MI5 worked with Boy Scouts to head off infiltration in first world war
Spy agency feared the movement had been targeted by communist and fascist groups
Britain's Security Service, known as MI5, worked with the boy scout movement to help it avoid infiltration by both communists and fascists between the world wars, previously secret papers show.
The files were published online for the first time yesterday by the National Archives in London as part of its commemorations of the first world war, which began 100 years ago.
They also include a transcript of an interrogation of the Dutch-born German spy, Mata Hari, and reports on Arthur Ransome, author of the children's books, who British agents considered "an ardent Bolshevist".
The documents show how seriously scouting, established in 1907 by Robert Baden-Powell, was taken by intelligence agencies. By 1922 the scout movement claimed a worldwide membership of more than one million.
"What do we know about the 'Red' boy scout movement in this country?" a typed memo from 1920 asked. "We have no record of any such movement here," came the reply.
A year earlier, MI5 had cleared a visit to Britain by a group of German scouts. By 1922 it was looking into rumours that German boys whose fathers had been killed in the first world war were "being formed into an association with a programme which the Germans feel is bound to bring 'big results'".
