In 1919, on this day sailors of the German High Seas Fleet under the command of Rear-Admiral Ludwig von Reuter scuttled fifty-two of their own ships in order to prevent the British from seizing them.

A Communist Britain, Part One - German Fleet ScuttledBritish guards had attempted to intervene after Von Reuter ordered the seacocks, portholes, watertight doors, hatches and torpedo tubes to be opened. In the struggle, nine German sailors were killed and sixteen wounded.

Yet the Germans felt that the stain of surrender had been removed from their navy. And more than that, they were determined that the German fleet would not fall into the hands of the Communist authorities that were now ruling Great Britain.

In 1917, following the entry of the United States into the Great War, the Imperial German Government realised that desperate measures were necessary to prevent impending military defeat. Accordingly, the Reich Treasury was authorised to finance political agitation in the European territory occupied by the Allied Powers.

In a single transaction, more than 5,000,000 gold deutsch marks would be paid to Alexander Parvus. The Marxist millionnaire guaranteed value for money, stirring more trouble amongst the war-torn lower orders of Europe than the German Government could have possibly imagined.

A Communist Britain, Part Three - The Tiger escapes his cageThe man that would cause that trouble was Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (pictured). Whilst at University, he became involved in politics. After one protest demonstration he was arrested and taken to the local police station. One of the police officers asked: "Why are you rebelling, young man? After all, there is a wall in front of you". Lenin confidently replied: "The wall is tottering, you only have to push it for it to fall over".

But by March 1917, Lenin was living in Zurich in poverty, the exiled head of a small extremist revolutionary party that had relatively little following even within Russia. However, Parvus knew that Lenin had lived with his wife in Islington from 1902-3; he had worked in the borough on a revolutionary newspaper, and held a communist party congress there. Parvus used this information to convince the German government that Lenin's return would create political unrest in England, which would help to end the war on the Western front, allowing Germany to concentrate on defeating the other Western allies.

Once through Germany, Lenin continued by ferry to Dover; the remainder of the journey through London was subsequently arranged by English Communists. Yet the capital city that Lenin reached was a shattered echo of the city he once knew. Because unrestricted submarine warfare had brought Londoners to the very brink of defeat.

The war had a disastrous impact on the British economy. Food was in short supply and this led to rising prices. By January 1917 the price of commodities in London had increased six-fold. In an attempt to increase their wages, industrial workers went on strike and in London people took to the street demanding food. On 11th February, 1917, a large crowd marched through the streets of London breaking shop windows and shouting anti-war slogans.

Lenin saw that power lay on the streets of London, and he moved quickly seize it. Seemingly delivering on the short-term objectives of the mission, the consequences for his German paymasters would be absolutely disasterous in the long-run.

In 1919, delegates of the newly founded independent states which had emerged from the dissolution of the former British Empire issued the Versailles Declaration on this day. These free nations committed themselves to an exhilirating multi-racial future based upon the principle that "We believe in equal rights for all citizens regardless of race. We recognise racial prejudice as a dangerous sickness and racial discrimination as an unmitigated evil of society" Two years before, military exigencies had forced British Prime Minister David Lloyd-George to bring the White Dominions into an imperial government, after Canadians demanded that "if you want our aid, call us to your councils".

A Communist Britain, Part Two - The Peace AccordThe invitation had been issued to India too; whilst not a self-governing Dominion, the subcontinent committed over a million men to the Imperial British Army, suffering over 80,000 deaths.

"We believe in equal rights for all citizens regardless of raceYet the war had ended in catastrophe for the British Homeland, with chronic food shortages and an intolerable casualty counts fuelling a Communist overthrow of Lloyd-George's Government in London.

And so the peace delegation at Versailles would be composed of free men, sitting at the top table as equals with their British comrades. And yet none would have foreseen that their declaration of principles would meet the severest of tests - the re-emergence of Germay with a programme of ethnic cleansing that would shake the Versailles Declaration to its very core.

In 1917, the British abdication crisis appeared to enter the endgame, or if not, was surely acclerating towards a conclusion that had become inevitable since the day King George V had unwisely offered asylum to the Romanov Family. Because British Working Class Newspapers such as the Daily Mirror published the true costs to the Exchequer of keeping the Tsar-in-Exile in the comfort he deserved. Almost certainly, this information was leaked to the press by Prime Minister David Lloyd George, because the "Welsh Wizard", was a class warrior with absolutely no time for the two Royal cousins, "Nicky and Georgie" (pictured).

Nickie and Georgie and WillieThe monarch was starved of political support because he had rather foolishly made himself an enemy of Lloyd George. Not only were the two at the extremes of the anacronystic British Class System, the respective heads of state and government could hardly agree on any substantive topic. The King had a pathological aversion to change of any kind, and his Chief Minister was the most dynamic, innovative politican for a generation. Quite simply, the King never gave the Prime Minister the recognition he deserved. Locked in the past, King George V was not fit to confront the future by leading the nation out of the Great War.

"A fully equipped Duke costs as much to keep as two Dreadnoughts and is more difficult to scrap," ~ Lloyd GeorgeThe King considered socialists anathema, described the press as "filth", thought strikes and peaceful picketing should be outlawed. The campaign for female suffrage revolted him. "The King is hostile to the bone to all who are working to lift the workmen out of the mire," wrote Lloyd George. "A fully equipped Duke costs as much to keep as two Dreadnoughts and is more difficult to scrap," he added to the fury of the King. Of course it was unwise for the King to disregard Lloyd George's determination, after all, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, he had forced through the destruction of the Lords' veto - a move the King bitterly opposed. When Lloyd George replaced Asquith, King watched Lloyd George turn the war into a crusade for democracy against autocracy, coming to fruition with the abdications of Nicholas and Wilhelm. Lloyd George was a highly effective war leader simply because he united the national will behind a simple expressed goal, a "A Nation Fit for Heroes".

Yet events were being driven by the German Government. Because cousin Willy was trying to unseat Nicky and Georgie. And the real source of the leak was a Communist Agitator who had been sent to London with 5,000,000 gold deutsch marks by the Marxist millionnaire Alexander Parvus...