CERTAIN DEATH

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16475, 20 October 1927, Page 7

CERTAIN DEATH

FOR INNOCENT PEOPLE SOVIET “SPY” CHARGES (The Times.) LONDON, Oct. 19. The forthcoming trial of live Russians alleged to have been employee! on espionage work by the British Mission in Moscow, was made the occasion of melodramatic 'charges against the mission. The names of the accused, who are all stated to have confessed, are Cyril and Vladimir Prove, sons of a former Moscow millionaire; M. Korepakoff, counsellor to the Soviet V\ ai Department; M. Podreskoff, and MNankofi.

A statement dealing with the case published in the Moscow Press, and transmitted to the Daily Express, affirms that correspondence between Sir Robert Hodgson and Mr. Preston, British Consul in Leningrad, which fell into the hands of the secret police during a raid, proved conclusively that espionage is being carried on. Sir Hubert Hodgsons most active collaborator was Mr. Edward Charnock, secretary to the mission, who was successful in recruiting spies. It is declared that stolen secret plans and other documents were transmitted to Mr. Charnock in return for American dollars and English clothing. The chief agents in giving information wore the Proves and Korepakoff. Interviews between the Proves and Charnock generally occurred in some cinema or one of the Moscow squares whither Mr. Charnock drove ii. a car bearing the British flag. Mr. Charnock is at present in London and emphatically denies tied any ol those arrested were in any way assn eiated with the mission. “I never met one of these in my life,” he said. “It is just another of the long series ol scandals which has followed the with drawn! of the mission. We are natur ally concerned over the arrests as the', mean almost, -certain death to innocent people.”