Sidney Reilly - Tsarist Russia and The Far East

Tsarist Russia and The Far East

In June 1899, the newly minted Sidney Reilly and his wife Margaret traveled to Czarist Russia using Reilly's new British passport—a cover identity purportedly created by William Melville. Margaret remained in St. Petersburg, while Reilly is alleged to have reconnoitred the Caucasus for its oil deposits and compiled a resource prospectus as part of "The Great Game." He reported his findings to the British government, which paid him for completing the assignment. In early 1901, Reilly and his wife voyaged from Port Said, Egypt, across the globe to the Far East.

Shortly before the Russo-Japanese War, Reilly appeared in Port Arthur, Manchuria, as a double agent serving both the British and the Japanese interests. The Russian-controlled Port Arthur lay under the ever-darkening spectre of Japanese invasion, and Reilly and business partner Moisei (Moses) Akimovich Ginsburg turned the precarious situation to their benefit. They purchased enormous amounts of food, raw materials, medicine and coal, and made a small fortune as war profiteers.

Reilly would have an even greater success in January 1904, when he and Chinese engineer acquaintance Ho-Liang-Shung allegedly stole the Port Arthur harbour defence plans for the Japanese Navy. Guided by these stolen plans, the Japanese Navy navigated through the Russian minefield protecting the harbour and launched a surprise attack on Port Arthur. Yet the stolen plans did not help the Japanese much. More than 31,000 Russians ultimately perished defending Port Arthur, but Japanese losses were much higher, losses that nearly undermined their war effort.

Historian Winfried Ludecke suggests that, upon leaving Port Arthur, Manchuria, Reilly voyaged to Imperial Japan in the company of an unknown mistress. If Reilly did visit Japan, presumably to be paid for his espionage, he could not have stayed very long, for by June 1904 Reilly appeared in Paris, France. During the brief time that Reilly spent in the city, he renewed his close acquaintance with William Melville, sometimes incorrectly described as the first Director General of MI5, whom Reilly had last seen in 1899 just prior to his departure from London. Reilly's meeting with Melville is most significant, for within a matter of weeks Melville was to use Reilly's expertise in what would later become known as the D'Arcy Affair.