A RUSSIAN TRAITOR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15965, 9 July 1915, Page 8

A RUSSIAN TRAITOR.

MASTER OF ESPIONAGE

GREAT PLOT EXPOSED.

Times and Sydney Sun Services. (Received July 8, 6 p.m.)

London, July 7.

The trial of Lieutenant Colonel Milsoyedoff, an interpreter on the staff of the Tenth Russian Army Corps, who was recently executed for espionage, revealed a German plot to take Warsaw by a campaign of spying and treachery. Milsoyedoff, when in charge of gendaramerie employed at the frontier station of Wirballen, close to the Kaiser's shooting box, was a frequent guest at the Kaiser's private table. Having charge of the issuing of passports into Russia, Milsoyedoff enabled swarms of Germans to penetrate Russia. 'An extensive trade in contraband was discovered, and Milsoyedoff was dismissed. He then went to a famous German watering place. Thanks to female intrigue he subsequently emerged with the rank of colonel in the Russian Army, and was appointed interpreter on the staff of the Tenth Army operating against East Prussia. This post gave him access to the most confidential information. A bridge was burned at a critical moment on the Vistula, and the explanation did not fit the facts. It was also found that aviators had ascended without proper instructions. Finally some Cossacks caught two men taking German copies of Russian orders of the day. The same day the Russians were celebrating a feast at which it was fairly certain the staff officers and corps commanders would foregather. Several had assembled, when a German officer appeared at the door, saying, "Gentlemen, you are my prisoners." The alarm was given, and one Russian general escaped in his night clothes, the German coup failing. It had been intended to capture the senior*officers, and to surround the Tenth Army by a lightning dash and rush to Warsaw. Milsoyedoff was arrested and confronted with the confession of an aviator who had carried messages for him to the German lines. Other arrests followed, stretching back to Petrograd, and a gigantic system of espionage was scotched.