BOLSHEVIK EMISSARY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18204, 25 September 1922, Page 9

BOLSHEVIK EMISSARY.

DEPORTED FROM AUSTRALIA. .ONCE IN NEW ZEALAND. ; QUESTION OF, A PASSPORT, j j When the steamer Hobson's Bay left , Melbourne on September 6 for Great> 5 Britain there was on board the vessel a j notorious Bolshevik- propagandist, who, is* . being deported from Australia. t The Russian has made two visits to 5 - Australia, and on each occasion he has .' been deported. It is stated that he first' r arrived in Australia in 1911. and during j his stay was active in revolutionary move- » iments. He was closely associated with the . One Big Union Propaganda League. He . was deported fiom Sydney on April 17, t 1919, and returned to Moscow. He was ) then given a. secret mission from Moscow. and visited the United States and Canada ■ on a propaganda mission. He succeeded s later in obtaining a passport I from the • Norwegian Consul at Vancouver under the . name of a Norwegian • subject, some of .- whose letters and papers were in his pos- . session. He appeared to be well supplied i with funds,' and, it is stated, there is' . ample evidence to show {hat he spent I money lavishly. He came from New Zea- ! lajid to Sydney, and afterwards to Mel- ; bourne, where he immediately took up . propaganda work under another name. He-; s gave lectures before many meetings of j Communists, and he was proved to be a \t, dangerous propagandist. While he was in 5 Australia, it is asserted, he advocated, among other things, the burning of buildi iugs> the catting of telephone lines, and , shooting. He was, it is alleged, one of j the armed Russians who took an active . part in the conflict in Brisbane in 1919, , when returned soldiers were fired on. The foreigner was arrested in Melbourne on August 9. He admitted that he used .many aliases, and confessed his identity. On August 17 he was sentenced to three months imprisonment, and ordered for j the second tune to be deported. Under the 1 law, however, he was able to claim re- [ lease on finding two bondsmen to guarantee £50 each, and undertaking that he 1 would leave the country within a month. 1 The bondsmen were immediately forth- ' coming, and the Russian left on the Hob- | son's Bay. When the vessel was ready to leave Port Melbourne the Soviet dis- ' .oiple produced a red flag which he waved, and made'a speech hi Russian to his ; friends on the, pier, who appeared to be greatly impressed with his remarks. 1 It is unqerstoiod that the man was not the only ageflt of Moscow in Australia amply provided with funds. Others, it is s believed, are here at present. When the steamer arrived db Fremantle 1 a passenger, alleged to have been travel- ' ling on a passport * issued in the name of 1 Stanley George Stetler, secretary of the • "Communist party of New South Wales. was femoved*from the vessel. The pass--1 port had been cancelled by the Federal authorities when it was ascertained that ; it was not being used by t\e person to whom it was issued. Mr. j. S. Garden, . secretary of the Sydney Trades Hall Council, who is also a passenger by the ; -steamer, forwarded a telegram to the Prime Minister (Mr. Hughes) stating that Stealer's passport had been cancelled, and asking that he be granted permission to I proceed to Europe. Mr. Hughes, however, _Jiaving be'en informed that the bearer of the passport was not Stetler, . declined to accede to the 'request. " Mr. Gard§n is going.to Moscow to attend a conference on behalf of the United Com- » munist party of Australia. ■ When it became known that another passenger on the Hobson's Bay was travelling as Stanley George Stetler, inquiries • were instituted, and Stetler was discov- ' ered to be still in Sydney. The passport { f was immediately cancelled. It is under-' ; stood that proceedings will be ' taken ' against the man carrying it. > ' ". =s ' ■