A.S.I. A.H. Elston, States:-
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At 10.00 hours on 7th May, 1927, I accompanied M. Booth,
Assistant Director of Criminal Investigation to the Savoy
Hotel to examine the effects of two Russians and their
families. They had thirty pieces of baggage containing
papers and personal property.
Assisted by P.S. 472 Koretsky I examined all documents
and papers found in their possession.
Mashevitch had no official papers. There was nothing
unusual in his private correspondence.
Kougler had 3 suit cases containing official documents
neatly filed and copied. Some were in English and some in
Russian: all were written by hand except letters from Chinese
firms in Canton. The papers dealt with the following subjects
(1) A Full Report on the work of the Soviet Mercantile Agency
at Canton since early in 1925.
(2) Papers showing that the agency had disbursed Soviet money,
in small sums, to persons not employed in the Agency.
(3) Papers showing that these "financial troubles" started
when a Mr Marzel was agent in 1925.
(4) Many papers dealing with complaints about salary and
conditions of the office and godown staff. The complaints
were acknowledged by the Tientsin office and all the Russian
staff except three men were withdrawn and the work handed over
to a Chinese firm in January 1927.
(5) Correspondence about the slackness of the Tientsin and
Vladivostock offices in answering letters and in sending
remittances to pay for Stevedoring and supplies for the
Russian ships, and complaints from Chinese firms in Canton about delay in paying accounts.
(6) Papers showing that the agency wanted to rent more
godowns and find land to build new godowns. It appears that
it was decided to wait and see how business progressed in 1927.
(7)/
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