A THOROUGH SEARCH

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19841, 16 May 1927, Page 7

A THOROUGH SEARCH

POLICE STILL BUSY Further Details of Sensational London Raid PROTEST LODGED WITH FOREIGN SECREI ARY Thursday’s sensational police raid on the premises of Arcos Ltd. and the Russian Trade Delegation, in London, was the subject of several questions in the House of Commons on Friday, when the Home Secretary (Sir William Joynson-Hicks) said that he could give no information until to-day. Safes and strongrooms in the building are being opened and searched., despite a protest from M. Rosengobz, the Soviet Charge <’ Affaires.

[By Telegraph—Per Press Assn.— Copyright.]

A STRONG PROTEST

ALLEGED VIOLATION OF TRADE AGREEMENT. DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY CLAIMED ;<A-PX4fcn7 LONDON, May IX M. Eosengolz, Soviet Charge d’Affaires, has sent a letter to Sir Austen Chamberlain protesting against the raid made on. the premises of Arcos Ltd. on Thursday. It says the premises of Arcos and the Trade Delegation were occupied hv n-rmorJ tmHpa , although the premises of the Trade Delegation were in accordance with the trade agreement of 1921 and confirmed by the Foreign Office in its Note of February 36, 1927, which stated that they would enjoy diplomatic immunity. During the raid an employee of the Trade Delegation, M. Khudia- . /v, who rexused to give up the key of a safe containing personal papers and cypher codes of the official trade agent, was assaulted by the police, who carried off the post addressed to the trade agent, which couriers had just brought. ‘ ‘ These proceedings,’ ’ says the letter, * ‘are a flagrant violation ofg Article V, of the trade agreement, which provides that official agents shall be at liberty to communicate with their own Government and other official representatives of their Governments in other countries, and receive and despatsch couriers with sealed bags, which shall be exempt from examination. Moreover, in accordance with Article I. of the agreement, the British Government undertook not to discriminate against such trade as compared with the trade of any other country, but by the very fact .»f the raid the most elementary guarantees and demands for common decency were the presentation of the warrant violated the search was begun before the presentation of the warrant, which was only handed to the assistantdirector of Arcos, M. Sorokin, an hour after the commencement of the search. “All the employees, men and women, in Arcos and the Trade Delegation were detained and personally searched, including women possessing diplomatic passports, for instance, the wif of the Charge d’Affaires and the wife of the financial attache. A personal search of the women was carried out bv male police. I have informed my Government of all that occurred, and while awaiting its decision and instnKtioß> I protest mos« emphatically against the violation of the obligations undertaken by the British Government in accordance with the agreement.”

* Chamberlain

POLICE STILL AT WORK

SEABCH of vaults ans dates. STATEMENT BY ARCOS LTD. Received May 14, 5.5 pan. (4-PJk -»Snn) LONDON, May 13. Police were stationed at the Arcos building all day. Messages and telegrams were intercepted and read before delivery. A further development to-night was the arrival of a contractor’s lorry equipped with an oxy-acetylene apparatus and gas tubes. It was carried, to the ground floor for the purpose of broking open certain safes built into the concrete, the keys of which the officials declined to hand over. 1X is authoritatively learned that M. Rosengoltz is under a misapprehension as to the exact meaning ox Clause V. of the Angio-Kussian trade agreement. This specifies that the delegation’s official agenc personally enjoys immunity from arrest and search, out it does not extend to the officers under his control. Furthermore, the authorities declare that immunity is a privilege granted specially under the forms of the agreement. The Soviet Embassy announces that tho Mauser rifles discovered in the budding were samples of hunting rifles which the firm exports under a license from the British Government.

After two hourms’ work ,the police entered a strong room at the Arcos building. They found a table and eh-iirsj presumably used at secret meetings-

Other strong rooms are now being forced, after which the locked safes will be attacked, the operations continuing all night long. Arcos Ltd., in a statement issued after midnight, says: “If we had been requested we would at any time have produced our papers without the necessity for this melodramatic method.” The Daily Express says: “Mr Stephen McKenna, as chairman of the Midland Bank, signed an agreement on Wednesday with the Soviet Trade Delegation, by which the Bank would grant a credit of £10,000,000 for trade purposes. It it stated that but for the raid, negotiations for important orders would have been begun.' ‘

AN OFFICIAL STATEMENT

BEASON FOB THE RAID. SEARCH FOR MISSING PAPERS. Received. May 16, 1.30 a.m. LONDON, May 15. An official account of the raid was issued to-night. It explains that an important document was missed from a Government office a few months ago for which detectives had been searching continuously. In consequence of information received a few days ago, the police obtained a search warrant, under the Official Secrets Act, to search the Arcos Building primarily in order to ascertain if the missing documents were in the building. Work on the safes and strong-rooms continued throughout Saturday. The Sunday Express says that three more secret safes were found on another floor, skilfully secreted behind looking panelling. The Express understands that the vital document was not found but papers regarded as very important were discovered, which some believe, will expose secrets of the Soviet world-wide organisation. Others relate to the Soviet’s activities in Britain. The Midland Bank has given a statement that press reports of the £10,000,000 credit scheme are incorrect, nevertheless Sir Allan Smith, when interviewed, reiterated that an agreement on the matter of credit had been reached adding: “It is regrettable that the raid was carried out at this moment. Eventually it may do good, but it has necessarily delayed orders which would have been placed in Britain as a result of the agreement.’’

The Observer’s diplomatic correspondent states that the raid caused embarrassment at Downing Street. The Foreign Office was not consulted before the raid, though it was bound to be diplomatically important.

MANY QUESTIONS

DISCUSSIONS IN THE COMMONS. HOME SECRETARY RETICENT. (A. & NX) LONDON, May 13. As soon as the Speaker took thechair in the House of Commons, Mr Arthur Henderson (Labour) asked was the raid made on the Home Secretary’s authority, and for what reason. Sir W. Joynson-Hicks said that as the result of information given him on Wednesday, he authorised the application of the search warrant, the execution of which was progressing. He could not supply further information yet. Mr Henderson: i Will you on Monday? You must recognise that the House as a whole regards the action as a serious matter. It is of public importance and should not stand over too long. Sir W. Joynson-Hicks: The police are still in possession and the search is still going on. I wall give you any possible information on Monday. Commaoider J. M. Kenworthy (Labour) : You haven’t answered whether the Soviet delegation w r as raided, whether the hw?ad of it had written diplomatic immunity, and whether the raid was made after a consultation of Cabinet. Mr F. W. Hudson (Con.): Is it aruc that the Russian Charge d’Affaires came to the Whips’ office instead of going to the Foreign Office? Mr Arthur Henderson said that it was true that the Charge d’Affaires had consulted him and had done everything he possibly cosuld before he went to get the judgment of the Foreign Secretary.

Mr Hudson: Wasn’t the visit of the Charge d’Affaires to consult the Labour Executive, a gross breach of diplomatic eitquettet? Mr E. Thurfde (Lab.): Is Sir W. Joynson-Hicks asvare that there are two separate organisations in the Arcos buildings, one diplomatically immune? Did he authorise the search of both? Sir W. Davisons: Is Sir W. JoynsonHicks aware that nobodoy knows where

the Third International ends and the Soviet begins? Sir W. Joynson-Hicks said that he could not further discuss the subject till Monday,

ANOTHER STATEMENT

RUSSIAN EMBASSY’S COMPLAINT CIPHER DOCUMENTS TAKEN. Received May 15, 8 p.m. (A.P.A.-Sun) LONDON, May 14. The Russian Embassy has issued a statement that M. Bogoncloff, the first secretary, was on route to the Trade Delegation premises on Thursday. After receipt of information of the raid he called at the Foreign Office where Mr Palairet, Director of the Northern Department, expressed ignorance of the raid. Despite continuous efforts, M. Rosengoltz was unable to see either Sir Austen Chamberlain for responsible officials before Friday. While handing yesterday’s letter to Sir Austen Chamberlain. Rosengoltz drew attention to the fact that the police first seized cipher code documents belonging to M. Khintchuk, official trade agent. Such action, combined with the raid on the agent’s office, seemed directed to increasingly strain the Anglo-Russian relations. Moreover, the raid wa scarried out in such a manner that the interests of the raided institution were ignor?i. There was no guarantee that the documents and materials, which the police might allege were discovered on the premises of the Trade Delegation, were really there when the raid occurred.

SOVIET COMMENT

POLICY OF RUPTURE” STRAINED DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS Received Mav 15, 5.5 p.m. (A. & N.Z.) MOSCOW, May 14. The newspaper Ivestia says: 4 ‘The Arcos raid is the beginning of a realisation of the rupture threatened in Sir Austen Chamberlain’s last Note. It deals a blow to the most vital nerve of mutual relations. The Soviet bogey is again raised to create a diversion and ensure a painless enactment of the Trades "Union Bill. It also is a blow to the work of the Economic Conference. Britain’s policy of rupture is pregnant with the danger of grave complications, hardly to the liking of British commercial and financial circles, which will suffer if the Soviet market is lost. The responsibility for the catastrophy, says the paper, “will not fall on the Soviet, which is consistently striving for peace, but entirely on tkd British Government, which started with forgery and ends with a pogrom.”

“THE SOVIET GANG”

FRENCH PRESS PLEASED. MANY PAPERS ENDORSE BRITISH ACTION. Received May 15, 5.5 p.m. (A&N.Z.) PARIS, May 14. The whole of the French Press comments on the raid. ‘Pertinax,” writing in the Echo de Paris says: “It is possible that the whole Soviet gang will be driven back to their native land.” La Victoire says: “By resisting this post-revolution Asiatic barbarism, Britain is once more deserving well of civilisation.” La Venir and Figaro urge that France should follow Britain’s lead. One paper says the Soviet has shot so many in defence of principle that the State’s first duty is to provide for its own safety, that she cannot be surprised if the principle is also valid in I the west.