RAID WIDOW’S FLAT

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 July 1931, Page 10

RAID WIDOW’S FLAT

RUSSIAN OGPU AT WORK

An amazing raid was recently, carried out on the Paris flat of Mrs Sidney Reilly, widow—or as she herself believes, the wife —of Captain Sidney Reilly, (ho greatest spy Britain ever had in her service. A file marked “Zinovieff” is among the papers stolen, and it is believed that the raid is the work of the Ogpu, the secret service of the Soviet Government.

The fate of Captain Reilly, whose incredibly daring exploits in Russia during and after the war won him high renown, has always been one of the dramatic mysteries of the secret service.

In 1925 ho was lured back to Moscow by a. faked message purporting to come' from British secret service agents, urging him to assist in a task winch only he could carry’ through successfully. Actually the message came from the Russian secret service. He went back, and according to one account was seized and put to death by the Ogpu. Two years later there aiose rumours that he was still alive, and was being put to the torture in a Moscow prison by the Soviet, authorities, who honed in this way’ to extort from him information about the British Secret Service.

Among those who are firmly convinced that, he is still living is Mrs Reilly. “I am certain that he is in a Russian prison,” she said. “In fact, I have frequently' received messages from him through intermediaries. “1 am growing used to these raids on my’ flat. Since I came to Paris three, years ago three flats which I have occupied have been ransacked.

“Whenever I change my address the Bolshevik agents renew their attempts to find documents which they’ think are in my possession.

“All important papers relating to my husband’s activities are, however, in safe custody.

“Nothing has ever been taken except papers in my husband's handwriting.” The hatred of the Bolsheviks for the master spj’ was intensified by the fact that during the reign of terror he posed successfully as a fanatical “comrade,” and actually attained high rank in Communist circles.

Captain Reilly was the son of an Irish father and a Russian mother, and had lived ..many years in Russia. His spying career began at the siege of Port Arthur. At one time he made large sums of money as a munition contractor, and spent his gains ap to the last penny.

He was fond of artistic masterpieces and historical relics, and had at one time one of the finest Napoleonic collections of books in the world. When he came back (o Russia as a spy in 1918 there were no half measures about his methods. He walked .straight up to the Kremlin —at that lime, of course, a closed fortress to any one —and demanded to see Lenin. lie did not succeed in seeing Lenin, bul he saw one of his first assistants. One of the most, dangerous times in his life was at the time of the socalled Allied Plot in September 1918, when an attempt was made on Lenin’s life, and Lenin was nearly killed.

Captain Reilly was capable of inspiring great, faith in w.omen, and women were among his most trusted zsistants in his work as a spy. Mrs Reilly, who was formerly Miss Pepita Bobadilla, a. beautiful actress well known on the London musical comedy stage, was at the time her marriage to Captain Reilly the widow of Haddon Chambers, the playwright.