WHO IS HE?

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12247, 19 September 1925, Page 11

WHO IS HE?

Russian Mystery Child Puzzles London SENTENCED TO DEATH, BUT ESCAPES

§ “MYSTERY” boy who arrived in London recently from Bolshevik Russia is the subject of much curiosity iwrites the “Daily “Chronicle’s” special He has no papers, no passport, and all the authorities to whom ho made himself known are puzzled over him, including the War Office, (.he Foreign Office, the Home Office, Scotland Yard, and the Russian Consulate, which looks after the interests of non-Bolshevik Russian subjects. To begin with, he is no ordinary boy, but one whose psychology is so curious that he might well have dropped on London from another planet. In England such a type is quite unknown; in Russia it has been brought into existence as a result of the tragic condition of the revolution. In age this amazing boy can be little more than 15 years; but in manner and to a large extent experience ho is a man of 50 years. He is small in size, has lively, clever eyes, is generally intelligent-looking, is independent and assertive, holds definite views upon most subjects, freely criticises everyone, and speaks of politics with the pompous air of an elder statesman. PERSON OF IMPORTANCE There is nothing, in fact, that he does not know. And he. feels that he is a person of importance and behaves as such. All his friends, too, are persons of importance. His manners are free, but not without charm and distinction. The name that he gives is that of a well-known family, the former head of which was a Minister at the Tsar’s Court with whom I was acquainted. And he certainly shows traces of having been gently reared. He speaks both Russian and German with a good accent ; occasionally a little revolutionary streetslang comes out. After he reached England he got .work on the land, but found conditions too hard. His fingers blistered. And so ho ran away. A policeman stopped him, hut, as the boy does not speak English, could get nothing out of him, except that he was making for London, which was 40 miles away. Later he secured work f at a Russian

grocer’s shop. Then ho was seized with a longing to become a chauffeur, so that ho could sit and drive about all day. At present he has undertaken a contract on his own account for painting and decorating a house, work in which lie says that he is highly skilled. His great ambition in life is to be a soldier; not an ordinary soldier, of

course, but an officer. “All my family were military,” he remarks. “And I am very fond of military music.” And he spends much of his'time hanging about the Cossacks at Olympia. DEATH SENTENCE He cannot be sent back to Russia,

because he asserts that he is under sentence of death. w This gives him a great importance. His father joined the “Whites” and was captured and shot: he was with him at the time, ind afterwards made his way to Petrograd, where his mother died from consumption in his arras, giving him a dying blessing and some admonitions which he says he has never forgotten. At one time ho was a prominent figure in the “Comsomalls” (or young Communists), and was secretary of a region. While occupying this important position be reprimanded Zinovieff for wearing diamonds. Later, he had an interview with Tchitcherin. Finally, the boy joined a Bolshevik ship and sailed round the world. “I was a member of the committee that controlled the crew, and had the right to order anyone who mutinied to be thrown into the sea,” he boasts. The Red shin went to Vladivostok, carrying arms for the Chinese rebels. The boy was seized with an impulse to give the Bolsheviks away. An American ship was in. the harbour: he was caught in the act of signalling to it, tried for count-ter-revolutionary activity, and sentenced to death. But lie managed to escapo and get ashore. Then he made his way over 6000 miles of the Siberian railway, hiding and sleeping on goods wagons, back to Moscow, and from thence to Petrogrnd. where he ioined another Bolshevik ship hound for England. Nothing untoward happened until the ship arrived in the London docks. Then the simple little fellow went ashore, as usual, induced his guardians to freouent a bar—which was not a verv difficult thing to do—made off, and reported to The authorities. | “I am sentenced to die I” he said, l dramatically. And the rest of the | romantic story I have already told, exI cept that the boy gave solemn warn- | ings to the Goveromett of the serious j troubles which ,‘ately occurred in | China. He is a great authority on Chinese affairs. But who is he, after all? —L.L.