J.C. Masterman and the Security Service, 1940–72

The significance of J.C. Masterman's relationship with the Security Service, MI5, has not been fully appreciated. As a junior officer during World War II, he consistently sought to achieve good working relations with the Secret Intelligence Service. After the war he continued to take an interest in the Security Service and worked closely with other MI5 elder statesmen to ensure that the successor to Percy Sillitoe as Director-General came from within the Service. Masterman always hoped that his account of the double agents run by British Intelligence during World War II would one day be published. As the public image of the British secret services deteriorated during the 1960s, Masterman believed that MI5 did not grasp how his book could promote its interests, and so he insisted on forcing through publication anyway. The correspondence from serving and former MI5 officers in Masterman's papers vividly illustrate changing attitudes to official secrecy and the declining ability of the British Government to enforce it.     

The Israel and Palestine land settlement problem: An analytical history, 4000 B.C.E.–1948 C.E.

This paper traces the history of the modern conflict between Israel and Palestine from 4000 B.C.E. to 1948 C.E.. It shows how Jews and Arabs diverged from a common source to become arch-enemies during the British Mandate over Palestine. It outlines the impact of world war II, the holocaust, treason, and terrorism on the Palestinian problem, and explains why Britain relinquished the Mandate in 1947, leaving the United Nations to resolve the land settlement problem. The paper outlines the manipulation by the USSR and the USA of the United Nations General Assembly vote on Resolution 181, in November 1947. It demonstrates why this corrupted land settlement set the scene for almost 60 years of continuous war and terrorism in the Middle East.