New-York tribune., 1919-06-14
Gilbert Roe, Dudley Field
Malone and George Cor
don Battle Asked to Act
as Attorneys for Soviet
Protest to Washington
Also Spokesman for Martens
Says Russian Government
Has Been Told of Affair

Apparently unruffled by the raid
made on his Offices Thursday afternoon,
Ludwig C. A. K. Martens, Bolshevik
"envoys" and his attaches resumed
business yesterday when the suite Of
Offices in the World Tower Building
was returned to them by state troop
ers who had been guarding them over
night
Both ,Santeri Nuorteva, the official
spokesman of the Soviet Bureau, and
Charles Recht, its counsel, declared
that the raid had been carried on lille
gaIly in some respects. Mr.. Recht said
he was considering legal action for the
return of the bureaus papers, but that
a search for the original papers upon
which the search warrant was issued
had proved fruitless-
Gilbert f. Roe, former law partner OF
Senator Robert NJ La Toilette; Dudley
Field Malone, former Collector of the
Port, and George Gordon Battle have
been invited into the case. Mr. Roe
and Mr.. Malone were out Of town yes
terday, but Mr.. Battle admitted that
Mr.. Recht had been to see him about
acting as counsel. He said he was un-
decided whether he would take part
in it
Says 1t Was Illegal
1--WE are advised" Nuorteva said,
"that in many respects the raid was
conducted irregularly, and it is in
teresting to note that all officials
higher up try to disclaim responsibility
for the outrage"
Nuorteva protested not only to the
State Department at Washington, but
reported the occurrence to the Soviet
government in Russia. Asked to whom
the report was made, he said that it
was made to George Tchitcherin, the
Commissar of Foreign Affairs.
He said the report pointed out that
the occurrence was purely local" and
that the government at Washington
had nothing to do with it. He de-
cined to say whether the Soviet gov
eminent would take any action in the
matter, declaring no American Of
fetal ever had been molested by the
Bolsheyiki.
He. was asked whether Roger Tired
we'll, the American Consul in Petro-
grad, had not been arrested, and
answered that Tredwell had been ode
tanned" in his home for few days and
Was treated courteously, and the reason
for his detention was that he was open
ly working with the counter-revolu-
tionists to overthrow the Soviet gov
ernment- He added that the Soviet
bureau had always minded its busi-
ness" and had never tried to interfere
IN American affairs.
Same as Kolchak Group
He admitted that the bureau had
been advocating the recognition Of Le-
nine, but cited the fact that the "Kol-
chak group" was doing the same for
Kolchak, and that his bureau was en-
tirely within its right in SO doing.
In this connection he said that the
Allied governments recognition of
Kolchak did not change the status of
his organization, because recognition of
Kolchak depends upon his capturing
Moscow, and that in his opinion "Kol-
chak will be whipped to frazzle in
side Of a month"
Nuorteva admitted that Martens had
served in the German army for two
years, that he had registered as an
enemy alien in England when the war
broke out and that his parents had
been German, although Martens was
born and brought up in Russia.
He said Czarist agents, knowing
that Martens's father was German,
delivered him after he had served
prison sentence for revolutionary ac-
tivities to the German authorities,
who forced him to serve in the Ger
man army for two years.
In 1911 Martens returned to Russia
for short period, then went to Eng
land. When the war broke out there,