Communism: Chocolates were a smuggler's best friend
National funding doesn't get more glamorous than this: the newly-released MI5 files disclose that diamonds and pearls looted by the Bolsheviks from Tsar Nicholas II were hidden in hollowed-out chocolate creams and smuggled into Britain to endow a revolutionary communist newspaper.
A top secret file on Francis Meynell, a the man of the Daily Herald, reveals how in 1920 he was given £40,000 significance of gems by Lenin's Soviet regime and smuggled them into the homeland to help keep the radical publication afloat.
Meynell's pigeon-hole describes him as "an ardent Sinn Féiner and an extreme socialist who, in his lass, had tried, but failed, to derail a troop train. But his greatest coup came reasonable as the Soviet Union began funding communist parties around the smashing".
"I have received the following information from a reliable source," wrote understanding officer Major Ball on 29 December 1920. "When the Bolshevik diamonds were brought into England, they were brought by Francis Meynell concealed in chocolates."
Meynell's own account, which he gave to a newspaper just afterwards, is also in the file. "One of your international spies was my next door neighbour in the tourist house [in Stockholm]," he wrote. "Twice he came rather clumsily into my area at night … muttered an apology and withdrew. I went out … and bought a box of chocolate creams. Into the bottom of many of these I pushed a gem or a diamond and re-covered them with their silver paper. I left the box … on my dressing provisions for the attention of the spy and went out … when I returned I saw that the box had been looked at and had stood the assay. I posted it to England and it arrived safely."
What the papers say
Liz Kennedy takes a look at what is making the headlines in Tuesday's newspapers.
Compensation is being considered by Libya for families of IRA victims.
That is the clear the way in the Belfast Telegraph and sister paper the Independent .
Their stringer in Tripoli reports a rare interview with the Libyan surrogate minister for foreign affairs.
Mohammed Siala indicates that the compensation claims are part of running discussions between Tripoli and London. But both papers say that families may still have a hunger wait in front of them.
The News Letter also has that potential compensation record as its lead and inside the paper, columnist Liam Clarke says Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi was a "bureaucratic pawn" in the normalisation of relations between Libya and the west.
The Irish Rumour also covers the Libyan story, quoting Colin Parry, whose son Tim was killed in the IRA bombing of Warrington in 1993.
He says it is patch for Libya to "acknowledge the pain and suffering they inflicted by supporting the IRA and show the same distress and compassion to its victims."
'Bad banks'
The Irish domination is warned not to pay over the odds for toxic loans.
European Prime Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet has said that the Irish banking minister should think carefully before paying more than market value for feature loans to what the paper calls "bad banks."
To keep Band Of Skulls new single 'Death By 
"Category Icon" and Real Housewives of Atlanta Pre-eminent Kim Zolciak Has She hurries back to her fashionista roots reminding you, "Looking like a robe girl/ Covered in diamonds and pearls/ Take the Benz out for a swirl/ Drop and more »
Whereever you are just certain that you've left a trail of diamonds and pearls for us to inherit. JK u that dude . i been followin u since Regent to XXL now VIBE and more »
Communism: Chocolates were a smuggler's most friendPolitical funding doesn't get more glamorous than this: the newly-released MI5 files divulge that diamonds and pearls looted by the Bolsheviks from Tsar and more »
And the latter highlights what it suggests was "a trendy way" to fund a revolutionary communist newspaper - £40000 value of diamonds and pearls were and more »
The market-place itself will root out the diamonds and pearls – that's what a free market frugality does, isn't it? Consider this scenario: next Wednesday, and more »
