter the painter’. However, this leader has been highly controversial and sometimes even considered as fictious as he was never to be found, dead or alive, after the Siege of Sydney Street. Rumbelow identified him as possibly being ‘Peter Piaktow’ and Churchill described him later as “one of those wild beasts who, in later years, amid the convulsions of the Great War, were to devour and ravage the Russian State and People”.7 In any case, the gang members always used aliases, the most important of them being Jacob Fogel (or Jan Sprohe), William Sokolow (or Joseph), Fritz Svaars, Mouremtzoff (or George Gardstein), Nina Vassilleva (or Gardstein’s mistress), Luba Milstein (or Svaars’ mistrss), Jacob peters, Max Smoller (or Joseph Levi) and Piaktow himself.8

3 Rumbelow, Donald, The Houndsditch Murders and the siege of sydney street, Ed. St Martin’sPress MacMillan, 1973 (http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/biography/radical/the-siege-of-sidney-street) 4 Smith, Stanley, Churchill and… Politics- The Siege of Sydney Street- A Bizarre Escapade of Churchill Derring-Do (http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/biography/radical/the-siege-of-sidney-street) 5 Smith, Stanley, Churchill and… Politics- The Siege of Sydney Street- A Bizarre Escapade of Churchill Derring-Do (http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/biography/radical/the-siege-of-sidney-street) 6 Mustill, Edd, The Siege of Sydney Street and East end Anarchism, (http://thegreatunrest.net/2011/01/14/the- siege-of-sidney-street-and-east-end-anarchism/)

7 Smith, Stanley, Churchill and… Politics- The Siege of Sydney Street- A Bizarre Escapade of Churchill Derring-Do (http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/biography/radical/the-siege-of-sidney-street) 8 Smith, Stanley, Churchill and… Politics- The Siege of Sydney Street- A Bizarre Escapade of Churchill Derring-Do (http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/biography/radical/the-siege-of-sidney-street)

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Anarchist Peter Piaktow9

The story between the Police and the members of this gang began on the 23 January 1909 with the “Tottenham Outrage” when two Latvian refugees attacked a man carrying the wages for a rubber factory. There was a fight in which gunshots were fired and overheard at a nearby police station. This resulted in a struggle between the police and the robbers and ended up with two people killed and 27 injured. Later on, the gang planned another important robbery. Indeed, on the night of the 16 December 1910, the Latvian revolutionaries attempted to rob a jeweler’s shop at 119 Houndsditch in the . The gang attempted to break into the rear of a jeweller’s shop by tunneling from three buildings in the cul-de-sac behind. A neighbour heard the noise caused by the hammering and informed the Police. Nine unarmed policemen were called to the scene. What happened after is that three of the police were shot dead and two injured. The public was shocked by what quickly became known as the Houndsditch Murders. A huge manhunt was organized to track down all of the gang, and several members and their associates were soon arrested, even if it is thought, today, that those were not even part of the Houndsditch robbery.10 Anyway, two of the members were hunt down to 100 Sydney Street, Stepney, in London’s East End, where two members of the gang, Fritz Svaars and William Sokoloff, alias Joseph, remained hidden. This set the beginning of the famous siege on 03 January 1911.

9 Drake, Mathew, Honouring an Anarchist: Fury as Siege of Sydney Street Killer Gets Tower Block Plaque, 2008 (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1061719/Honouring-anarchist-Fury-Siege-Sidney-Street-killer-gets- tower-block-plaque.html)

10 Urbanora, Crime, Non-Fiction, People, Politics, 2011, in The Bioscope, Reporting on the World of Early and Silent Cinema (http://bioscopic.wordpress.com/2011/01/02/the-siege-of-sidney-street/) 5

THE SIEGE OF SYDNEY STREET

The website reports the beginning of this event in the following words: “ The Metropolitan Police received information that two of the Gardstein gang were sheltering in Mrs Betsy Gershon's flat in Sidney Street. The combined force of Met and City Police cordoned off the area and evacuated other residents. The gunmen had removed Mrs Gershon's skirt and shoes to prevent her from leaving the building, but she was permitted to go downstairs, where the police rescued her.”11

Indeed, the besieged anarchists were given away by an informer, and, in the early hours of Tuesday 3 January 1911, two hundred policemen were posted in shops and buildings surrounding the block in which they were hidden. When dawn broke, the battle started right before the eyes of curious people who had gathered around the police to see what was going on. Shots were fired out through a window from the inside of the house, and a policeman was hit in the chest. Following this, orders were given to bring in two companies of Scots Guards to take charge of the fight while the police would withdraw the gathering crowd away from the street. That is when Churchill heard of the Siege and decided to intervene. According to Stanley Smith, “A call went out for troops from the – a call that reached Home Secretary Churchill in his morning bath. Dripping wet, Churchill hurried to the telephone and granted permission to use whatever force was necessary.”12

On a mission: Soldiers from the Scots Guards take up positions around the Sidney Street house13

11 History of the Metropolitan Police, -1911 http://www.met.police.uk/history/sidney_street.htm 12 Smith, Stanley, Churchill and… Politics- The Siege of Sydney Street-A Bizarre Escapade of Churchill Derring-Do (http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/biography/radical/the-siege-of-sidney-street) 13 Drake, Mathew, Honouring an Anarchist: Fury as Siege of Sydney Street Killer Gets Tower Block Plaque, 2008 (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1061719/Honouring-anarchist-Fury-Siege-Sidney-Street-killer-gets- tower-block-plaque.html)

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Take aim: Scots Guards awaiting the order to fire during the siege14

The press learned something was going on, and reporters, photographers and newsreel cameramen arrived on the spot. Film companies (five of them) were present: Pathé, Gaumont, Andrews Pictures, Co-operative and the Warwick Trading Company. Three of the five films taken that day are still available: those of Pathé, Gaumont and Andrews. By the end of the morning (around 11 am), the troops started firing on the besieged house. Actually, both sides were firing and the fight lasted for around two hours. The Home Secretary arrived right in the middle of this battle and took position between in the corner of Sydney street and Lindley street, very curious as for what was happening. Later on, he wrote: “In these circumstances, I thought it my duty to see what was going on myself, and my advisers concurred in the propriety of such a step. I must, however, admit that convictions of duty were supported by a strong sense of curiosity which perhaps it would have been well to keep in check”15 The fact that Churchill was there was considered as completely rash and Pathé’s cameraman had a huge scoop making close shots of Churchill. However, the widespread story saying that he had been shot, and that the

14 Drake, Mathew, Honouring an Anarchist: Fury as Siege of Sydney Street Killer Gets Tower Block Plaque, 2008 (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1061719/Honouring-anarchist-Fury-Siege-Sidney-Street-killer-gets- tower-block-plaque.html)

15 Smith, Stanley, Churchill and… Politics- The Siege of Sydney Street-A Bizarre Escapade of Churchill Derring-Do (http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/biography/radical/the-siege-of-sidney-street) 7 bullet went through his top hat is considered as quite false.16 In any case, his presence led to much criticism. Over the next weeks, he was hassled and said in Parliament: “We are concerned to observe photographs in the illustrated newspapers of the Home Secretary in the danger-zone. I understand what the photographer was doing, but why the Home Secretary?”17

Home Secretary Winston Churchill (in top hat) watching the Siege of Sidney Street, part of the Pathé’s Animated Gazette’s coverage, ‘Battle of London’, from British Pathé.18

16 Urbanora, Crime, Non-Fiction, People, Politics, 2011, in The Bioscope, Reporting on the World of Early and Silent Cinema (http://bioscopic.wordpress.com/2011/01/02/the-siege-of-sidney-street/) 17 Smith, Stanley, Churchill and… Politics- The Siege of Sydney Street-A Bizarre Escapade of Churchill Derring-Do (http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/biography/radical/the-siege-of-sidney-street) 18 Urbanora, Crime, Non-Fiction, People, Politics, 2011, in The Bioscope, Reporting on the World of Early and Silent Cinema (http://bioscopic.wordpress.com/2011/01/02/the-siege-of-sidney-street/) 8

Winston Churchill, circled, directs the siege19

The battle was at its greatest before the press and very heavy crowds and the idea went around that Churchill was directing the operations. However, in reality, he found himself in an embarrassing situation. He didn’t want to assume personal direction of operations there but given his high office, he was forced to take his responsibility. He said later: “I saw now that I should have done better to have remained quietly in my office. On the other hand, it was impossible to get into one’s car and drive away while matters stood in such great uncertainty, and moreover were extremely interesting”.20 Nevertheless, the Home Secretary had a lot of ideas about how to deal with the siege; he suggested sliding heavy artillery batteries, or storming the house from many directions at the same time, or moving a staircase forward behind a steel shield. The police was looking for such a staircase when a solution came by its own: 100 Sydney street caught fire. A fire brigade came to do its duty, and that is when Churchill played intervened in this affair: he forbade the firefighters to go closer to the house. He required that they stand by should the fire threaten to spread to adjacent buildings. This decision he made was fully criticized. Prime Minister Asquith demanded to know why he stopped the rescuers. Churchill wrote a note to him later that day explaining his reasons for stopping the Fire Brigade rescue attempt: “I thought it better to let the house burn down rather than spend good British lives in rescuing those ferocious rascals.”21 The shooting went on again even if flames could be seen in the windows.

19 Drake, Mathew, Honouring an Anarchist: Fury as Siege of Sydney Street Killer Gets Tower Block Plaque, 2008 (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1061719/Honouring-anarchist-Fury-Siege-Sidney-Street-killer-gets- tower-block-plaque.html) 20 Smith, Stanley, Churchill and… Politics- The Siege of Sydney Street-A Bizarre Escapade of Churchill Derring-Do (http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/biography/radical/the-siege-of-sidney-street) 21 BROOKES, Mike, Why Churchill Stopped Fire Rescue in Siege of Sydney Street (2010) (http://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/news/why_churchill_stopped_fire_rescue_in_siege_of_sidney_st_1_ 753260) 9

Sidney Street... Home Secretary Winston Churchill (second from left) in charge during the siege22

Winston Churchill as well as his troops were waiting to see the anarchists go out of the house, escaping from the flames, ready to ‘receive’ them, or to see them die in the fire. On the whole, the battle lasted around six hours. The roof of the house caved in and the fire engulfed the ground floor. The soldiers fired a few more shots, then stopped. It became obvious that no one would escape from the building. The fire brigade was allowed to pour water on the building, and the bodies of Fritz Svaars and Joseph were discovered inside.

22 BROOKES, Mike, Why Churchill Stopped Fire Rescue in Siege of Sydney Street (2010) (http://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/news/why_churchill_stopped_fire_rescue_in_siege_of_sidney_st_1_ 753260) 10

On fire: Fireman tackle the blaze at the house in Sidney Street during the siege23

Crowds of people who were present on the scene had seen everything, not to mention all films and pictures that were proceeded and printed, some of them shown in some London cinemas, most of them scooped in the press. And even if a lot of people would have been interested in discovering how and why Latvian anarchists went to such an extent in fighting the police even if they knew well they couldn’t escape, or why so many soldiers were on the scene for only two persons hiding in a house, or even their motivations in the first place, the films didn’t show more than mute images. “In the manner of newsreels at this time, the films let the pictures do the talking. Intertitles on the extant films are matter-of-fact and offer little in the way of explanation, though they do employ loaded terms such as ‘assassins’, ‘murderers’ ‘aliens’ and ‘outrage’. The sensational nature of the films was all that was needed. Detailed description and

23 Drake, Mathew, Honouring an Anarchist: Fury as Siege of Sydney Street Killer Gets Tower Block Plaque, 2008 (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1061719/Honouring-anarchist-Fury-Siege-Sidney-Street-killer-gets- tower-block-plaque.html) 11 background speculation was for the newspapers; the newsreels had simply to show audiences what the event looked like, to present the moving pictures of what everyone was talking about. The audience themselves would supply the rest.”24 No one really knew who was Peter the Painter, nor if he was really related to the Houndsditch murders. And it has been almost proved that he had never been part of the Siege of Sydney street even if, in the collective mind, not only was he present, but he was also the one who shot Churchill’s top-hat!25 Joe Jacobs, communist organizer and anti-fascist, wrote in his autobiography Out of the Ghetto: “I heard many personal accounts of the siege so often connected with Winston Churchill’s career as Home Secretary. Most of these tales, which have become part of the folklore of my East End, seldom refer to Peter the Painter and his friends as bandits or criminals, but as Anarchists and part of a revolutionary organization.”26 The Bioscope, in the article entitled The Siege of Sydney Street, and talking about these anarchists, reports that most of them were a part of the wave of Jew refugees fleeing Russia: “Their war was not with the British authorities per se, but rather with Tsarist Russia. They (and there were a dozen or so associated with Houndsditch and Sidney Street) were refugees in Britain, which they used as a base for fund-raising and plotting revolution back in Russia. They had strong ideological motivation, and would have been contemptuous of the British police and army as tools of the oppressors. For the popular press they were all anarchists, but most had Social Revolutionary or Marxist affiliations, and had fought in terrible encounters with Tsarist forces, some of them undergoing savage beatings and torture. They believed they would receive similar brutality from the British police should they be caught, which helps explain some of their actions (Fritz Svaars in particular feared that he would break under torture after beatings he had received in Riga a year before).”27 In any case, the arrested anarchists were brought to justice. Winston Churchill himself testified as a witness. The trial lacked for evidence showing clearly the responsibility of the prosecuted members of the gang. The case crumbled to pieces and the anarchists were released. Jacob Peters returned to Russia, and became an important member in the murderous circles of the Bolshevik government.28

24 Urbanora, Crime, Non-Fiction, People, Politics, 2011, in The Bioscope, Reporting on the World of Early and Silent Cinema (http://bioscopic.wordpress.com/2011/01/02/the-siege-of-sidney-street/) 25 Drake, Mathew, Honouring an Anarchist: Fury as Siege of Sydney Street Killer Gets Tower Block Plaque, 2008 (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1061719/Honouring-anarchist-Fury-Siege-Sidney-Street-killer-gets- tower-block-plaque.html) 26 JACOBS, Joe, (1978) Out Of the Guetto, Phoenix Press in http://www.freedompress.org.uk/news/2010/12/07/anarchists-of-the-east-end/ 27 Urbanora, Crime, Non-Fiction, People, Politics, 2011, in The Bioscope, Reporting on the World of Early and Silent Cinema (http://bioscopic.wordpress.com/2011/01/02/the-siege-of-sidney-street/) 28 Smith, Stanley, Churchill and… Politics- The Siege of Sydney Street-A Bizarre Escapade of Churchill Derring-Do (http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/biography/radical/the-siege-of-sidney-street) 12

Winston Churchill in the witness box - Siege of Sydney Street Trial – 18 January 1918 29

These are but few sources relating this tremendous event which filled the minds of all British People in 1911, and implied Home Secretary Winston Churchill. Indeed, the latter was much jeered for the part he played in being present on the scene. The whole event was thoroughly reported in the-then media, adding to his very controversial reputation. A lot of things could be said in regard of how this event led to a demonization of “anarchists”, seen as “aliens”. The Bioscope gives further information about that.30

To conclude this file with a funny note, Stanley Smith reports that according to ’s biography, Churchill’s secretary Charles Masterman was shocked that the Home Secretary had personally attended the siege. When the latter got back to the Home Office, his secretary asked: “What have you been doing, Winston?”. Churchill was so exhilarated by the excitement that he replied with no restraint: “Now, Charleth, don’t he croth; it wath such fun!”31

29 Churchill College Cambridge in http://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/archives/gallery/ImageoftheMonth/CHPH_1B_27.php 30 Urbanora, Crime, Non-Fiction, People, Politics, 2011, in The Bioscope, Reporting on the World of Early and Silent Cinema (http://bioscopic.wordpress.com/2011/01/02/the-siege-of-sidney-street/) 31 Smith, Stanley, Churchill and… Politics- The Siege of Sydney Street-A Bizarre Escapade of Churchill Derring-Do (http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/biography/radical/the-siege-of-sidney-street) 13

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 BROOKES, Mike, Why Churchill Stopped Fire Rescue in Siege of Sydney Street (2010) (http://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/news/why_churchill_stopped_fire_rescue_in_siege_of_sidney_st _1_753260)  DRAKE, Mathew, Honouring an Anarchist: Fury as Siege of Sydney Street Killer Gets Tower Block Plaque, 2008 in (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1061719/Honouring-anarchist-Fury-Siege- Sidney-Street-killer-gets-tower-block-plaque.html)  GILBERT, Martin; The Will of the People – Winston Churchill and Parliamentary Democracy; Vintage Canada - 1936-2006  In Churchill College Cambridge in http://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/archives/gallery/ImageoftheMonth/CHPH_1B_27.php  In The Shady Old Lady’s Guide to London; The Houndsditch Murders in (http://www.shadyoldlady.com/location.php?loc=1047)  In Timeline; Winston Churchill, Controversial Role as Home Secretary; in (http://www.xtimeline.com/evt/view.aspx?id=45742)  JENKINS, Roy; Churchill, A Biography; MacMillan - 2001 in (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill_in_politics:_1900%E2%80%931939#Home_Secretary)  JENKINS, Roy; The British Liberal Tradition; University of Toronto Press – 2001  MUSTILL, Edd, The Siege of Sydney Street and East-End Anarchism in (http://thegreatunrest.net/2011/01/14/the-siege-of-sidney-street-and-east-end-anarchism/)  RUMBELOW, Donald; The Houndsditch Murders and the Siege of Sydney Street; St Martin’sPress MacMillan - 1973 in (http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/biography/radical/the-siege-of-sidney-street)  SMITH, Stanley; Churchill and… Politics- The Siege of Sydney Street- A Bizarre Escapade of Churchill Derring-Do in (http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/biography/radical/the-siege-of-sidney-street)  TABER, Jane; Like Winston Churchill Nicole Turmel is a Rat - 2011 in (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/like-winston-churchill-nycole-turmel- is-a-rat/article2117220/)  Urbanora; Crime, Non-Fiction, People, Politics - 2011 in The Bioscope, Reporting on the World of Early and Silent Cinema (http://bioscopic.wordpress.com/2011/01/02/the-siege-of-sidney-street/)  In History of the Metropolitan Police, Siege of Sidney Street -1911 in (http://www.met.police.uk/history/sidney_street.htm)  JACOBS, Joe, (1978) Out Of the Guetto, Phoenix Press in (http://www.freedompress.org.uk/news/2010/12/07/anarchists-of-the-east-end/)

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