SOVIET VICTIMS

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 June 1927, Page 7

SOVIET VICTIMS

MR. HODGSON'S DENIAL POLICE METHODS EXPOSED (Australian & N.Z. Cable Assn.) (By Cable —Press Assn.—Copyright.) LONDON, June 12. “Fantastic —utterly without foundation,” is how Mr. Hodgson describes the Soviet’s accusations that the British Mission at Moscow employed the victims just executed by the Soviet Government’s orders. Equally fantastic (he says) are the other allegations of illicit practices emanating from Moscow, which Mr. Hodgson declares cannot be allowed to go unchallenged. He refers to Al. Rykoff’s recent quotation from a letter which Preston wrote to Jer'ram, British Missioner in Moscow, regarding trade in chemicals, in which the writer said he feared that the Russians were making inquiries, which exposed them to the risk of being hanged, drawn and quartered for saying anything. Air. Hodgson asks: “Were Preston's apprehensions justified?” He adds: “Rykoff’s statements show they were, because he mentioned the cases of Peshkoff and Filin, who were shot for supplying military information to a British Missioner named Charnock.” Air. Hodgson points out that Peshkoff was never an officer in Kolchak’s army, as Rykoff had declared, but was a naval officer. When Mr. Hodgson arrived at .Moscow in 1921. Peshkoff, who was an old acquaintance, was placed in communication with him by a woman named Dahl, a secret agent of the police, after which Peshkoff was employed by the Canadian-Pacific Railway at Moscow. Afterwards he was arrested with his wife and others on a charge of organising a counter revolution in Siberia, under Air. Hodgson’s instructions. He applied to Kara Khan, whose investigations showed the charge to be a mare’s nest. Peshkoff and the others were liberated, and he was re-employed by the CanadianPacific Railway, but he was arrested again in 1925 on the old charge, along with friends for whom he had found employment. Air. Hodgson comments: “It stands to reason that, after the Dahl incident Peshkoff was not likely to act as a spy. It also is most unlikely that I should apply to him for information.” .“The case of Filin was even more fantastic. He was a Red Army officer whose wife had been a childhood friend of Airs Charnock, for which reason Charnock was very careful to avoid dealing with Filin, especially as his position enabled him to procure information. The charge on which Filin was executed is only now revealed.

Mr Hodgson referring to those executed (as cabled on June 10), says that Charnock did not know Lytcheff or Koropanko. Mr Hodgson knew Vladimir Evereinoff, employed at the State Bank, Moscow, slightly, but did not encourage relations, as Evereinoff was formerly an Imperial diplomat in Teheran, and therefore might be suspected.” Mr Hodgson adds that the arrested’s so-called confessionns must be treated with the gravest distrust, as the .secret police were habitually endeavouring to wring an admission from the victims by promising release if they sign dictated statements. Similarly, the police employ most abominable measures to secure agents. For example, Louise Koch, maid-servant at the British mission, was threatened with life imprisonment, unless she informed against Mr Hodgson. She was also threatened with death if she revealed the fact that she had been approached. Accordingly, the information supplied by agents recruited in this manner was entirely valueless. POLITICAL MURDERS LONDON, June 10. The Soviet executions are universally regarded as an act of revenge. Many newspapers use the word “Massacre.” The Daily Telegraph’s Riga correspondent affirms that most of those executed had no connection with political activity. They merely have been the victims of a Soviet political policy and were sentenced to death and shot without trial or inquiry. The Daily Telegraph’s diplomatic correspondent says: “The unfortunate •.ictims of the Bolshevik blood lust ,vere arrested long ago, and were detained. with many other suspects, as hostages, in accordance with the Soviet practice, which does not hesitate to seize as hostages even the women and children of their exiled opponents. Prirj.ce Dolgorukoff was sixty-five years of age and was well known in London. He formerly was rich, but was ruined by the Revolution. M. Yevreinoff was married to an English woman and he lived in England after the revolution, but eventually secured permission to return and to work for the State Bank.

VOIKOFF’S FUNERAL WARSAW, June 10. Fifty thousand persons, chiefly Jews, viewed Voikoff’s body lying in state here. A Polish guard of honour escorted the remains to the train, and Presidential and Government representatives stood with bowed heads at the station. MOSCOW, June 12. Voikoff’s coffin was accorded a reception by Ministers, who lilted it out and placed it on a gun carriage, and then walked in procession to Red Square, where it was interred. SCENES IN MOSCOW LONDON, .lune 12. The “Daily Express's” Moscow correspondent reports that violent antiBritish speeches and the most stringent military precautions, were outstanding features at the funeral of Voikoff, which was carried out with greater pomp than any State funeral since Dzerjinsky’s. There is uneasy excitement all day and military patrols cantered past the Polish Legation in- ■ cessantly, While armed pickets were in all main centres. The military cleared Red Square completely, thrusting the public into side streets. The entire staff of the Polish Legation drove up in three liiotor cars, bearing enormous wreaths in notable contrast to the meagre Soviet flowers, Moscow having decided not to send flowers, but to give the money “for our answer to Chamberlain.” GRAVESIDE! SPEECHES LONDON, June 12. Rykoff, speaking over the open coffin

surrounded by three thousand troops, said:’ "The British breach with Russia madq -this murder possible. The Soviet holds data proving that. England inspired and financed the Monarchist organisations on Polish soil. The murder marks a crisis. We are obliged to retore with strict measures. No hireling like Kowerda should succeed here.”

M. Livinoff expressed the hope that the revolution could be defended without the use of the Red Army. At. Bukharin declared: “The Bourgeoise are beginning to shoot at us, ■and may march against us. Our slogan continues to be “Militant Communism.” ANTI-POLISH DEMONSTRATION. LONDON, June 11. The “Daily Mail’s” Warsaw correspondent says it is reported from Moscow that a big crowd attacked the Polish Legation there. Troops dispersed the crowd, and are now guarding the Legation. RUSSIAN DEMANDS. MOSCOW, June 12. The Soviet Note to Poland demands the punishment of all concerned in Voikoff’s assassination, Soviet representation at the trial, dispersal of antiSoviet organisation in Poland, and expulsion of its members. The Note expresses satisfaction with Poland’s offer to compensate Mrs Voikoff, but considers it incumbent on itself the care of his family, because Voikoff perished when on duly. POLAND’S ATTITUDE. PARIS, June 10. Al. Zaleski, en route to Geneva, said that he had not the slightest intention of agreeing to the extradition of Al. Kowerda in connection with which the Polish Law would take ordinary course. ANOTIIF.R ASSASSINATION. LONDON, June 12. The ‘‘Sunday Exuress’s” Warsaw 'correspondent states : Martial law was proclaimed at .Minsk, owing to the assassination of the local chief of the political police. A wave of terror is sweeping’ Russia.' A mass of arrests are reported and ,new executions are expected. Shooting was heard on the frontier; where the Red Army is demonstrating against Poland. , The ‘‘Sunday Express” in an editorial says : For some time, instructed opinion has forecasted the decline of the Red Oligarchy. Russia is gradualy adjusting herself to the outside world. The murder of Voikoff plunged the terrorists into panic. The butchery of twenty political prisoners was an act of despair and the proclamation of bankruptcy. The Red regime, like other revolutions, is perishing in violence.

AND ANOTHER! (A.P.A. & Sun.) MOSCOW, June 12. It is reported that M. Turov, formerly President of the Soviet Trade Mission to Berlin, was murdered at Bitza Station, on the Moscow to Kursk railway. TRADE WITH GERMANY. BERLIN, June 12. In view of Russia’s desire for credits, enabling the placing of bigorders in Germany, in consequence of the British rupture, great importance is attached to M. Tchitcherin’s luncheon at the Soviet Embassy to fifteen German financial and industrial magnates. FRENCH COMMUNISTS. PARIS, June 10. The Chamber of Deputies by 370 votes to 148, expressed confidence in M. Poincare regarding the Government’s attitude towards the Communists. Mr Blum, defining the position of the Socialists, declared that a war against the Communists had been taken up at present as an electoral manoeuvre. M. Poincare denied that the Government were preparing for either a coup d’etat, or for the institution of a new law. It was a question of applying the existing laws. If the day should come when the prosecution of Communist deputies would arise, the Government would not shirk its responsibility. YOUNGSTERS’ MISSION. LONDON, June 12. Six youngsters, selected by the British Communist party, are setting out to-morrow for eight weeks statin Russia as guests o'f the Moscow Young Red Pioneers. Though their ages range only from eleven to thirteen, it is seriously announced that they are going to study the condition of children under the Soviet.