ABSTRACT
Dear Comrades At the time of leaving S Africa for Europe my wife and I had already been
appointed, in February 1922, as delegates to the Fourth Congress, but it was not known when the Congress would be held. Later on, when the date was announced, it also appeared that only one delegate from the SA Party was invited, and it seemed likely that Com. Ivon Jones would be the one in the question. I wrote to him asking whether in the circumstances we were likely to be welcome in Russia. He said that Lenin had taken great interest in the Rand Revolution, and that it had been proposed that he Com. Jones should proceed to S Africa to report on it, but that as his health was not too good, and as we were already in Europe, that plan had been given up, and in fact Zinoviev had expressed a wish that I should proceed to Russia. After considerable delay in Berlin, therefore, we got our visas, having already got our passport endorsed by the British Foreign Office, and spent the months of September, October and November 1922 in Moscow. Owing to my wife’s ill health we were obliged to leave for London on Nov. 30, thus missing the last week of the Congress, but I attended nearly everything which was of special interest as S African delegates. In the meantime the Party had appointed Com. Jack Campbell as alternative delegate, and in the absence sick of both Com. Jones and my wife I wrote to Com. Campbell to come to the Congress, which he did, arriving about half way through, and remaining after we left, I believe until the end of the Congress; and I think he also attended the Congress of the RILU. I do not know whether he has sent report. I may explain that the Credentials Committee allowed S Africa one alternate delegate after all, which enabled Com. Campbell to take his seat at the Congress. Our greatest regret throughout was that we missed Com. Jones who left for the Crimea two days before we reached Moscow, and owing to his comparative inaccessibility, far even from regular posts, our communications with him were all too scanty.
