The ARCOS raid and the break in Anglo-Soviet relations, 1927
On 12 May 1927, British police raided the headquarters of the Soviet trade delegation and ARCOS (the All Russian Co-operative Society) in London, searching for top secret documents that were alleged to have been stolen from the War Office. The raid was a breach of the 1921 trade agreement with Russia, which had given diplomatic immunity to official trade agents of the USSR. Diplomatic relations between the two governments had become increasingly fraught following the election of Stanley Baldwin's Conservative government in 1924 (and the ). The ARCOS raid, and resulting fall-out, was the final straw - diplomatic relations were broken off and fears of war between the two countries increased.
- . Copy of a private memorandum by Christian Rakovsky, Soviet ambassador to Britain, on causes of increasing diplomatic tension between the two countries.
- respecting the relations existing between the two governments and note in reply, February 1927. Diplomatic correspondence about the "notoriously... unsatisfactory nature" of Anglo-Russian relations, published three months before the ARCOS raid.
- . Special report published by Trade and Engineering Review in 1927, aimed at British businessmen, and intended to "assist the reader to form an opinion on the magnitude of the loss to both countries as a result of the recent events".
- . It denies the charges of espionage and condemns the "sensational" and "general cinematographic nature of the raid".
- . They condemn the raids at ARCOS and by Chinese police at the Soviet Embassy in Peking as confirmation that imperialists, headed by Britain, are planning a military assault on the Soviet Union.
- . Pamphlet published by the (pro-Soviet) Anglo-Russian Parliamentary Committee. It reproduces documents issued by representatives of ARCOS and the Soviet authorities, and includes personal statements made by Russians who had been involved in the raid.
- . Official British government publication. It includes copies of documents found by the police during the ARCOS raid and Soviet telegrams intercepted by the Foreign Office. The publication of the telegrams proved counter-productive - the Soviets changed their method of encryption to one that British security services could no longer break.
- . Pamphlet published by the Labour Research Department (a socialist organisation not directly connected with the Labour Party). It condemns the raid and attempts to outline the losses to British trade that would result from the break.
- . Pamphlet published by the Communist Party of Great Britain. It condemns the "burglary" at ARCOS and describes the diplomatic break as "practically... a declaration of war".
- . The letter was sent to the Trades Union Congress, and calls for the TUC to take action.
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- , editorial from the National Union of Manufacturers' Journal, June 1927.
- . Report from The Times of a speech made by the Liberal politician and former Foreign Secretary.
- . Memorandum by the Trades Union Congress General Council, protesting against the break in diplomatic relations and "attendant menace to the world's peace".
- . Communist newspaper with the headline 'Tories plotting war against Soviet Republic". It includes references to the ARCOS raid and the trade losses resulting from the break.
- . Pamphlet published by the Anglo-Russian Parliamentary Committee. It refutes charges made against the Soviet Union by the British government and outlines losses to British trade as a result of the "diplomatic rupture".
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- . Manchester Guardian report on the Home Secretary's statement on Anglo-Russian trade, following the expulsion of two directors of the company Russian Oil Products (ROP). It also includes a reference to vandalism to ROP petrol pumps in Plymouth.
- . The report includes a section on relations with other countries, including references to Soviet fears of war caused, in part, by the ARCOS raid.
- . In 1928, British police investigated two more Soviet economic organisations in London which had been accused of "attempts to foment and organise revolutionary actions" - the Bank for Russian Trade Ltd. and the Moscow Narodny Bank Ltd. This British government report provides detailed information about the inquiry.
- . The conference called for the resumption of full diplomatic and trading relations with Soviet Russia, determined resistance by the organised British Workers to any attack on Soviet Russia, closest possible relations between British and Russian workers, and the development of co-operative trade between Britain and Soviet Russia.