RUSSIAN DELEGATE SHOT.

Otago Witness, Issue 3609, 15 May 1923, Page 17

RUSSIAN DELEGATE SHOT.

OTHERS SERIOUSLY WOUNDED. A SENSATIONAL OCCURRENCE. LAUSANNE, May 10. Three of the Russian delegates to tne Lausanne Conference (MM. Vorowsky, Ahrens, and Dimitrieff) were tuning at the Hotel Cecil, when the people at a neighbouring table suddenly fired 10 shots Vorowsky was killed and the ethers gravely wounded. Several arrests were made. A DELIBERATE MURDER. LAUSANNE, May 10. M. Ahrens is dying. M. Dimitrieff, secretary of the delegation, is severely wounded. The murderer having emptied his re volver turned to the horror-stricken guests and said calmly, “Well, call the police. 1 don’t regret what I have done.” Ht then awaited the arrival of the police, with whom he left the hotel quietly. The name of the assassin is Conrad. He is 38 yeans of ago, and was formerly a captain in the Russian Army. He had only just arrived at Lausanne from Zurich. At first it was stated that the assassin belonged to the Fascist!, but this is now denied. It is known, however, that the Fascisti tried two days ago to persuade M. Vorowsky to leave Lausanne. They called at his hotel, but he refused to see them. It was known that they were using threats. Ahrens, after the shooting, made a state ment as follows: “When we sat down to dinner I noticed an elegantly-dressed young man seated two tables away. He was drinking continually small glasses of cognac. When he rose I saw the muzzle of his revolver pointing directly at the hack of M. Vorowsky’s head. M. Vorowsky was shot at point-blank range and killed instantly. I tried to grab the revolver, but was too late. I was shot i>the leg and fainted, and fell over M. Vorowsky’s corpse.” M. Ahren’s condition improved at midnight, when he made the following state ment: —“I formally accuse the Swiss Go vernment. of being accomplices in thi murder, because, despite the measures against us, no precautions were taken t' safeguard us.” May 11. A police communique states that the Chief of Police asked Vorowsky a few days ago whether he wanted special measures of protection, but the Russian refused to accept them.

Ahrens also accuses the secretariat of the conference of doing everything to render difficult the situation of the Russian delegates. The chief of the Fascist movement in Lausanne states that they, altex* communication with the Swiss Government, decided not to put into action their threat made last Sunday to expel Vorowsky.

VOROWSKY ONE OF LENIN’S TOOLS.

LAUSANNE, May 11. Vorowsky was known to be one of Lenin’s tools. When the Bolsheviks, with Lenin at their head, went from Switzerland to Russia, Vorowsky was left, in Stockholm en route. Money, which was sent from Berlin for the first Bolshevik rising in June, 1917, went through Vorowsky’s hands. He later was Bolshevik representative in Stockholm, and was transferred to Rome. He attended the first Lausanne Conference with Tchitcherin. Vorowsky arrived for the present conference a week ago uninvited. He had since engaged in acrimonious correspondence with the conference for admission; also with the Swiss authorities, who, he alleged, showed him lack of respect. During the Fascisti coup in ilome last September the Fascisti entered his house and endeavoured to force him to drink a pint of castor oil, but he was saved from this ordeal at the last moment. S WITZERLA ND’S RESPON SiLILITY, LAUSANNE, May 11. Conrad declares that he had no accomplice. He says he is of Polish origin, and now denies that any members of hi» family were victims of Bolsheviks. He added that he had accomplished an act for which all civilised persons would thank him. There is considerable fear of re* prisals against the Swiss in Russia. It is expected tnat Russia will demand compensation from the Swiss Government on the grounds that the Russian representatives were unprotected. The Swiss newspapers express horror at the crime, particularly as M. Vorowsky was under Swiss protection. LONDON, May 12. The Sunday Express’s Lausanne correspondent reports that should M. Ahrens persist in his allegations of Swiss complicity in the murder of Vorowsky, the Government will expell him as scon ad he recovers from his wounds.

M. Dicker, president of the Socialist Party in Geneva, has agreed to defend the interests of the victims on condition that there are no reprisals against the Swiss residing in Russia.