BRITAIN DRAGGED IN

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 136, 13 June 1927, Page 9

BRITAIN DRAGGED IN

FANTASTIC CHARGES

SIB K. HODGSON RKPLIKS

(A. I.A. and "Sim.")

LONDON. 12th June, .bantastic nnri utterly without foundation" is how Sir Robert Hodgson describes the Soviet's accusations that the British Mission had employed the victims ,-jnst executed by Soviet Government orders. Equally fantastic are the other allegations of illicit practices emanating from Moscow, which Sir Robert Hodgson declares cannot be allowed to go unchallenged, .He refers to M. Bykoff's recent quotation from, a letter Mr. T. N. Preston (Consul at Leningrad) wrote to Mr. C. B. Jerrani, British Missioner in Moscow, regarding the trade in chemicals, in which the writer said he feared that the Russians were malting inquiries which exposed them to the risk of being hanged, drawn, and quartered for spying. Sir Robert Hodgson asks: "Were"Mr. Preston's apprehensions justified? M. Kykoff's statements show that they were, because he mentioned the cases of Peshkoff and Film, who were shot

f? r ™PP}yi"*r military information to the British Missioner' (Mr. (&. OharnocK).'* . .

CASE OF FESHKOrr t Sir Eobert Hodgson points out that if . 7 was never aa officer in Kolchafe g army as M. Rykoff declared, but was a naval officer. When Sir Bobert Hodgson arrived in Moscow in 1921 .tfesnkoff, who was an old acquaintance, was placed in communication with him by a woman named Dahl, a secret agent of the police. Peshkoff was later employed by the Canadian Pacific Bailway at Moscow. Afterwards he was arrested, with his wife and others, on a charge of organising a counter-revolu-tion in. Siberia. He applied to Kara Kuan, whoso investigations showed the charge to be a mare'i ne»t. Peshkoff and the others were liberated, and he was re-empioyed by the Canadian Pacific, tut was arrested again in 1925, on the old charge, with friends for whom he had found employment. Sir Robert Hodgson comments: "It stands to reason that after the Dahl incident Peshkoff was not likely to act as a spy. It is also most unlikely that I should apply to him for information."

FILIN'S MOVE FANTASTIC. (Beeeived 13th June, noon.)

The case of Film is more fantastic. He was a Bed army officer /whose wife was a childhood friend of Mrs. Charnoek, for -which, reason. Charnock was very careful to avoid dealings with JTilin, especially as the latter's position enabled him to procure information. The charge on which Film was executed is only now revealed. Sir Eobert Hodgson, referring to the list of persons executed, says that Cliarnoclc did not know Lytcheff and Koropanko. He (Sir Robert) knew Valdimir Evreinoff, who was employed in the State Bank at Moscow, slightly, but he did not encourage relations, as Evreinoff was an ex-Imperial diplomat at Teheran, and therefore might bo suspected.

Sir Robert Hodgson adds: "The socalled confessions of arrested persons must be treated with the gravest distrust, as the secret police habitually endeavour to wring admission from victims by promising them release, if they sign dictated statements. Similarly, the police employ most abominable measures to secure agents. For example, Louise Koch, maid-servant in the British Mission, was threatened with life imprisonment unless she informed against her master, and was also threatened with death if she revealed the fact that she had been approached. Accordingly the information supplied to agents thus recruited is entirely valueless."