MANY ARRESTS IN RUSSIA.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19138, 22 October 1927, Page 15

MANY ARRESTS IN RUSSIA.

ALLEGED SPYING SYSTEM. MR CHARNOCK'S DENIAL. (BT CABLE— PBESS ASSOCIATION'— COPTBIGHT-) (AUSTRALIAN ASD V.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION.) (Received October 2lst, 9.10 P-™-) LONDON, October 20. Mr Charnock, amplifying his denial of an organised spying system, says"Almost at. the moment that the British Mission left, wholesale arrests or innocent Russians began. M. * e ' whose wife was dancing instructress and my niece's friend, was arrestee and shot. Scores of alleged wiiue Guards were rounded up and executeo. "The Russian authorities are no apprehending every man, woman, an child with whom I came in contact with during twenty-seven years. J-" process is simple. A family is arrested, the members being interrogated maividuallv and asked in whose house tliey met me. This means the arrest or another family. If guests are mentioned, they are also arrested. in., two Prove brothers were personal friend* of mvself and wife for many vears, but it is sheer nonsense to say the association was for tho purpose or espionage.'' [Au earlier message stated that the forthcoming trial of tho live Russians who were alleged to have been employed on espionage work by the tsrius" Mission in Moscow was made the occasion of melodramatic charges again-* the Mission. The names of the accusea, who are all stated to have confessed, are Cvril and Vladimir Prove, sons ot the former Moscow millionaire, Korepakoff, counsellor to the.Soviet War Department, and Podreskoft and Kanoff. A statement dealiug with the case which was published in tho Moscow Press and transmitted to the Daily Express" affirmed that correspondence between Sir R. M. Hodgson and Mr Preston, British Consul in Leningrad, which fell into the hands of tho secret police during a raid, proved conclusively that espionage was being carried on ' Sir R. M. Hodgson's mast active collaborator was Mr Edward Charnock, secretary to the British Mission, who was successful in recruiting* the spies. Stolen secret plans and other documents were alleged toshave been transmitted to Mr Charnock, in return for American dollars and English clothing. Mr Charnock, in a statement made by him in London, said: "1 never met one of these in my life. It is just another of the long of scandals which has followed the withdrawal of the Mission. We are naturally concerned over the arrests, as they mean almost certain death to innocent people:"]