By Dominic Casciani BBC News at the National Archives

Churchill: Instrumental in strike breaking

More than a decade before becoming a wartime leader, Churchill believed the band would pose a threat to the nation were they to reach Parliament, according to papers just released.

The march of unemployed miners came after the failed General Strike of 1926.

Documents also reveal ministers monitored cash flowing from the Soviet Union to trade unionists.

According to the papers at the National Archives, Winston Churchill, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, raised concerns about a nationally co-ordinated march of unemployed men planned for 1927.

It was planned amid the industrial strife which had peaked with the May 1926 General Strike.

That action failed after nine days amid internal disputes on the left and concerted government action to crush the unions.

Churchill had been nstrumental in this strategy, along with Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin and Home Secretary Sir William Joynson-Hicks.

But organisers of the 1927 march by unemployed miners still hoped to persuade ministers to change the rules for claiming unemployment relief, even though they were legislating to restrict union power.

Heading for London

As the march headed for London, Churchill demanded Home Office action.

Marches: Protests in 1920s and 1930s

"The Chancellor of the Exchequer asked me to write to you about the march," said an official.

"Apparently these people are getting into a very distressed condition and Mr Churchill thinks that their arrival in London foot-sore and hungry would create a very difficult situation.

"He asks therefore what you are doing about it. His own view is that they should be intercepted while still some distance off, treated decently and tactfully, but turned back somehow or other."

The Home Office appeared unenthused by Churchill's demand.

"We are informed that the marchers, who number between 220 and 240, though described as rather a weedy lot are not in a 'very distressed condition'," came the reply.

"Their behaviour has so far been quite orderly and we know of no powers that could be invoked to divert them from their purpose.

"The Chancellor characteristically omits to indicate how he would turn back the [marchers]. I think it is clear there is no need to attempt anything of the kind."

Although planned as a major protest, the march suffered from similar obstacles as the General Strike, with the left split over the involvement of the Communist Party of Great Britain.

Communist threat

Two years before, the infamous but fake "Zinoviev letter", which called on British communists to commit acts of sedition, had been a key element in Labour's General Election defeat.

Telegrams: Intercepts from Russia to UK Enlarge Image

On the eve of the General Strike, opponents again played up the involvement of Communists, saying Moscow was funding the striking workers to the tune of �400,000.

But those claims did have some truth to them. Telegrams intercepted by the Home Office revealed that money was sent from the Soviet Union to the trade unions. Key figures were put under surveillance, including future Labour cabinet minister and then union activist Ernest Bevin.

Ministers appeared to stop one tranche of money from Moscow - but not future payments which were made in the name of Russian or international trade unions.

The largest payment of 2.6m Roubles - then �260,000 - from the Moscow Trade Union International was gladly accepted by the miners' leader Arthur Cook, despite opposition from the TUC.

Opponents of the strike were apoplectic. The Daily Mail raged that a "stream of red gold" was heading towards the UK.

"The Bolsheviks are the masters of the art of camouflage," it warned. "Never before in history has a foreign government attempted to intervene in a British industrial dispute by sending huge sums to prolong the stoppage of work."

But the truth was somewhat more prosaic.

Although civil servants ordered banks to alert them to any transfers of money, the documents reveal that the �400,000 did not go very far in influencing the strike's outcome.

Ministers knew they had already won, and fears of a red dawn faded into the English morning mist.