Henry Hill Collins


Henry Hill Collins Jr., the son of successful businessman from Philadelphia, was born in 1905. As a child he became friends with Alger Hiss. According to Christina Shelton, the author of Alger Hiss: Why he Chose Treason (2012): "Collins, a childhood friend of Hiss from his Baltimore days, remained an intimate friend throughout the 1930s and 1940s and met the Hisses frequently at their home." (1)

Collins attended Princeton University and Harvard Business School. In 1933 Collins began working for National Recovery Administration. At about this time Harold Ware, a consultant to the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) and a member of the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), established a "discussion group" that included Henry Collins, Alger Hiss, Nathaniel Weyl, Laurence Duggan, Harry Dexter White, Abraham George Silverman, John Abt, Nathan Witt, Marion Bachrach, Julian Wadleigh, Lee Pressman and Victor Perlo.

The Harold Ware Group

Ware was working very close with Joszef Peter, the "head of the underground section of the American Communist Party." It was claimed that Peter's design for the group of government agencies, to "influence policy at several levels" as their careers progressed". Weyl later recalled that every member of the Ware Group was also a member of the CPUSA: "No outsider or fellow traveller was ever admitted... I found the secrecy uncomfortable and disquieting." (2)

Whittaker Chambers was a key figure in the Ware Group. He later argued: "I do not know how many of those young men and women were already Communists when Ware met them and how many joined the Communist Party because of him. His influence over them was personal and powerful.... But, by 1934, the Ware Group had developed into a tightly organized underground, managed by a directory of seven men. In time it included a number of secret sub-cells whose total membership I can only estimate probably about seventy-five Communists. Sometimes they were visited officially by J. Peters who lectured them on Communist organization and Leninist theory and advised them on general policy and specific problems. For several of them were so placed in the New Deal agencies (notably Alger Hiss, Nathan Witt, John Abt and Lee Pressman) that they were in a position to influence policy at several levels." (3) Collins became treasurer of the Ware Group.

Henry Hill Collins: Soviet Agent

Collins also held positions in the Agriculture Department and the Labor Department. In 1938 Collins attempted to recruit Laurence Duggan as a Soviet spy. Duggan told the FBI that Collins wanted him "to assist in furnishing information... to the Soviets." Duggan said he turned down the request. Josephine Herbst and the estranged wife of Victor Perlo also provided information that Collins was a Soviet agent. (4)

Henry Collins worked for Whittaker Chambers, the Soviet agent. In 1937 he passed him onto Colonel Boris Bykov. Chambers later wrote: "Henry Collins was all that Princeton and Harvard can do for a personable and intelligent young American of good family. To some, he seemed a little chilly and diffident. And there was in him a core, not so much of reserve as of incapacity for spontaneous feeling. But he was persistent, very tenacious and held at least his political convictions, with a fierce faith. I was constantly in touch with Collins almost until I broke with the Communist Party. During that time, he made several voluntary efforts to enter the State Department for the purpose of serving the Communist Party, and twice sought to recruit Laurence Duggan, a college friend, into that Soviet espionage apparatus. Incidentally, one of those recruiting attempts has been described in detail - not by me - and exists as a Government record. For, even more than keeping the party's books, Collins longed to enter the Soviet underground - a dream that seemed about to be realized when, in 1937, I introduced him in New York City, to Colonel Boris Bykov." (5)

In 1940 Henry Hill Collins married Susan B. Anthony, the great-niece and namesake of the women's rights leader Susan Brownell Anthony. It has been pointed out by Christina Shelton, the author of Alger Hiss: Why he Chose Treason (2012): "Collins had made several attempts to get into the State Department to serve the party and finally landed a position in 1946. He worked for several weeks on a Senate subcommittee, but was forced to resign when an inconclusive FBI report on him was given to the committee. By 1948 he was executive director of the American Russian Institute in New York City, cited by the attorney general as a Communist front organization. Collins was subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury in December 1948. He denied all of Chambers's charges of Communist involvement by him or Abt, Pressman, Witt, or Ware - the latter being openly known as a Communist." (6)

Henry Hill Collins died in 1961.

Primary Sources

(1) Whittaker Chambers, Witness (1952)

Henry Collins was all that Princeton and Harvard can do for a personable and intelligent young American of good family. To some, he seemed a little chilly and diffident. And there was in him a core, not so much of reserve as of incapacity for spontaneous feeling. But he was persistent, very tenacious and held at least his political convictions, with a fierce faith. I was constantly in touch with Collins almost until I broke with the Communist Party. During that time, he made several voluntary efforts to enter the State Department for the purpose of serving the Communist Party, and twice sought to recruit Laurence Duggan, a college friend, into that Soviet espionage apparatus. Incidentally, one of those recruiting attempts has been described in detail - not by me - and exists as a Government record. For, even more than keeping the party's books, Collins longed to enter the Soviet underground - a dream that seemed about to be realized when, in 1937, I introduced him in New York City, to Colonel Boris Bykov.

At St. Matthews Court, Collins lived alone. He was separated from his wife (he has since married Susan B. Anthony III). He had a son about ten years old whom I met once when he was visiting his father (on some holiday from school) and I was staying overnight at St. Matthews Court, as I sometimes did. To tidy up and cook occasional suppers, Henry had a colored maid. The leading committee of the Ware Group met after she had gone home.

The Ware Group, in 1934 and 1935, when I knew it best, consisted of a leading committee of seven men. All were Communists and they met to discuss policy, organization, personnel and projects. Several of the leaders of the Group also headed secret cells. Of one cell, I caught a glimpse when I once happened in unexpectedly at the apartment of Charles Kramer. I attended a meeting of another cell (headed by Henry Collins ) at the house of a future employee of the State Department who has since left its service. Each meeting included some twelve or fifteen members. There must have been four (and possibly more) such cells. Assuming that each contained about the same number of members, there must have been seventy-five underground Communists in the Ware Group. That, it seems to me, is a conservative figure. The overwhelming number of these Communists were employees of the United States Government.

References

(1) Christina Shelton, Alger Hiss: Why he Chose Treason (2012) page 75

(2) Nathaniel Weyl, interview with US News & World Report (9th January, 1953)

(3) Whittaker Chambers, Witness (1952) page 343

(4) Allen Weinstein, Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case (1978) page 24

(5) Whittaker Chambers, Witness (1952) page 341

(6) Christina Shelton, Alger Hiss: Why he Chose Treason (2012) page 75

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