A STRANGE STORY BY RUSSIAN COLONEL, THAT BRITISH KIDNAPPED HIM

Wanganui Chronicle, 8 June 1948, Page 5

A STRANGE STORY BY RUSSIAN COLONEL, THAT BRITISH KIDNAPPED HIM

(N ,Z. P. A. —Reuter—Copyright.) London, June 6. A British Foreign Office spokesman categorically denied a Tass news agency report that the British authorities had kidnapped Colonel Y. D. Tassoyev, of the Russian Army. (It , was reported on May 6 that Tassoyev was seeking asylum in Britain, but on May 28 it was reported that Tassoyev was returning to nuss-.a.) The spokesman said that Tass allegations of torture and ill-treatment, besides being untrue, were “highly improbable.” The British Government would have been unlike y to return Tassoyev where he could make a statement on the alleged atrocities had they been true. AGENCY VERSION The Tass version of Tassoyev’s disappearance is that after dinner at the home of C. R. Clem, American port director at Bremen, two men, understood to be British intelligence officers, took Tassoyev by plane to a b.ock of flats in Kensington, which was “the rendezvous of the British intelligence service." He met the landlady, Mrs Wiggin, and ner daughter Betty. Russian-speaking British intelligence officers tried to persuade Tassoyev to remain in London and then “resorted to threats, blackmail and violence to extort a statement justifying unprecedented violence and to extricate themselves from a scandalous affair.”

The Tass agency added that Tassoyev escaped on May 6 into the Olympia exhibition grounds, shouting that he had been kidnapped, and asked to be taken to the Soviet Embassy. The police kept him at the Hammersmith police station from May 6 to May 20. Tassoyev was “repeatedly beaten up” when he refused to sign a statement.

> The Tass agency concluded: “As the whole story became more and more widely known, the British authorities were compelled to return Tassoyev to the Soviet authorities in Germany.” TENANT MOVES OUT.

Reuter says that the Kensington flat where Tassoyev was allegedlybeaten up is now empty, with uncollected mail in the mail box. The porter of the flats confirmed that there had been a tenant named Mrs. Wiggin, but that she moved out suddenly a fortnight ago. Several doormen at Olympia Hall said they remember “hearing about that Russian fellow incident,” but would not vouch for its authenticity. Neighbours standing on doorsteps discussing the story spoke of seeing “big cars standing in front of the flat late at nights." The police have refused to comment.

The Associated Press Bremen correspondent says the American port director (Clem) said he would like to tell the full story about Tassoyev to clear himself, but the United States military government had ordered him not to talk.

The British United Press Moscow correspondent reports that all Moscow morning newspapers featured the Tassoyev story, but there was not in the Tass report a single direct quotation from the officer about his experiences.