SPY HOLDS UP DIPLOMAT

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 45, 16 November 1929, Page 33

SPY HOLDS UP DIPLOMAT

REVOLVER SCENE IN EMBASSY

A diplomatic representative of the Soviet Republic is the central figure of an extraordinary adventure with a secret envoy of the Cheka, the Bolshevik spy organisation, which has its ramifications from China almost to Peru. M. Bessedowsky, Counsellor of the Russian Embassy, who, in the Ambassador’s absence in Britain, is acting in his stead, arrived post-haste in a taxicab at the nearest police station to the Embassy. When he made himself known lie was received immediately by the Police Commissary, to whom he said breathlessly:— , . I have just had a violent quarrel in the 'Embassy with an envoy of the Cheka from Moscow. The altercation was so violent that I decided to leave the Embassy. This was not easy, for I was hold up by force, and at one time a revolver was pointed at my head. 1 managed to escape, but my wife and 10-years-old child are still at the Embassy. I consider that my family is iu danger aud I want the French police to deliver them. After consultation with the Government the police went with M. Bessedowsky to the Embassy. The Acting Ambassador had no legal right to invite them to enter the Embassy, and the Bolshevik staff at first protested. A telephone call was sent, however, from the porter’s lodge to Mme. Bessedowsky’s apartments, and the guards outside her door were called off. The terrified woman was then allowed to join her husband. M. Bessedowsky, who, with his family, has taken up his abode at an hotel near the Champs-Elysees under the pro-

tection of the French police, explained how he escaped from the grip of Cheka. He said:— For some time past I have been in disagreement with my Government on questions of internal and external policy. I was about to leave Paris for a holiday when an agent of the Cheka, M. Roisenmann. who is also a member of the Central Commission of the Communist Party, arrived suddenly from Moscow. X.

He took up his quarters at the Embassy and asked to see me. We had a long conversation on the question of my political views. I said that I was in favour of a more liberal policy towards the peasants, who should be paid a better price for their wheat, and he supplied with the necessities of life at a cheaper rate. “You have turhed heretic,” the Cheka aegnt retorted furiously. "You arc going back to Russia at once to explain your conduct.” 1 replied that I refused to return to Moscow, because I would not be free to defend my standpoint. After I had told my wife what had occurred we decided to pack our baggage and to leave the Embassy. I went to call the requisite taxicabs when the porter put a revolver under my nose and said that he had formal orders from M. Roisenmann not to let me out .■ “If you make another move,” he said, “I will kill you on the spot. Go back to vour room.” I pretended to go back to my room, but I ran across the Embassy gardens, climbed over two walls, and found myself in the courtyard of an adjoining house. I then made my way p the police station.