“M.V.D. with Bolshoi Ballet,” Says M.P.

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28980, 22 August 1959, Page 13

“M.V.D. with Bolshoi Ballet,” Says M.P.

CANBERRA, August 21

An M.V.D. agent was with the Bolshoi Ballet group now in Australia, a Government backbencher Mr James Killen (Liberal, Queensland) said in the House of Representatives last night.

Speaking in the adjournment debate he said: “It might be widely and popularly imagined that the Bolshoi group is here fof the prime purpose of entertaining Australians and bringing to Australia that grace and beauty traditionally associated with Russian ballet. “There is also an M.V.D. agent with that group and the purpose of his membership is to spy not only on the members of the group, but to report on everything that he sees in this country.” Mr Killen said that the group

had been sent to Australia by the Societies for Friendship and Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, which was an arm of Soviet expansionism. Mr Whitlam (Labour, New South Wales) said that the Bolshoi Ballet visit was the most “insidious” since the visit of the Russian Olympic Games team, accompanied by “hordes of M.V.D. officials.”

“I have been told by those attending the ballet that the ballerinas are the most sinuous and seductive since Salome,” Mr Whitlam said, amid laughter.

A spokesman for the Soviet Legation in Wellington said tonight the suggestion that there was an M.V.D. agent with the Bolshoi group was not true. The Legation spokesman said: “There cannot, of course, be any comment on such a report. “It is most unusual for a member of Parliament to say such a thing. It is very strange. The suggestion is not true.”