Sweden Warns Russians To Leave Girl 'In Peace'

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 August 1948, Page 5

Sweden Warns Russians To Leave Girl 'In Peace '

(Rec. 12.25 p.m.) < STOCKHOLM, Aug. 17.

The Swedish Foreign Office has warned the Russian Embassy “to leave in a 19-year-old Russian girl musician, whom the Russians are allegedly trying to coerce to return to Russia. The girl, whose name is not disclosed, allegedly declared • that Russian diplomats tried to lure her into the Soviet Embassy.

“If I went, I know I could not escape transportation to Russia,” she is reported to have said. The Foreign Office said it has refused repeated Russian requests to hand over the girl, who wants to become a Swedish citizen.

A Russian Embassy official is reported to have tried to force his way into the villa of an engineer and his wife, with whom the girl is staying, says a correspondent. The Russian had to be ejected. He left a letter signed by the second secretary of the Soviet Embassy, urging her “to leave this spider’s web and return to the fatherland and freedom.” Earlier, another Russian official is reported to have visited the girl and told her: “Pack your bags. You will be in Leningrad tomorrow.” The Swedish Foreign Office warned the engineer and his wife on no account to allow the girl to go out alone after dark. The girl came to Sweden in 1944, via Esthonia. Her father is a Red Army officer.