SECRET AGENTS LEFT?

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22583, 11 March 1948, Page 4

SECRET AGENTS LEFT?

YUGOSLAVS IN SYDNEY DESERTION DISCOUNTED Reports have reached Auckland that about 20 members of the Yugoslav secret police were purposely left in Sydney by the steamer Radnik when she sailed for Yugoslavia. The men are believed to Rave been put ashore either to act as Communist agents in support of local Communists, or to search for 24 people said to have deserted from another Yugoslav ship, the Partizanka, which had previously visited Australia. Efforts to land a member of the secret police in Auckland during the Radnik’s recent visit are also reported. The idea was dropped because of the difficulty of a foreigner successfully concealing his identity in a comparatively small community. Auckland Yugoslavs discount a suggestion that the men left in Sydney were deserters from the ship. Some ot those who went on board the Radmk in Auckland found that under a superficial air of freedom there was a close network of Communist officials in the shin's company. They included members of the secret nolice, the Ozna, which is the Jugoslav counterpart of the Russian Ogpu, and officers of the Tito Government. In the opinion of Auckland Yugoslavs, neither passengers nor crew members would have much chance of leaving the Radnik undetected by these special observers.