Joseph Kagan
Joseph Kagan was the head of Gannex Textiles and a prominent supporter of the Labour Party under Harold Wilson.[1]
Background
Kagan came from a family of Jewish woollen manufacturers in Kaunas, Lithuania, and studied textiles at Leeds in the 1930s. After the Russians occupied Lithuania in 1939, the kept him on as a manager at the expropriated family mill. During the German occupation from 1941, he carried out forced labour while hiding his family.[2]
At the end of the war, the family walked to Romania, where they made contact with Douglas Morrell, a Jewish SOE officer. According to Morrell, he and Kagan engaged in black-market trading and smuggling refugees to Israel. Eventually, the family obtained a visa for Britain, where they arrived in 1946.[3]
Gannex
Once in Britain, Kagan opened a factory in Huddersfield where developed a waterproof nylon fabric, 'Gannex', which he marketed by ingratiating himself with prominent celebrities. He eventually obtained a royal warrant for selling shooting coats to the Duke of Edinburgh.[4]
Wilson
Kagan first met Wilson, his local MP in Huddersfield, in 1954. His Gannex coats would eventually become a Wilson trademark.[5]
In 1967, Wilson presented the Soviet premier Alexei Kosygin with a list of humanitarian cases which included members of Kagan's wife's family.[6]
Vaygauskas
In 1969, a Lithuanian from Kagan's wife's hometown, Richardas Vaygauskas turned up as a Soviet diplomat in London. he soon struck up a frienship with Kgan, who was still trying to get his family out of the Soviet Union.[7]
MI5 officer Peter Wright claimed that British intelligence received damaging information about Kagan in the late 1960s from Russian agent Oleg Lyalin:
- While Lyalin was still in place, he told MI5 about a friend of his called Vaygaukas. Vaykaugas was a KGB offcer working under cover in the Soviet Trade Delegation in London. Lyalin told us that Vaygaukas had claimed to be in contact with a man called Joseph Kagan, a Lithuanian emigre who was a close friend of Harold Wilson's.[8]
According to journalist David Leigh, Wright places these events a year too early. Lyalin was not under MI5 control until February 1971 after Wilson left office.[9]
Wright states that, as a result of this, MI5 placed Kagan under intensive surveillance.[10]
In 1971, according to Wright, Wilson approached the head of the City of London Police, Sir Arthur Young, seeking to discuss Kagan with MI5. The agency's head, Martin Furnival Jones was bemused by this, but allowed Lyalin's handler, Harry Wharton to brief Wilson. Wilson said he knew nothing about the matter, and never discussed confidential matters with Kagan.[11]
Wilson regarded the episode as a smear, but by this time the Conservatives were back in government and according to Wright 'took a great interest in the material'.[12]
Affiliations
Connections
- Harold Wilson[13]
- Sir Arthur Young - Consultant to one of Kagan's companies.[14]
Notes
- ↑ David Leigh, The Wilson Plot, Mandarin, 1989, p.92.
- ↑ David Leigh, The Wilson Plot, Mandarin, 1989, p.112.
- ↑ David Leigh, The Wilson Plot, Mandarin, 1989, p.112.
- ↑ David Leigh, The Wilson Plot, Mandarin, 1989, pp.112-113.
- ↑ David Leigh, The Wilson Plot, Mandarin, 1989, p.113.
- ↑ David Leigh, The Wilson Plot, Mandarin, 1989, p.181.
- ↑ David Leigh, The Wilson Plot, Mandarin, 1989, p.182.
- ↑ Peter Wright, Spycatcher: The Candid Autobiography of Senior Intelligence Officer, Viking, 1987, pp.364-365.
- ↑ David Leigh, The Wilson Plot, Mandarin, 1989, p.183.
- ↑ Peter Wright, Spycatcher: The Candid Autobiography of Senior Intelligence Officer, Viking, 1987, p.365.
- ↑ Peter Wright, Spycatcher: The Candid Autobiography of Senior Intelligence Officer, Viking, 1987, p.365.
- ↑ Peter Wright, Spycatcher: The Candid Autobiography of Senior Intelligence Officer, Viking, 1987, p.365.
- ↑ David Leigh, The Wilson Plot, Mandarin, 1989, p.92.
- ↑ Peter Wright, Spycatcher: The Candid Autobiography of Senior Intelligence Officer, Viking, 1987, p.365.
