BRITISH DENY KIDNAPPING & BEATING RUSSIAN OFFICER

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22658, 8 June 1948, Page 7

BRITISH DENY KIDNAPPING & BEATING RUSSIAN OFFICER

LONDON, June 6

The British Foreign Office spokesman categorically denied the Soviet Tass news agency report that the British authorities kidnapped Colonel Y. D. Tassoyev, of the Russian Army, on May 6, when they reported that Tassoyev was seeking asylum in Britain, and on May 28, when they reported that Tassoyev had returned to Russia.

The spokesman said the Tass Agency allegations of torture and ill-treatment, besides being untrue, were “highly improbable.” “Rendezvous” of British Intelligence The British Government would have been unlikely to return Tassoyev where he could make a statement on the alleged atrocities had they been true. The Tass Agency said the version of Tassoyev’s disappearance is that after dinner at the home of Mr. C. R. Clem, the American port director at Bremen, two men, understood to be British intelligence officers, took Tassoyev by plane to a block of flats in Kensington which is “the rendezvous of the British intelligence service.” He met the landlady, Mrs. Wiggin and her daughter, Betty. Russian-speaking British intelligence officers tried to persuade Tassoyev to remain in London and then “resorted to threats, blackmail and violence to extort a statement, justifying unprecedented violence and to extricate themselves from the scandalous affair.’’ The Tass Agency added that Tassoyev escaped on May 6 into the Olympia exhibition grounds and shouted that he had been kidnapped and asked to be taken to the Soviet Embassy. The police kept him at the Hammersmith police station from May 6 to May 20.

Tassoyev was "repeatedly beaten up” when he refused to sign the statement. The Tass Agency report concluded: “As the whole story became more and more widely known, the British authorities were compelled to return Tassoyev to the Soviet authorities in Germany.” Police Refuse to Comment Reuter says the Kensington fiat where Tassoyev was allegedly beaten up is now empty, with uncollected mail in the mailbox. The porter of the fiats confirmed that there had been a tenant named Mrs. Wiggin, but she moved out suddenly a fortnight ago. Several doormen at the Olympia Hall said they remembered “hearing about that Russian fellow incident” but would not vouch for its authenticity.

Neighbours standing on their doorsteps discussing the story spoke of seeing “big cars standing in front of the flat late at nights.” The police refused to comment. The Associated Press correspondent at Bremen says that the American port director, Mr. Clem, said he would like to tell the full story about 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 Agency report a single direct quotation from the officer about his experiences.