This was reportedly founded by a Swiss advocate, Theodore Aubert
'after his successful defence of Poluline who killed Varovsky, the
Soviet envoy to Switzerland'.

The First Conference was reportedly held in Geneva in 1924.

Can anyone please find the date?

And also which countries were represented?

---

Request for Question Clarification by leli-ga on 18 Jan 2004 04:39 PST

Hi Bryan

I've had no luck with the date and representatives, but if no-one else
can find them, I could dig out contact information for a professor who
should know the answer.

He's leading a research project on the International Entente which
involves combing through its archives as well as 2000 boxes of related
publications.

According to a brief description of this research project, the Entente
was not only related to the court case you mention, but was also a
reaction to the Swiss general strike of 1918.

One slight puzzle is that the references I have found to the case give
a different name for the man who killed Varovsky.

Hope someone can find a straightforward answer for you here - Leli

---

Clarification of Question by probonopublico-ga on 18 Jan 2004 05:08 PST

Hi, Leli

Yes, please contact the Prof!

(Will the Fee be sufficient? If not, please let me know and I'll sort
out something by way of a tip.)

Regarding the assassin, I'm not sure who did what. It's also known as
the 'Affaire Conradi' so, presumably, Conradi was the main man. Dunno
what part Arcadius Polounine played, if any. (Note new spelling; I had
quoted from a VERY RARE autobiographical work, where the author is
notoriously bad with his spellings. BTW, he was the British rep, or so
he claimed. The only copy I have ever found is in the British
Library.)

There are also different spellings around for Vatslav Vorovsky
(Wouldn't you know?).

I wasn't aware of the Swiss strike! I've never heard of cuckoo clock
makers going on strike. This is sensational.

I suspect that there is stuff out there but it's probably mainly in French.

Keep up the great work!

Kindest regards

Bryan

---

Request for Question Clarification by leli-ga on 18 Jan 2004 06:31 PST

I'll send off an email first thing tomorrow morning, when other
researchers have had a chance to look at this.

I have found stuff in French confirming 1924 for the beginning of the
Entente, but so far not mentioning a conference.

These Russian names are always a challenge for google searches - so
many possibilities.

I'll let you know as soon as I hear anything - Leli

---

Clarification of Question by probonopublico-ga on 18 Jan 2004 07:18 PST

Hi, Leli

Many thanks ... No rush!

There's sure to be some stuff in CH.

Au revoir

Bryan

---

Request for Question Clarification by leli-ga on 19 Jan 2004 00:55 PST

Pity no-one came up with a clear-cut answer for you overnight. 

So now we pin our hopes on a professor in Geneva, who should have
found my email waiting when he started work this morning.

Leli

---

Clarification of Question by probonopublico-ga on 19 Jan 2004 03:13 PST

Great, Leli

Many thanks for keeping me in the picture.

Bryan

---

Request for Question Clarification by leli-ga on 22 Jan 2004 12:59 PST

Hello again Bryan

Disappointingly, there's been no reponse to my email. Perhaps you
might have more luck, since you will be able to add a personal note by
describing your own interests etc.

There are four academics ploughing through the archives of the Entente
Internationale, in the Bibliothèque Publique et Universitaire de
Genève. Their research project initially got funding from 2001-2003,
but this has been renewed till autumn 2005.

The project is called:
"L'Entente internationale contre la 3e Internationale de Théodore
Aubert (EIA): 1924-1950. Un réseau international de lutte contre le
communisme"

It is led by:

Professeur Mauro Cerutti
Dépt d'histoire générale
Faculté des lettres
Université de Genève
5, rue St-Ours
1211 Genève 4

Also working on it at the University of Geneva is:

Monsieur Jean-François Fayet

Then there are two researchers in Lausanne:

Professeur Jean Batou
Institut d'histoire économique
et sociale (IHES)
FSSP
BFSH 2
1015 Lausanne

and:

Professeur Sébastien Guex
Université de Lausanne
Section d'Histoire
Faculté des Lettres
BFSH 2
1015 Lausanne

The information above comes from the Swiss National Science Foundation:
http://www.snf.ch/prodb/webforms/frameset.aspx

You can find the Geneva email addresses from here:
http://adresse.unige.ch/cgi-bin/email

This is Sebastien Guex's page:
http://www-ssp.unil.ch/IHES/sitespersonnels/sguex.html

And here's Jean Batou:
http://www-ssp.unil.ch/IHES/sitespersonnels/jbatou.html

Both of the Lausanne professors seem to have published in English, by the way.

There's information on the project about half-way down this page:
http://www.unige.ch/lettres/istge/annu02.html

If you would like help translating French into English, I'd be happy
to help with that tomorrow.

I do hope this will work out. Surely one of them will be interested to
hear about your overlapping interests?

Best wishes - Leli

---

Clarification of Question by probonopublico-ga on 22 Jan 2004 21:25 PST

Hi, Leli

Great ... Very many thanks!

However, I shall be very busy until Sunday and I don't expect to be
able to do much until then.

In the meantime, please post your comment as an answer and I'll do the
score later when I've checked out your leads.

Also, merci beaucoup for offering help with the translations ... I may
well take you up on this.

Warmest regards

Au revoir

Bryan

---

Request for Question Clarification by leli-ga on 24 Jan 2004 09:35 PST

Thanks for suggesting I post all that as an answer but perhaps you'd
like to see if you actually get a reply first? I could send more
emails myself, but I have a feeling you might do better with a direct
appeal. I think most academics can understand straightforward written
English, so it shouldn't be necessary to polish up your French.
 
This is where you can find an outline of the research project:
http://www.unige.ch/lettres/istge/annu02.html
(Three paragraphs headed "Sous la direction de Mauro Cerutti et
Jean-François Fayet (Université de Genève); Jean Batou et Sébastien
Guex (Université de Lausanne)")

Just let me know if I can do anything more on this.

Leli

---

Clarification of Question by probonopublico-ga on 24 Jan 2004 11:20 PST

Hi, Leli

Please post an answer soonest ...

And I'll rate it later.

Damn it ... You deserve it!

Bryan

It's always a pleasure to work for you. I shall be as sorry as you if
you don't get a result from this.

As well as the information above, here are some other bits and pieces.

A rough translation of what the University of Geneva says about the
research into the Entente's archives:

An international network of struggle against communism 
(Project financed by the National Fund for Scientific Research)

The International Entente against the Third International (from 1938
called the International Anticommunist Entente/EIA) was founded in
1924 by the Genevan lawyer Theodore Aubert, in a changing climate of
reaction against the 1918 general strike, and following the famous
defence put forward in 1923 at the trial in Lausanne on behalf of a
Russian-Swiss who had assassinated a Soviet diplomat. The Entente had
a permanent office, a secretariat and a financial committee based in
Geneva, and numerous correspondents and sections in Switzerland,
Europe, Japan and America. The network set up from Geneva became
intensely active in collecting information on Soviet Union policies,
and on the role of communism on an international scale; they also
undertook a remarkable amount of lobbying in political and economic
circles, also lobbying the press etc.  Thanks to previous work, there
is already some information on contacts made between the EIA and
high-ranking military men like General Franco in Spain, with fascist
Italy and directly with Mussolini, and with the Nazi Party in Germany.

The research project, which sees itself to some extent as the
counterpart of work already underway on the communist Internationale,
revived by the opening of Soviet archives, aims for better knowledge
of a domain still largely unexplored: anticommunism during the
interwar period. It will be undertaken over two, maybe three years and
will be based mainly on the investigation of the EIA archives
deposited at the Public and University Library of Geneva: more than
160 boxes containing the minutes of meetings of the permanent office,
the secretariat and the financial committtee, the correspondence
between national sections etc. In addition there are more than 2000
boxes of publications either collected or published by T. Aubert's
organisation. A preliminary examination of this collection has already
been undertaken by Michel Caillait, collaborator in the research (with
Jorge Gajardo) who has recently published an article on the relations
between the EIA and General Franco at the time of the Spanish Civil
War.

At first it will be a matter of carrying out a systematic inventory of
the EIA's central institutions, with a plan of the organisation's
structure and a database, then embarking on a study of national and
international networks  established by the Entente, with special
emphasis on the situation in Switzerland, France, Italy, Germany,
Spain and the Soviet Union. The research should eventually result in
the publication of one, perhaps several, monographs and in the
organisation of an international conference on the theme of
anticommunism.

---------


This article (mostly about 1932) confirms that it is only recently
that the EIA's papers have been brought to light:

"C?est le cas de l?Entente internationale contre la Troisième
internationale, comme le révèlent des documents mis à jour dans le
cadre d?une recherche menée à l?Université de Genève sous l?égide de
l?historien Mauro Cerutti."
http://www.lecourrier.ch/Selection/sel2002_790.htm

---------


Email addresses:
Sebastien.Guex@ihes.unil.ch
Jean.Batou@ihes.unil.ch
Jean-Francois.Fayet@lettres.unige.ch
Mauro.Cerutti@lettres.unige.ch


I do hope one of these gentlemen has the date and other information at
his fingertips.

Good luck - and thank-you - Leli

---

Request for Answer Clarification by probonopublico-ga on 24 Jan 2004 21:20 PST

Excellent!

Many thanks ... I am going to close this now and, if your leads
produce the required response, I'll post a supplementary to you, as a
token of my appreciation.

Warmest regards

Bryan

---

Clarification of Answer by leli-ga on 25 Jan 2004 14:14 PST

Thank-you very much!

I do hope this brings results for you. 

With fingers crossed - Leli

A Perfect Start to My Day!

Hi, Bryan

According to
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/cermtri/doc/cermtri-25.htm

Aubert wrote "L'entente internationale contre la IIIe Internationale"
in 1925. This was published in "Bibliothèque universelle et revue de
Genève" (Septembre 1925).

Just in case your question will not be answered you might like to read
what Aubert wrote in 1925. It should be available in the British
Library:
Title:  La Revue de Gene?ve. no. 1-53. July 1920-Nov. 1924. 
Main heading:  PERIODICAL PUBLICATIONS. Geneva 
Publication details:  Gene?ve, 1920-24. 8o. 
Shelfmark:  P.P.5097.o. 
Title:  [Continued as:]. Bibliothe?que universelle et Revue de
Gene?ve. Dec. 1924. Dec. 1930.
Publication details:  Gene?ve, 1924-30. 8o. 


Biography of Aubert (French, German, Italian):
http://www.lexhist.ch/externe/protect/textes/f/F6155.html
http://www.lexhist.ch/externe/protect/textes/d/D6155.html
http://www.lexhist.ch/externe/protect/textes/i/I6155.html

Regards,
Freddy

Wow, Freddy, You've done it again!

I shall certainly take a look at the reference on my next visit to St Pancras.

I knew you were a wiz at German but French as well.

Very many thanks!

(However, if Leli can do the stuff on-line, so much the better.)

Bryan

Hi, Again, Leli & Freddy

Just checked the link provided by Freddy:

Défenseur d'Arcadius Polounine lors de l' affaire Conradi en 1923
(procès à Lausanne)

So Polounine is also apparently invloved.

Bryan

Invloved?

That happens every time I ask Daisy to do my secretarial stuff.

I wonder if 500 GARs are exchanging snide emails over that?

Bryan,
This may be of interest.

Fascism, the Security Service and the Curious Careers of Maxwell
Knight and James McGuirk Hughes
http://members.lycos.co.uk/mere_pseud_mag_ed/History/Hope1.htm

Footnote 32.
"..White's first autobiography, where he states that he attended the
first meeting of the International Entente Against the Third
International as a representative of Makgill's agency. According to
Liddell, the only British representative attending that and subsequent
conferences was the delegate sent by the Central Council of Economic
Leagues."

From the Bibliography
White, John Baker -- It's Gone for Good (Vacher and Sons, London,
1941) White, John Baker -- True Blue (Frederick Muller, London, 1971)

answerfinder-ga

Hi, Answerfinder

You are absolutely brilliant!

John Baker White is the man in question.

I've got several of his books, including 'True Blue', his last autobiography.

However, 'It's Gone For Good', a much earlier autobiography, is VERY
RARE and far more revealing.

Now, some more VERY INTERESTING stuff has recently appeared about Mr W.

Kindest regards

Bryan

I've just checked 'It's Gone for Good' and JBW does not say precisely
whom he was representing other than Great Britain.

Elsewhere, he claims that he was not appointed Director of the
Economic League until April 1926.

However, he was certainly one of Makgill's men at an earlier date.

Makgill, incidentally, died on 17 October 1926.

There is also a copy, in the British Library, of

Title:  Bolshevism's Terrible Record. An indictment, etc. [Freely
translated from ?L'Affaire Conradi.?]
Main heading:  AUBERT. The?odore 
Publication details:  pp. 112. Williams & Norgate: London, 1924. 8o. 
Shelfmark:  8094.ee.68. 
 
Title found by searching the online catalogue "Les bibliothèques du
Réseau des bibliothèques de Suisse occidentale"
http://www.rero.ch/reroweb/chameleon.html

Wow, Again, Freddy

You continue to amaze! (Of course, with all the facilities at
Cheltenham at your disposal, who better?)

Actually, I ordered a copy today of a fairly recent book
'Assassination in Switzerland' by Alfred Senn, for a bit of
background.

I am, of course, mainly interested in Mr JBW. (I met his son fairly recently.)

Kindest regards

Bryan

Just for the record:

Conradi was the assassin and Poluline bankrolled him.