PETROV INQUIRY

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27533, 15 December 1954, Page 13

PETROV INQUIRY

Evidence On Aid To Immigrants (Rec. 11 p.m.) SYDNEY, Dec. 14. A waterside worker, who was a Soviet citizen, admitted before the Royal Commission into Espionage today that he had used the title ‘‘Commander (retired) ’ ’ to assist aliens to get into AusThe witness, Nicholos Daghian, who came to Australia in 1939 from Shanghai, denied that he had ever received any money for signing “Commander Daghian, ret'” on Immigration Department application forms for aliens. Asked what was his purpose, the witness said: “I cannot help you. I don’t remember.” Mr Justice Owen: Was the idea of getting your name on these application forms described as “Commander” for the purpose of getting people into Australia?—Maybe it was. A Russian language teacher, Nikolai Novikoff, told the commission he did not know that a signature in his Soviet passport was that of the former leader of a Soviet spy ring in Japan. Novikoff, who came to Australia from Manchuria in 1939, said he had net met the man, Zaitsev, who had endorsed his passport in 1947, either in the East or in Australia.

Zaitsev, according to the evidence of Vladimir Petrov, the former Soviet M.V.D. agent in Australia, was at one time Soviet Second Secretary in Canberra and a member of the Russian military intelligence. Petrov said that Moscow had instructed him to get in touch with Novikoff and use him as an informer among Soviet citizens in Australia. Novikoff said the Soviet authorities had never asked him to work for them in Australia.