WARSAW TRAGEDY

Hokitika Guardian, 9 June 1927, Page 2

WARSAW TRAGEDY

[Australian & N.Z. Cable Association.]

WARSAW. June 7. Onlookers state that Voikoff fired back blindly when shot at the station, and this was the real cause of bis death, as it prevented bis friends irom intervening, and enabled Kowerda in empty bis revolver into Yoikoff's body unmolested.

The assassination is likely to cause a delicate situation as between Russia and Poland, recalling as it dors Yoronsky’s murder in Switzerland.

SOVIET BLAMES POLAND. MOSCOW, June 7

M. Litviiiolf lias handed to M. Patek. tjlie Polish Minister at Moscow. a strong note, protesting against Yoikoff's assassination, which he describes as an unprecedented criminal ait. bound up in a whole series of acts aiming at the destruction of the Soviet’s diplomatic representation abroad. The note mare particularly refers to the late Pekin raid and to the Arvos search, and also to Britain’s provocative diplomatic rupture with Russia, which, the note staves, “has loosened the activity of terrorist groups, who. in their powerless, blind hatred against the working class, are seizing the weapon of political murderers.” M. L-itvinoflf also accuses Poland ot not taking necessary ensures against criminal activities of counter-revolu-tionary. terrorist organisations. He recalls that the Soviet recently wanted Poland of provocative criminal acts resulting therefrom. The Note concludes: “Poland cannot repudiate responsibility. and the Soviet reserves the right to revert to this matter when she has received exhaustive details ol the crime. LONDON. June 7.

The Moscow paper “Izvestia,” Billowing M. I.itvinofl’s lead, alleges that Viokoff was the victim of the situation resulting from the rupture of AngloSoviet relations.

Naturally real anxiety prevails at Warsaw, where it is feared that the Soviet will demand the extradition ot Kowerda, to which it is stated. Poland could not agree without the violation of the principle of the non-surrender of political offenders. The members of the Russian c::;>nv there, including the Monarchists, repudiate any connection wiili Kowerda and they fear deplorable . oUsvom"i<

REDS IN FRANCE. PARIS, Jmu 7. Startling revelations relating to Communist organisation in France were made in the Chamber by Deputy Soulier, who declared tliai the Red Army in Paris alone numbered 12.3(0 men, half of whom had recently been reviewed in companies vf 120, with their officers. Manoeuvres, he said, were taking place every Sunday. Ihe officers were armed with revolvers. There were 170 Communist branches m the French Infantry alone. Two liiuiilroil of the regular officers were members of the Communist Party.

The Moscow Government, he said was clearly supporting this movement, and Franco should be warned by the events in England.

RUSSIAN GENERAL DIES. PARIS. June 8,

General Peter Kalitine, the Russia' conqueror of Erzeroum, is dead. H< lived for mouths in. extreme poverty and died in an almshouse. The Czar, after Erzeroum, presentee General Kalitine with a gold sabre studded with diamonds. The A]lie; also generously decorated him.

He fled to Paris after the war scorning charity, and. although 71 years of age. lie tried to support hi; invalid daughter and five other children bv manual work.

VOIKOFF'S PAST.

ASSISTED AT TSAR’S EXECUTION,

ONE OF LENIN'S EARLY DISCIPLES. LONDON, June 7. “Clearly, Voikoff’s murder is an act of revenge,” says M. Sabline, who was the Russian Charge d’Affaires at London in the Tsarist days, when interviewed by the Evening News. He adds:—“Yoikoff has always been associated with the Ekaterinburg crime.” The Evening News points out that Yoikoff was President of the Ekaterinburg Soviet in 1917, and that, as such, he signed the death warrant for the murder of the Tsar’s family, and was actually in the cellar when the family was shot. He has been ever since the most hated of all the Bolshevists. ,

He was one of the original members of the Russian Communist Party before the war. He was for some time imprisoned. He went to Switzerland, where he was under the influence of Lenin, when he was a student at the Geneva University. Yoikoff accompanied Lenin to Russia during the war period to foment the revolution. Yoikoff was in 1923 appointed the Head of the Russian Trade Delegation to Canada, which appointment, however, was cancelled when Yoikoff's association with the Tsar’s murder was known.

LONDON OPINION. LONDON, June 8

“Rods See Red!” is the general press criticism of the Soviet Note to Poland, which, within a few hours, links up the crime with the Arcos and Peking raids and with the British rupture of diplomatic relations with Rus-

\Yhile every allowance is made for indignation it is considered that M. Litvinoff goes too far when he holds the Polish government responsible for the Russian Kowerda’s act. Moreover, it is held to he childish to regard this student’s act as part of a plot to destroy the Soviet’s diplomatic representation abroad. , RIGA. June 8. The Times Riga correspondent states that the members of the Anti-God Society have proved unable to stem the religious revival in Russia. This is the complaint of M. Barkanoff, who in reporting to the Communist Party at Moscow, urged the reorganisation of the Society, and also urged that agitators he trained on a mass scale to meet the menace of the new religious sects, which, lie says, are penetrating the factories and even the barracks of the Red Army.

THE WARSAW MURDER, WARSAW, June 9. VoiKoff’s body was taken to the Soviet Legation to lie conveyed to Moscow on Thursday. PARIS, June 8. Communist newspapers describe the murder as one of the fruits of the British policy.