U.S. EXPULSION OF DIPLOMAT

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27051, 28 May 1953, Page 9

U.S. EXPULSION OF DIPLOMAT

Alleged Blackmail Of U.S. Citizen

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) WASHINGTON, May 26.

The United States Government today ordered the immediate departure of a Rumanian diplomat who, it is said, tried to blackmail an American citizen into spying for the Rumanian Government.

The diplomat, Christache Zambeti, First Secretary at the Rumanian Legation in Washington, is alleged to have offered the release of the man’s two sons from a Rumanian camp in return for his co-operation. The State Department said that Zambeti “attempted to subvert Valeriu Georgescu, a naturalised American citizen of Rumanian descent, on May 20 in New York. “The price offered for this collaboration was the welfare of Georgescu’s sons, and their possible restoration to their parents,” stated the department. It added that Mr Georgescu’s sons, Constantin, aged 19, and Peter, aged 14, were still in Rumania and had been refused permission to join their parents in the United States. Mr Georgescu, who was a former general manager of Ramano Americano, a subsidiary of Standard Oil of New Jersey, in Rumania, was educated in England and became a naturalised American citizen in 1952. He is now an executive of the Standard Oil Company in New York. Mr Georgescu today told how Zambeti made the offer to him,- and how, after consultation with his wife, he had informed the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the State Department. Exit Permits Refused

After he had approached the International Red Cross, the State Department, the Indian Government and other agencies to intercede for the boys’ release, Mr Georgescu said that the former Rumanian Foreign Minister, Mrs Anna Pauker, agreed to allow them to leave for the United States in December, 1950, but this decision was changed and they were refused exit permits. “They told the children they were being taken to Bucharest to get a plane for the United States but, instead, the boys were taken away to a camp.” he said. “That was one of the meanest things they could have done.” A State Department spokesman said later that Mr Georgescu’s sons would be given preferential treatment to emigrate to the United States if the Rumanian Government issued the necessary exit visas. “World Public Opinion”

In a Washington hotel room Mr Georgescu wept as he told reporters: “My wife and I decided that the only chance we have now to protect our children is by letting the whole world know the facts. We have placed the fate of our children in the hands of world public opinion.” Mr Georgescu said that Mr Zambeti called at his New York home on May 20 to make “his offer” after producing a photograph of the two Georgescu boys. On the back of the photograph was a sentence written by them saying “Dear Daddy, please do all you can to help us.” According to Mr Georgescu, the diplomat then said: "If you want to see your children, this can be arranged and I am proposing to you the following deal. You may see your children within a year if you will agree to collaborate politically with us.” Mr Georgescu refused the offer, declaring that he was now an American citizen and saying: “I don’t intend to sell my conscience to work for you.” He said that the two boys had been left in Rumania with their grandmother in 1947 when he, accompanied by his wife, was called to the United States for consultation with the Standard Oil Company. Mr Georgescu said the Rumanian Government shortly afterwards began mass arrests of all officials connected with American and British institutions and his name was on the list of “undesirables” who were to be sent to prison.