[2] In an article published in Lord Alfred Douglas’s Plain English journal in January 1921[3] it is claimed that Shanks had been employed as a clerk at the Chief Whips Office at No.
On 20 December 1916 he was seconded to the Russian Government Committee under General Eduard K. Hermonius Boris Anrep at Canada and India House in Kingsway, London.
In October 1918, Aylmer was reported to have accepted an invitation by the British Government to assist in the anti-Bolshevik propaganda campaign at Arkhangelsk (Archangel) in North West Russia.
At no point in his letter does Maude acknowledge the part played by his nephew George Shanks in the book’s translation and publication.
[9] That the Plain English article includes several personal details that would be verified by letters unearthed several decades later by historian, Gisela C, Lebzelter, lends additional weight to the claims.
A letter written in response to the article by Patrick Hamilton in Tring in February 1921 suggests that it was unlikely that Shanks would have been able to complete the translation “unassisted”.
According to a report printed in the Kington Times newspaper in August 1913, Burdon had expressed a wish that the letters should be sent to George Shanks “unopened so that he might deal with the contents according to instructions communicated to him”.