N.Z. diplomat suspected as Russian spy

Press, 28 March 1981, Page 3

N.Z. diplomat suspected as Russian spy

NZPA London The British author, Chapman Pincher, said yesterday he had information suggesting the late Professor Paddy Costello, a former New Zealand diplomat, had been a Soviet agent from when he was at Cambridge before World War II until he died in 1964.

Professor Costello, who was professor of Russian at Manchester University before his death, was First Secretary at the New Zealand legation in Moscow at the end of World War II and was then First Secretary at the New Zealand legation in Paris.

Pincher, in his book, “Their Trade is Treachery,” published yesterday, says the confessed Soviet agerit, Anthony Blunt, former Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures, had “pointed the finger” at Professor Costello “whom he knew was a Communist and who might have been recruited as a spy” during Blunt’s interrogation by British security authorities.

The Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) said yesterday that the New Zealand Government had known of the suspicions about Professor Costello for many years. “After service with the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force he was employed as an overseas officer by the then Department of External Affairs, serving in Moscow from 1944 until 1950 and thereafter in Paris until he resigned in Seotember, 1954.” After that Professor Costello had no connection or association with the New Zealand Government, Mr Muldoon said. He was “satisfied that there were no further security implications for New Zealand.”

Mr Douglas Zohrab, ; a former New Zealand diplomat now citrus farming near Te Puke, who served with Professor Costello, first at the Moscow Embassy and later in Paris, said yesterday, _ “I would be absolutely astonished if there was any truth in what Pincher says.” The former Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Mr F. G. Corner, said yesterday that Professor Costello was recruited into the New Zealand foreign service on the strength of his Russian language ability and his work as an intelligence officer under General Freyberg on the Italian front. But he declined to comment on the issues raised in the Pincher articles. Pincher says that Professor Costello had come under suspicion in 1961 when it was discovered that, while serving at the New Zealand mission in Paris, he had

signed New Zealand passports for Peter and Helen Kroger who were jailed for 20 years in 1961 as Russian spies for their part in the Portland Navy spy ring. The Krogers, whose real name was Cohen and who were American citizens, were released in 1969 in exchange for the British lecturer, Gerald Brooke, who was held by the Russians.

Pincher, whose book has caused a storm of controversy in Britain with its revelation that a former MIS head, the late Sir Roger Hollis, was suspected of having been a K.G.B. agent, says Professor Costello was known to have provided an accommodation address in London for the wife of a Swedish diplomat spying for Russia.

He was observed meeting with a Soviet agent shortly before his death in 1964, Pincher said. At a news conference yesterday, Pincher was asked if his information suggested Professor Costello had been a Soviet agent from when he was at Cambridge until his death. He replied: “Yes.” Professor Costello had given the Krogers false passports when he was a diplomat, Pincher said. In his book, he says Professor Costello was a Cambridge acquaintance of the now disgraced Blunt, who lost his knighthood in 1979 when he was publicly exposed as a former K.G.B. agent while he was working for MIS.

The late Professor Desmond Patrick Costello, who was born in- Auckland in 1912, was educated at Auckland Grammar School, Auckland University and Trinity College, Cambridge. He was later an assistant lecturer in classics at University College, Exeter. Professor Costello was an intelligence officer on General Freyberg’s staff during the war, serving in Greece, North Africa, and Italy. He was appointed to the New Zealand delegation in Moscow when it was opened in 1944, serving as Second and then First Secretary until 1950. From 1950 to 1955, he was First Secretary' at the New Zealand legation in Paris.

He left the Foreign Service that year and was appointed Professor of Russian at the University of chester.Professor Costello and his wife had three sons and two daughters. His widow visited New Zealand about four years ago.