BALLET FROM RUSSIA

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28080, 22 September 1956, Page 11

BALLET FROM RUSSIA

Season In London Postponed

(Rec. 10.15 p.m.) MOSCOW. Sept. 21. The Bolshoi Theatre today announced its ballet troune could not anpear at Covent Garden Theatre in London in October until the “provocation against Nina Ponomareva was suppressed.” The theatre made this statement in a letter to the Russian Government newspaper, “Izvestia.” The Foreign Office, according to the “News Chronicle.” had discounted reports that the props of the Bolshoi Pallet Company were not being moved from a London dockside warehouse to Covent Garden Theatre for an onening on October 3, until the affair of Nina Ponomareva was resolved to the satisfaction of the Russians. The Russian Embassy has now been officially informed that in no circumstances whatever could Nina Ponomareva. 27-vear-old Russian athlete, legally leave Britain without appearing in Court, the “News Chronicle” said. Police have kept watch at ports and airfields for an opoortunity to arrest Nina on a warrant issued by a London Magistrate after she failed to appear in Court. Lawyers have tried in vain to devise some formula to enable her to return to Moscow.

There have been conferences of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Sir Theobald Matthews, the AttorneyGeneral, Sir Reginald ManninghamBuller, and Foreign Office officials. The upshot. saVs the “News Chronicle,” is that the Russians have been told that no application for withdrawal of the charge can be made on purely political grounds.

“Kept at Embassy” Scotland Yard’s Special Branch is convinced Nina is still confined to the Soviet Embassy in Kensington. She has remained hidden for 22 days since she jumped her bail and failed to answer a charge of stealing five hats valued at £1 12s lid from an Oxford street store.

The Russian athletic team of which she was a member cancelled its match against British athletes in protesr against the charge, which they called a “dirty provocation.” The letter to “Izvestia,” which was signed by the greatest Russian ballerina, Ulanova, and other arists of the troupe, said they found the “provocation” in London against Nina Ponomareva to be incomprehensible. “Under these circumstances the question arose whether our troupe will be* able to perform in London under normal conditions without being exposed to some kind of persecution,” the letter said.