Item Info
Source: Print and Picture Collection
Notes:
"The debate among historians as to whether Austen Chamberlain was trying to engineer the deterioration in Anglo-Soviet relations and the eventual break-off of diplomatic relations has been described elsewhere.... The [so-called 'Arcos affair'] was the result of a police raid on 12 May 1927 on the Soviet Trade Delegation and its commercial body, ARCOS Ltd, supposedly to find incriminating evidence of espionage activities.
"The ILP saw 'darker motives' in the raid; this 'new diplomatic instrument...the pneumatic drill' was 'engineered behind the scenes as a supreme effort to destroy the Trading Agreement, to bring about the withdrawal of British recognition of Russia, and to create a situation from which war will eventuate.'"
Williams, Andrew J. Labour and Russia: The Attitude of the Labour Party to the USSR, 1924-34. Manchester: Manchester UP, 1989. Print.
Creator Name: Sykes, Charles Henry, 1882-1942 - Artist