AMERICA ACCUSED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26847, 11 August 1948, Page 5

AMERICA ACCUSED

“TERRORISING TACTICS”

DESIGNED AGAINST RUSSIAN CITIZENS SOVIET CHARGES DISMISSED N.Z.P.A.—Copyright WASHINGTON, Rec. 9 p.m. Aug. 9. The Soviet Ambassador, Mr Alexander Panyushkin, in a Note to the State Department to-night, accused the United States of trying to terrorise Russian citizens in America and demanded the surrender to the Russian consulate in New York of Mikhail Samarin, a Russian school teacher who sought the protection of the Federal Bureau of Investigation yesterday. Mr Panyushkin had a 30-minute talk with the Under-secretary. Mr Robert Lovett, who told him that the Russian accusations based on conflicting newspaper reports were not accepted by the Government.

Mr Panyushkin alleged that Samarin and Mrs Oksana Stepanovna, another Russian teacher, were kidnapped by the Tolstoy Foundation, a White Russian organisation in New York State headed by Countess Alexandra Tolstoy. Be said the foundation was systematically terrorising Soviet citizens to prevent them returning to Russia and that American authorities were implicated in the “ plot.” He demanded that the Soviet Consulgeneral at least be permitted to see Samarin.

The State Department said that Mr Panyushkin told Mr Lovett that the alleged abductions were the violation of the Roosevelt-Litvinov Agreement of 1933, when Russia agreed to dissolve the Comintern, and in which both Governments said they would not permit the organisation in their territory of groups hostile to the other Government. Mr Lovett “ brushed aside ” this argument. Mr Panyushkin added that Samarin had been wounded in the head during the war and he would not be responsible for Samarin’s statements. Mr Lovett said that steps would be taken if any American was found guilty of criminal action. Meanwhile, Alexander Koral, the British-born mystery witness who is described as " the man able to crack open the whole spy case,” refused today to tell the House Un-American Activities Committee if he was a Communist, or if he knew Miss Elizabeth Bentley on the grounds he might “ incriminate or degrade himself.” Koral refused to confirm or deny a charge

by a committee member that he had already signed a statement confessing his membership of the Soviet spy ring and declined to answer most of the committee’s questions. Before Koral gave evidence, the Justice Department' stated that he had testified at considerable length before the New York Grand Jury, which recently indicted 12 Communist leaders of charges that they planned to overthrow the Government. Another witness. Victor Perlo, a former official of the War Production Board, denied Miss Bentley’s allegations that he gave her secret aircraft production figures, but refused to say if he was a Communist or knew Miss Bentley. The committee chairman, Representative Karl Mundt, said subpoenas would be issued for Mikhail Samarin, and his wife, Klavida. The committee also wants testimony from Mrs Kosenkina, whom the t Soviet Consul-general, Mr Lomakin, said he rescued from the White Russians. In New York to-day, Mr Lomakin said: “Mrs Kosenkina absolutely will not be allowed to testify before the «ommittee. That is out of the question. She is a Soviet citizen.” He said Mrs Kosenkina would go to Russia in September on the next boat. Police Chief Walter Liebert, of Clarkstown, New York, said,, that Samarin gave himself up to F. 8.1. agents and that Representative Mundt had been informed. Samarin and his family had been scheduled to sail for Russia last month. The Daily Mirror reports Representative Mundt saving: “ Samarin is ready to talk and tell all.” Representative Mundt also said he planned to have Samarin before the committee as soon as possible. The Daily Mirror also quotes Countess Tolstoy as saying that Mrs Kosenkina may have been a Soviet spy posing as a l'efugee to learn the whereabouts of Samarin. The Countess said: “There were many things about Mrs Kosenkina’s actions that led me to believe that she was sent here by the Reds to spy on us.” Later messages reported that Representative Mundt said that the Samarin family was under a heavy guard in an undisclosed place. Subpoenas for their appearance before the Senate Committee were issued to the husband and wife. Countess Tolstoy said the Tolstoy Foundation during the last two years had helped two Russian sailors who did not want to return to Russia, to escape to Paraguay. She added that the sailors went to her New York office while their ships were in New York and told her that life in Russia was unbearable. After the ships had sailed she communicated with immigration officials and Paraguayan visas were obtained for the sailors, who were now working and happy. Countess Tolstoy emphasised that these were isolated incidents. She said Mr Panyushkin’s allegations that the Tolstoy Foundation was a criminal conspiracy were “ nonsensical lies.”

Count Leo Tolstoy, after whom the Tolstoy Foundation mentioned in the cablegram is named, was a distinguished personality in modern Russian literature. He was greatly moved by the trials and sufferings of the people of his time, the second half of the last century. He was a persistent advocate of progressive ideas, and, before the Emancipation Act for freeing all Russian serfs was enforced, he himself had given the serfs on his own estate their freedom. In his later years he developed a sort of religious mysticism. In 1918, Countess Tolstoy organised a society in Moscow to study and work on a complete edition of her father’s works (which she edited after his death in 1910). She organised museums, several schools and a hospital, and worked in Russia until 1929 when she was compelled to leave because the Soviet instilled anti-religious propaganda in her museums and schools. After lecturing in Japan she entered America to live on a farm of the Tolstoy Foundation, a community centre for Russian people. She became an American citizen in 1941.