Solomon Adler
Encyclopedia
Solomon Adler was an economist who worked in the U. S. Treasury Department
, serving as Treasury representative in China during World War II. He was identified by Whittaker Chambers
and Elizabeth Bentley
as a Soviet
intelligence source
and resigned from the Treasury Department in 1950. After several years teaching at Cambridge University in England, he returned to China in the 1950s and was a resident there from the 1960s until his death, working as a translator, economic advisor, and possibly with the Central External Liaison Department, a Chinese intelligence agency.
, England. The Adler family was originally from Karelitz, Byelorussia, moving to Leeds in 1900. Solomon Adler was the fifth of ten children; the oldest was Saul Adler
, who became a well-known Israel
i parasitologist. Adler studied economics at Oxford and University College, London. He came to the United States in 1935 to do research. In 1936 he was hired at the Works Progress Administration
's National Research Project, but soon moved to the Treasury Department's Division of Monetary Research and Statistics, where he worked with Harry Dexter White for the next several years.
He became a naturalized United States citizen in 1940. In 1941 he was posted to China, where he remained as Treasury representative until 1948. His reports from China to Treasury secretary Henry Morgenthau
during the war years were widely circulated and played an important role in shaping American wartime economic policy toward China.
In 1949, Adler was the subject of a Loyalty of Government Employees investigation. He resigned before the case was resolved and returned to Britain, where he taught for several years at Cambridge University. When his American passport expired after three years, he was denaturalized and lost his American citizenship. Adler moved to China by 1960. In addition to his work on economics, Adler was a member of the group translating Mao Zedong
's works into English.
When the United States reestablished diplomatic contacts with China in 1971, Adler renewed his American citizenship. He died in Beijing on August 4, 1994, two days before his 85th birthday.
identified Adler to then-Assistant Secretary of State Adolf Berle as a member of an underground Communist group in Washington, D.C., the Ware group
. Chambers correctly identified Adler as then serving in the General Counsel's Office at the Treasury Department, from which, Chambers said, Adler supplied weekly reports to the American Communist party. In 1945, Elizabeth Bentley
identified Adler as a member of the Silvermaster group. A 1948 memo written by Anatoly Gorsky
, a former NKVD
rezident in Washington D.C., identified Adler as a Soviet agent designated "Sax." This agent, transliterated "Sachs (Saks)" appears in the Venona decrypts supplying information about the Chinese Communist through both Gorsky
and American Communist Party head Earl Browder
.
In addition to his contacts with U.S. espionage groups, while serving as Treasury attache in China
in 1944, Adler shared a house with Chinese Communist secret agent Chi Ch'ao-ting and State Department officer John Stewart Service, who was arrested the following year in the Amerasia
case.
Together with Harry Dexter White
, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, and V. Frank Coe, Director of the Treasury's Division of Monetary Research, Adler strongly opposed a gold loan program of $200 million to help the Nationalist Chinese Government
control the inflation that took hold in unoccupied China during World War II. Inflation
in China between 1943 and 1945 was more than 1,000% per year, weakening the Nationalist government in China. This inflation helped the Communists eventually come to power in China, and in later years White, Coe, and Adler were accused of having deliberately fostered the Chinese inflation by obstructing the stabilization loan.
According to a Chinese work published in 1983, from at least 1963 on Adler worked for China's Central External Liaison Department, an agency involved in foreign espionage.. Adler's apartment in Beijing was also provided to Adler by the Liaison Department, which would indicate that the Department was Adler's work unit
.
United States Department of the Treasury
The Department of the Treasury is an executive department and the treasury of the United States federal government. It was established by an Act of Congress in 1789 to manage government revenue...
, serving as Treasury representative in China during World War II. He was identified by Whittaker Chambers
Whittaker Chambers
Whittaker Chambers was born Jay Vivian Chambers and also known as David Whittaker Chambers , was an American writer and editor. After being a Communist Party USA member and Soviet spy, he later renounced communism and became an outspoken opponent later testifying in the perjury and espionage trial...
and Elizabeth Bentley
Elizabeth Bentley
Elizabeth Terrill Bentley was an American spy for the Soviet Union from 1938 until 1945. In 1945 she defected from the Communist Party and Soviet intelligence and became an informer for the U.S. She exposed two networks of spies, ultimately naming over 80 Americans who had engaged in espionage for...
as a Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
intelligence source
SPY
SPY is a three-letter acronym that may refer to:* SPY , ticker symbol for Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts* SPY , a satirical monthly, trademarked all-caps* SPY , airport code for San Pédro, Côte d'Ivoire...
and resigned from the Treasury Department in 1950. After several years teaching at Cambridge University in England, he returned to China in the 1950s and was a resident there from the 1960s until his death, working as a translator, economic advisor, and possibly with the Central External Liaison Department, a Chinese intelligence agency.
Biography
Solomon Adler was born on 6 August 1909 in LeedsLeeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
, England. The Adler family was originally from Karelitz, Byelorussia, moving to Leeds in 1900. Solomon Adler was the fifth of ten children; the oldest was Saul Adler
Saul Adler
Saul Adler FRS was an Israeli expert on Parasitology.-Early life:Adler was born in 1895 in Kerelits , then in the Russian Empire, now in Belarus. In 1900, he and his family moved to England and they settled in Leeds...
, who became a well-known Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i parasitologist. Adler studied economics at Oxford and University College, London. He came to the United States in 1935 to do research. In 1936 he was hired at the Works Progress Administration
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...
's National Research Project, but soon moved to the Treasury Department's Division of Monetary Research and Statistics, where he worked with Harry Dexter White for the next several years.
He became a naturalized United States citizen in 1940. In 1941 he was posted to China, where he remained as Treasury representative until 1948. His reports from China to Treasury secretary Henry Morgenthau
Henry Morgenthau
Henry Morgenthau may refer to:* Henry Morgenthau, Sr. , United States diplomat* Henry Morgenthau, Jr. , United States Secretary of the Treasury* Henry Morgenthau, III , author and television producer...
during the war years were widely circulated and played an important role in shaping American wartime economic policy toward China.
In 1949, Adler was the subject of a Loyalty of Government Employees investigation. He resigned before the case was resolved and returned to Britain, where he taught for several years at Cambridge University. When his American passport expired after three years, he was denaturalized and lost his American citizenship. Adler moved to China by 1960. In addition to his work on economics, Adler was a member of the group translating Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
's works into English.
When the United States reestablished diplomatic contacts with China in 1971, Adler renewed his American citizenship. He died in Beijing on August 4, 1994, two days before his 85th birthday.
Espionage claims
In 1939, Whittaker ChambersWhittaker Chambers
Whittaker Chambers was born Jay Vivian Chambers and also known as David Whittaker Chambers , was an American writer and editor. After being a Communist Party USA member and Soviet spy, he later renounced communism and became an outspoken opponent later testifying in the perjury and espionage trial...
identified Adler to then-Assistant Secretary of State Adolf Berle as a member of an underground Communist group in Washington, D.C., the Ware group
Harold Ware
Harold Maskell "Hal" Ware was an American Marxist regarded as one of the Communist Party's top experts on agriculture....
. Chambers correctly identified Adler as then serving in the General Counsel's Office at the Treasury Department, from which, Chambers said, Adler supplied weekly reports to the American Communist party. In 1945, Elizabeth Bentley
Elizabeth Bentley
Elizabeth Terrill Bentley was an American spy for the Soviet Union from 1938 until 1945. In 1945 she defected from the Communist Party and Soviet intelligence and became an informer for the U.S. She exposed two networks of spies, ultimately naming over 80 Americans who had engaged in espionage for...
identified Adler as a member of the Silvermaster group. A 1948 memo written by Anatoly Gorsky
Anatoly Gorsky
Anatoly Veniaminovich Gorsky , was a Soviet spy who, under cover as First Secretary "Anatoly Borisovich Gromov" of the Soviet Embassy in Washington, was secretly rezident in the United States at the end of World War II.-Career:Gorsky joined the Soviet secret police in 1928 and worked in the...
, a former NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
rezident in Washington D.C., identified Adler as a Soviet agent designated "Sax." This agent, transliterated "Sachs (Saks)" appears in the Venona decrypts supplying information about the Chinese Communist through both Gorsky
Anatoly Gorsky
Anatoly Veniaminovich Gorsky , was a Soviet spy who, under cover as First Secretary "Anatoly Borisovich Gromov" of the Soviet Embassy in Washington, was secretly rezident in the United States at the end of World War II.-Career:Gorsky joined the Soviet secret police in 1928 and worked in the...
and American Communist Party head Earl Browder
Earl Browder
Earl Russell Browder was an American communist and General Secretary of the Communist Party USA from 1934 to 1945. He was expelled from the party in 1946.- Early years :...
.
In addition to his contacts with U.S. espionage groups, while serving as Treasury attache in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
in 1944, Adler shared a house with Chinese Communist secret agent Chi Ch'ao-ting and State Department officer John Stewart Service, who was arrested the following year in the Amerasia
Amerasia
Amerasia was a journal of Far Eastern affairs best known for the 1940s "Amerasia Affair" in which several of its staff and their contacts were suspected of espionage and charged with unauthorized possession of government documents.-Publication:...
case.
Together with Harry Dexter White
Harry Dexter White
Harry Dexter White was an American economist, and senior U.S. Treasury department official, participating in the Bretton Woods conference...
, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, and V. Frank Coe, Director of the Treasury's Division of Monetary Research, Adler strongly opposed a gold loan program of $200 million to help the Nationalist Chinese Government
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...
control the inflation that took hold in unoccupied China during World War II. Inflation
Inflation
In economics, inflation is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time.When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services. Consequently, inflation also reflects an erosion in the purchasing power of money – a...
in China between 1943 and 1945 was more than 1,000% per year, weakening the Nationalist government in China. This inflation helped the Communists eventually come to power in China, and in later years White, Coe, and Adler were accused of having deliberately fostered the Chinese inflation by obstructing the stabilization loan.
According to a Chinese work published in 1983, from at least 1963 on Adler worked for China's Central External Liaison Department, an agency involved in foreign espionage.. Adler's apartment in Beijing was also provided to Adler by the Liaison Department, which would indicate that the Department was Adler's work unit
Work unit
A work unit or danwei is the name given to a place of employment in the People's Republic of China. While the term danwei remains in use today it is more properly used to refer to a place of employment during the period when the Chinese economy was still more heavily socialist or when used in the...
.
Works
- Solomon Adler: The Chinese Economy (London, Routledge & Paul 1957)
- Joan Robinson, Sol Adler: China: an economic perspective (Foreword by Harold Wilson; London, Fabian International Bureau 1958)
- Sol Adler: A Talk to Comrades of the English Section for the Translation of Volume V of Chairman Mao's Selected Works (Guānyú "Máo xuǎn" dì-wǔ juǎn fānyì wèntí de bàogào 关于《毛选》第五卷翻译问题的报告; Beijing, Foreign Languages Press 1978).
Works cited
- Craig, R. Bruce. Treasonable Doubt: The Harry Dexter White Spy Case. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2004.
- Gavron, Daniel. Saul Adler: Pioneer of Tropical Medicine. Rehovot, Israel: Balaban, 1997.
- Haynes, John Earl. "Russian Archival Identification of Real Names Behind Cover Names in VENONA." http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page59.html
- Haynes, John Earl and Harvey Klehr. Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America. Yale University Press, 1999.
- Klehr, Harvey and Ronald Radosh. The Amerasia Spy Case. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1996.
- Olmsted, Kathryn S. Red Spy Queen: A Biography of Elizabeth Bentley. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2002.
- Rittenberg, Sidney and Amanda Bennett. The Man Who Stayed Behind. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993.
- Weinstein, Allen. Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case. New York: Knopf, 1997.
External links
- James Peck: Remembering Sol Adler - an economic advisor to the Chinese government (Monthly Review, December 1994; link to findarticles.com)
- Funeral of Sol Adler (China News Digest, September 7, 1994)
- Foreword to The Translator's Guide to Chinglish by Joan Pinkham (Beijing, Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press 2000), mentioning Sol Adler (dead link)