Hello Alberto,
and in this case a subordinate that desperately needed to appease the superior to avoid to be "forced" to haul down his flag or, even worse, to be Court-Martialled himself (see his May 31 letter)
Errr have you at last realised it illogical to separate this thread from the Court Martial. These threats relate to CM not fuel signal.
Since you have assured me you had not previously seen the 31st letter, and you have scanned through the 250 item Roskill file, can you say whether this seems correct?
When you have supplied all the Roskill communications we will see whether even he saw this letter you have now seen- supplied by me.
The National Archives are under constant revision and material is added as it is located. I believe it is quite possible Roskill never saw this 31st letter, being identified and added later. You were jubilant to reveal he already had the 30th letter, but what about the 31st?
Tovey was not appeasing a superior, because both the threats come from Tovey
himself not Pound. Pound does not threaten to dismiss Tovey, Pound does not threaten to CM Tovey. Tovey says
back down or I will do these things. That is attack not defence.
And Pound backs down completely. No investigation at all has come to light.
It is immensely frustrating that we do not (yet) have the 28th letter from Pound, but one of the Great Steps forward that we have is no reference at all to "Shores of France" in either the 30th or 31st letter. It is frankly illogical to imagine Tovey could ignore this in both letters when nearly ten years later he describes this supposed signal as "appalling stupidity" and "criminal stupidity". Also if he really blamed Churchill only for the apochryphal threat and not the 26th ROOF signal why not challenge Pound about it?
He makes it perfectly clear he knows Churchill is interfering and yets forgets it about until talking to Bellairs.
In neither 1950 or 1961 letter Tovey mentions expunging. I expect we will get a timing for Roskill quizzing Tovey over the wording/timing, since he could find no record of the "Shores of France" despite unparalleled resources.
I await the next letters with baited breath to find out when Tovey started remembering expunging.
All the best
wadinga