This series has been exploring the text of a supposed speech that is generally referred to by the title Our Race Will Rule Undisputed Over The World, and the story began the fascinating account of how the CIA came to be in possession of a tract of that supposed speech. I pointed out the McCarthyism of 1952 and how DCI General Walter Bedell Smith had announced that communists had infiltrated the US government. Part 3 began to look at both the note and the tract, which was published by Einar Åberg.
Now, in this installment, we’ll reveal who the sender of the letter to the CIA actually was.
It happened in New Zealand
In a previous installment, I told you about the address of the sender in their note and how that had to originate from New Zealand based on the address. That took my search for the identity of the unknown sender to New Zealand.
In my search, I happened upon the Stout Research Centre for New Zealand Studies at the Victoria University of Wellington. An obscure little article published by their Security and Surveillance Project gave me the lead I needed.
The article was titled Discerning ‘the Fascist Creed’: Counter-subversion and Fascistic Activity in New Zealand, 1950s-1960s, and I was drawn to a single paragraph that tells a story about how Cabinet Minister John Marshall, who would eventually become Prime Minister of New Zealand, had received a congratulatory letter regarding his proclamation on – are you ready for this? – the threat of communist infiltration. Dated 28 August 1952, the letter included a leaflet of a speech by Rabbi Emanuel Rabinovich, and the note indicated that “few people know that Zionism is the driving force behind communism.”
That sounds eerily familiar, doesn’t it?
The footnotes of the paper led me to the collected papers of John Marshall, who after having been Prime Minister of New Zealand, had donated his papers to the Alexander Turnbull Library. How convenient!
Reaching out to the ATL, I found that this collection was not digitized. Further, it required special permission from the chief librarian to access.
All You Can Do is Ask
I wouldn’t know if I would be able to access the contents of this collection if I didn’t ask and the worst they could say would be “No” (actually, maybe the worst they could say would be “get lost, yank”). I didn’t think this would be included in classified information, otherwise, why would the ATL have it accessible to research librarians?
I reached out to the Arthur Turnbull Library with the box number from the collection and told them what I was looking for.
A day later, I received a response from my request with scans of the handwritten note, the enclosures, and John Marshall’s response.
The same tract of the Rabinovich speech was included with this note.
It was exactly the same right down to the stamp of Einar Åberg!
And right there at the bottom of the handwritten note was the name of the sender along with the address 24 Oxford Terrace, Devonport!
And this time, the name of the sender was not redacted!
Leslie Adams.
The tone of the note was quite similar – the handwriting exactly the same. Same address. Everything.
Mystery solved.
Or is it?
Who is Leslie Adams?
Leslie Adams lived in Aukland in the first half of the Twentieth Century. During the 1950s, Adams, along with a business partner, H. G. Hignett, published a paper called The Manifesto: the paper that tells the truth.
Adams was known to correspond with anticommunists. He was also known to send letters to heads of state and other dignitaries and would ask for acknowledgement of receipt. The Auckland War Memorial Museum has a collection of his letters, papers, and copies of The Manifesto.
Thus, Leslie Adams was our anti-communist patriot who sent Aberg’s tract to Smith at the CIA, Marshall in New Zealand, and according to his note to the CIA, many other Members of Parliament, citizens, and other US government officials.
Now we can piece together the story of the note to the CIA. Adams had copies of Aberg’s tract of the Rabinovich speech (and evidently believed it to be real). At the end of August 1952, John Marshall made comments about communist infiltration in New Zealand and Adams sent him a copy of the tract. The end of September, DCI Smith made similar comments and Adams sent the same information to Smith that he had sent to Marshall.
That’s not all that unusual. But all it proves so far is who sent the note and the tract. How did Åberg get this text? Was it real?
That mystery will begin to unfold in our next installment.
Leave a Reply