CHARGES OF SPYING

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28748, 20 November 1958, Page 15

CHARGES OF SPYING

Western Powers In Berlin (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) BERLIN, November 18. The Soviet Embassy in Berlin today held its first press conference for four years and correspondents flocked to it in expectation of an important statement on the Berlin situation. Instead they heard how a Red Army lieutenant and a Russian circus performer deserted to the West—and then deserted back again. According to the “Daily Ex-i press” the circus performer, Victor Illimovitch Ilyinski, aged 29. told the conference that Americahad asked him to go back to Russia as a spy. Under the floodlights of East i German television, he said: “I! wanted to be the people’s darling! —but they wouldn’t let me do my I show. So I ran away to the West. | “When the Americans wanted' to train me as a spy and send me back to Russia, I came back of my own free will.” According to the “Daily Express” the conference was a “well rehearsed 2J hour propaganda festival” to accuse the West of using Berlin as an espionage and propaganda centre against Russia. It was the latest follow-up to Mr Khrushchev's demand that the West leave Berlin. Reuter reported that the Mayor of West Berlin, Mr Will Erandt, said today jtthat West Berlin would be in 5 no way disturbed by a statement made in “Pravda,’’ the Soviet Communist Party newspaper, that Russia .was determined to go ahead with “long overdue measures”—unspecified—to end the occupation of Berlin. The statement in “Pravda” said that Russia did not need'•the consent of the Western Powers to do this. Crosby Sells Home On The Range ELKO (Nevada), Nov. 19. The sale o2 Bing Crosby’s 19,000-acre ranch, 52 miles north of Elko, was announced last night, with the price reported as more than 1,000 JOO dollars. The new owners are two brothers, Messrs Edward and William Johnson, ar Mr Earl Presnell, all from California. Mr Edward Johnson owns a fruit company, several dairy farms, and one of the largest thoroughbred Holstein herds in the nation. His brother, William, is a rancher. Mr Presnell is a cattleman. Crosby’s 3700 head of cattle were included in the sale. Tl- > ranch, which the singer purchased 11 years ago, has two airstrips, two <ets of headquarters buik” igs, three working corrals, its hydro-electric plant, and abundant water from five mountain streams. “Inter-Planetary Music” LONDON. November 19 Wanted: a fat schoolboy under the age of 12 to blow down the spout of a watering can at a Royal Festival Hall concert on Friday. The watering can plays a perfect “A.” and is needed to tune the orchestra at Gerard Hoffnung’s “Inter-planetary Music Festival.” Eleven-year-old Jonathan Ashby, of Southsea, discovered the musical can and offered it to Mr Hoffnung—who promptly signed the boy up for the concert. However, Jonathan is now ill with ear trouble, and his parents say he will be unable to play on Friday night.