Britain Denies Story Of Alleged Kidnapping Of Red Army Officer

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 June 1948, Page 5

Britain Denies Story Of Alleged Kidnapping Of Red Army Officer

(Recd. I 1.5 a.m.) LONDON, June 6. A British Foreign Office spokesman categorically denied the lass News Agency report that the British authorities kidnapped Colonel Y. D. Tassoyev, of the Russian Army. On May 6 it was reported that Colonel lassoyev was seeking asylum in Britain and on May 28 it was reported that he was returning to Russia. ... The spokesman said that the allegations of torture and illtreatment, besides being untrue, were “highly improbable. The British Government would have been unlikely to return Colonel Tassoyev to where he could make a statement on the alleged atrocities had they been true.

The Tass version of Colonel Tassoyev’s disappearance is that after dinner at the home of Mr C. R, Clem, American port director at Bremen, ■ two men, understood to be British in- , telligence officers, took Colonel Tassoyev by plane to a block of flats in ; Kensington, which “is the rendezvous of the British Intelligence ser- I vice.” He met the landlady, Mrs; Wiggin, and her daughter, Betty. Violence Alleged I Russian-speaking British intelli- i gence officers tried to persuade Col- | onel Tassoyev to remain in London ; and then “resorted to threats, blackmail and violence to extort a statement justifying the unprecedented violence and to extricate themselves ( from the scandalous affair.” The Tass agency added that Colonel Tassoyev escaped on May 6 into the Olympia exhibition grounds, shouting that he had been kidnapped, and asked to be taken to the Soviet Embassy. The police kept him at the Ham- i mersmith police station from May 6 to May 20. Colonel Tassoyev was “repeatedly beaten up” when he refused to sign a statement. The Tass agency concluded: “As the whole story became more and more widely known, the British authorities were compelled to return Colonel Tassoyev to the Soviet authorities in Germany.” Reuters says the Kensington flat where Colonel Tassoyev was allegedly beaten up is now empty with uncollected mail in the mail-box. The porter of the flats confirmed that there had been a tenant named Mrs Wiggins, but that she moved out suddenly a fortnight ago. Several doormen at Olympia Hall said they remember “hearing about that Russian fellow incident,” but would not vouch for its authenticity. Neighbours standing on doorsteps, discussing the story, spoke of seeing “big cars standing in front of the flat late at nights.” ■ The police refused to comment. __ I Story Featured in Moscow ; The Associated Press Bremen correspondent says that the American port director, Mr Clem, said he would like to tell the full story about Colonel Tassoyev to clear himself, but the United States Military Government had ordered him not to talk. ■ The British United Press correspondent in Moscow reports that all the Moscow morning newspapers featured the Tassoyev story, but there was not in' the Tass report a single' direct quotation from the officer about ! his experiences. i