Although the investigators believed him to be an Englishman, he was certainly not born in Britain. In fact, he later claimed to be an American. A memorandum from the Office of the Counselor at the US State Department, shortly aftcr the war had ended, casts Rodkinson in an cntircly new light [49]

26 November 1918
Copy to: ON1, MID,Justice Department
Subject: Norbert Mortimer Rodkinson, Care Renskorff, Lyon 8c Co.

From the Information on file in this office it appears that he is a native American Citizen, born at Baton Rouge, of Russian-Jewish and French-Creole parentage. He has no birth certificate but says it was destroyed in a fire. His wife’s maiden name was Polens and she was English of German parentage and doubtful morals [50]. He is a man of pleasing personality and apparently some ability - a linguist, which intimate knowledge of Russian life and affairs. His business reputation is doubtful. When, in January 1918, he obtained a passport to visit the United States, it was marked ‘No Return' by the British authorities, but a protest from Rodkinson caused this decision to be reversed - as he was, at that time, apparently connected with the Ministry of Information. On reaching America he applied for a position under the State Department, giving five references. Of these, only one vouches for him without reserve. Another can give no definite information about him.Two of the remaining three believe him to have been born in Germany, neither believe him to be on the square, and one says he would hesitate in employing him in a government position.

As for bis private life - he has been married twice and was once stabbed by a ''fille-de-joie" [51] while visiting in Berlin. He asserts he has been employed by the British Intelligence Department. Of this there is no record.

More revealing is a Bureau of Investigation memorandum, written some three months earlier, based upon Information supplied by Col. Proskey, who sparked off the Reilly investigation in April 1917. Agent R.W. Finch of the Bureau s New York City office States that:

Col. Proskey, of Flint & Co., 120 Broadway, NY, very confidential informant of this office, advises chat he has been informed that a man by the name of Rodkinson, formerly employed by Flint &' Co.,desires to go on the proposed Russian Commission to Russia. He desires a letter of recommendation from Flint & Co. 1t is said that Rodkinson recently saw Senator J. Hamilton Lewis, who has promised to secure Rodkinson an audience with President Wilson [52].

Proskey goes on to relate that Rodkinson had formerly represented Flint &: Co. in Petrograd, during which period his house had been raided twice by the police. He also refers to Rodkinson’s ability to speak German and Russian and States that after his ‘troubles in Russia’ he returned to the US and joined the firm of Renskorff, Lyon & Co. What lay behind his troubles in Russia is not known for sure. There was certainly a great deal of substance to the concerns outlined by the US State Department and Bureau of Investigation. For example, in the I 4th US Census held in 1920, Rodkinson appears at 1 59 West 78th Street, New York City, living with Corinne, his English-born wife, and their English maid, Maud Peddar. He declared in his Census return that he was born in Louisiana. However, there is no record in Louisiana of anyone of that name or similar being born in or around I 874, his declared year of birth [53].

He first appears in US Immigration records on arrival in New York on 10 June 1903 aboard the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, which sailed from Bremen, Germany. Over the next two decades he, his first wife Susanne and second wife Corinne, crop up repeatedly, criss-crossing the Atlantic. Prior to the First World War, all journeys to New York began in Germany. Although he always described himself as a US citizen, as we have seen, he was never able to prove that he was born in the USA. While his general [...]