MOSCOW’S DEMANDS

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 69, 13 June 1927, Page 12

MOSCOW’S DEMANDS

Pol arid Must Discontinue AH Anti-Soviet Activity FORMER TRADE PRESIDENT KILLED FE Soviet has presented a Note to Poland containing the demands that must be met in order to satisfy Russia for the assassination of her Minister at Warsaw.. One demand is for the dispersal of all anti-Soviet organisations in Poland. , There are indications of widespread anti-Soviet activity and a Moscow report states that the former president of the Soviet Trade Mission to Berlin has been murdered on Russian soil.

Dy Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright Reed. 12.5 p.m. LONDON, Sunday. TT is reported that M. Turov, formerly president of the Soviet Trade Mission in Berlin, was murdered on the Bitza station, on the Moscow-Kursk railway. The Soviet Note to Poland demands the punishment of all concerned in M. Voikoff’s assassination. Soviet representation at the trial, the dispersal of anti-Soviet organisations in Poland and the expulsion of all members of such organisations. Satisfaction is expressed at the offer to compensate Voikoff’s widow, but the Soviet considers it incumbent on itself to care for his family because he perished while doing his duty.—A. and N.Z.-Sun.

from Mr. Preston to Mr. Jerram. In the letter the writer had said he feared the Russians who were making inquiries would be exposed to the risk of being hanged, drawn and quartered for spying. Sir Robert asked: “Were Mr. Preston’s apprehensions justified? Mr. R> - koff’s statements show that they were because he mentioned the cases of Peslikoff and Filin, who were shot on charges of supplying military information to the British missioner, Mr. Charnock. “Peslikoff was never an officer in Kolchak’s army as Mr. Rykoff had declared. He was a naval officer when I arrived at Moscow in 1921. “Peslikoff, who was an old acquaintance, was placed in communication with me by a woman named Dahl, a secret agent of the police. After that Peslikoff was employed by the Canadian Pacific Railway Company at Moscow. “Some time later he was arrested with his wife and others on a charge of organising a counter-revolution in Siberia. “Acting under my instructions Peshkoff applied to Mr. Karakhan, the Russian diplomat, whose investigations showed the charge to be a mare’s nest. Peslikoff and others were then liberated, and he was once more employed by the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. “But he was arrested again in 1925 on the. old charge, with some friends for whom he had found employment. “It stands to reason that after the Dahl incident Peslikoff was not likely to act as a spy. It was also most unlikely that I should have applied to him for information.” Sir Robert said that the case of Filin was even more fantastic. He was a Red Army officer, whose wife had been a childhood friend of Mrs. Charnock. For this reason, Charnock was very careful to aVoid dealings with Filin, especially as his position enabled him to procure information. The charge on which Filin was executed has only now been revealed. Sir Robert referring to those executed says that Charnock did not know Lytcheff or Koropanko. Sir Robert knew Vladimir Evreinoff, employed at the State Bank, Moscow, slightly, but he did not encourage relations as Evreinoff was formerly an Imperial diplomat in Teheran, and therefore might be suspected.

TERRORIST PANIC MARTIAL LAW IN MINSK RED REGIME IN DANGER Hy Cable. —Press Association. —Copyright LONDON, Sunday. The Warsaw correspondent of the "Sunday Express” says martial law has been proclaimed at Minsk owing to the recent assassination of the local Chief of the Cheka. A wave of terror is said to be sweeping through Russia, mass arrests are reported, and further executions are. expected. The correspondent says shooting has been heard on the frontier, where the Red army is making a demonstration against Poland. —A. and N.Z. POINCARE’S RESOLVE DEALING WITH COMMUNISTS FIRM STAND TAKEN By Cable. —Press Association. —Copyright PARIS, Saturday. The Chamber of Deputies, by 370 votes to 148, expressed confidence in the Premier, M. Poincare. This was the outcome of a statement he made regarding the position of the Socialists. M. Poincare said the war against Communists had been taken up as an electoral manoeuvre. He denied that the Government was preparing either for a coup d’etat or for the institution of a new law. It was merely a matter of applying the existing laws. If the day should come when the prosecution of Communist deputies should arise the Government would not shirk its responsibility.—A. and N.Z CHILDREN FOR MOSCOW GUESTS OF YOUNG REDS ENGLISH PARTY SETS OUT By Cable. —Press Association. —Copyright Reed. 1.15 p.m. LONDON, Sunday. Six children, selected by the British Communist Party, are setting out tomorrow for an eight weeks’ stay in Russia as the guests of the Moscow Young Red Pioneers. Though the ages of the party range only from 11 to 13, it is seriously announced that they are going to study the condition of children under the Soviet.—A. and N.Z. IN RED SQUARE BURIAL OF VOIKOFF By Cable. —Press Association.—-Copyright MOSCOW, Sunday. The coffin containing the remains of the murdered Russian representative, Mr. Voikoff, was received at Moscow by Soviet Commissars. They lifted it out of the train and placed it on a gun-carriage. The Commissars then walked in a procession to Red Square, where the body was interred. —A. and N.Z. BRITISH COMPLICITY FANTASTIC CHARGES MASSACRE OF INNOCENTS By Cable. —Press Association.—Copyright LONDON, Friday. The accusations made by the Soviet Government that the British Mission at Moscow employed some of the victims who have just been executed by order of the Russian State Collegium Department were commented upon today by the ex-British Charge d’Affaires at Moscow, Sir Robert M. Hodgson. “The charges are fantastic and utterly without foundation,” he said. “Equally fantastic are the other allegations which have emanated from Moscow of illicit practices.” Sir Robert remarked that the charges could not be allowed to go unchallenged. He referred to the recent quotation by Mr. Rykoff, President of the Soviet, from the letter

Sir Robert added that arrests on so-called confessions must be treated with the gravest distrust, as the secret police habitually to wring admissions from victims by promising release if they sign dictated statements. Similarly, the police employ most abominable measures to secure agents. For example, Louise Koch, a maidservant at the British Mission, was threatened with life imprisonment unless she informed against Sir Robert Hodgson. She was also threatened with death i she revealed the fact that she had been approached. Accordingly, information supplied by agents recruited in this manner was entirely valueless. The executions are universally regarded as an act of revenge. Many of the London newspapers use the word “massacre" in describing them. The Riga correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” says most of the men who were executed had no connection with political activity. They were merely victims of the Soviet’s political police and were sentenced to death and shot without trial | or inquiry. Prince Dolgorukoff was 65 years old. He was well-known in London. Formerly he was rich, but he was ruined by the revolution. Another victim, Yevreinoff, married an Englishwoman and lived in England after the revolution, but eventually he secured permission to return to Russia to work for the State Bank. ANTI-BRITISH OUTBURSTS VOIKOFF’S FUNERAL GREAT POMP AND CEREMONY By Cable.—Press Association.—-Copyright Reed. 1.30 p.m. LONDON, Sunday. The “Daily Express” Moscow correspondent reports that violent antiBritish speeches and the most stringent military precautions, were the outstanding features of the funeral of M. Voikoff, which was carried out with greater pomp than any State funeral since that of Dzerjinsky. There was uneasy excitement all day, and military patrols cantered past the Polish Legation Incessantly while armed pickets were in all the main centres. The military cleared Red Square completely, thrusting the public into side streets. The entire staff of the Polish Legation drove up in three motor-cars bearing enormous wreaths, in notable contrast to the meagre Soviet flowers, Moscow having decided not to send flowers, but to give money.—A. and N.Z. RUSSIAN TRADE WITH GERMANY SOVIET SEEKS CREDITS By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright Reed. 11.5 a.m. BERLIN, Sunday. In view of Russia’s desire for credits enabling the placing of big orders in Germany, in consequence of the British rupture, great importance is attached to M. Tchitcherin’s luncheon at the Soviet Embassy to 15 German financial and industrial magnates.—A. and N.Z.