[London : Printed and Published for the Proprietors by John Horn Limited 1932-34]. 4to, Nos 1 -11 [All published] each issue between 24 and 36 pages stapled in original printed card covers, all in fine condition.
Together with a copy [6 pages] of a typed letter, signed “Louis Tufnell” addressed to “Major Desmond Morton” with a covering letter [1 page] to “Captain McCaw” dated December 19th 1932 asking his advice on whether to send it, all on The Instigator-headed notepaper.
Together with KOROSTOVETZ, Vladimir : The Peoples on the Shores of the Black Sea. Reprinted from the Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society Vol. XX, April 1933. 9pp, orig. printed card covers.
Inevitably very rare. We have been able to locate only four copies, School of Slavonic Studies UCL (nos. 2-9), Leiden University (nos. 1-9 but noted as “lost”), University of Toronto (”incomplete”) and one complete set at the British Library.
The Investigator was published by the Anglo-Ukrainian Committee which had been established in the UK to promote the hetmanite movement led by Pavlo Skoropadskyi. In the periodical it was stated that its publishers were “a small group of Englishmen” which was “the sole organisation in England working in conjunction with, and with the authority of, the Hetman of the Ukraine, Paul Skoropadsky”. The editor was Louis Tufnell, secretary of the Committee, though the real director of the publication was almost certainly Vladimir Korostovetz, Skoropadskyi’s London representative. The office of the publication was at St Stephen’s House, London SW1
The Investigator was aimed primarily at members of the UK parliament and others interested in matters concerning Eastern Europe. The publication promoted the idea of a struggle against communism in the Soviet Union to prevent it spreading to other parts of the world. The key to this task was seen as the establishment of an independent Ukrainian state under the leadership of Hetman Skoropadskyi. The Soviet press reacted to the publication of The Investigator by accusing the UK of allowing anti‑Soviet activities to take place on its territory. Publication of the periodical ceased shortly after the British Security Service came to the view that Skoropadskyi should be advised to close it down.
Major Sir Desmond Morton KCB CMG MC (13 November 1891 – 31 July 1971) was a British military officer and government official. He was seconded to the Foreign Office in 1919 where he was head of the Secret Intelligence Service's Section V, dealing with counter-Bolshevism in the mid-1920s, and was Head of the Industrial Intelligence Centre of the Committee of Imperial Defence from 1929 to 1939, responsible for providing intelligence on the plans and capabilities for manufacturing munitions in other countries. From 1930 to 1939 he was also a member of the CID sub-committee on Economic Warfare. In 1940 Morton was Churchill's personal assistant when he became prime minister, and has recently been unmasked as “Churchill’s Private Spy” (Michael Evans, Defence Editor,The Times, 13 November 2006) see also Bennett : Churchill’s Man of Mystery. London: Routledge 2007
OCLC 926925652