The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-08-01

Fifth Avenue and that he knew all about the
forged documents.
That afternoon l found George Djamgaroffs
name in the telephone book and called him up,
telling him that this was John L. Spivak, of
the New York Graphic, and that l wanted to
see him.
went to his office and found him sitting
at the desk lifted high with clippings from
newspapers detailing Soviet, Anti-SOviet and
Communist activities. On top of this huge
bunch of clippings those containing
photostatic copies of those that Mr.. Whalen
had released to the press.
Djamgaroff greeted me in friendly fashion
and said "First of all / want to know what
you want, whether information or an inter-
view" l saw Immediately that he was pretty
smooth, and / thought I could get him talk
more if | came there for information instead
of for an interview. He said:
81 will give you all the information that
can but / don't want my name mentioned,
under any circumstances"
promised not to mention it and did not
mention it until Mr.. Whalen came out with his
statement.
told Djamgaroff I wanted information
about Soviet activities in this country. | did
not tell him that l had the blank letterhead
MT. DJdmRdGOII DedmeU ana IllleO me up IOf
more than an hour with some fact and a good
deal of fancy.
Monarchist Leader.
During the course of this conversation
asked him how he happened to know so much
about the Soviets and whether he was mon
archist He said very proudly that he was one
of the leaders of the monarchst movement
throughout the world, that he had control of
vast espionage system in this country, that
his files contained lots Of information gathered
by his agents both here and abroad about
Soviet activities, and that he had an agent in
Washington who would help me in getting ma
terial against a man named Swirsky who, ac-
cording to Djamgaroff, was the unofficial am
bassador Of the Soviet government in this coun-
try
asked Djamgaroff to give me note of
introduction to this agent and that | would
go to Washington to find out all l could. He
said that that would not be necessary because
his agent was coming in that evening and he
would arrange for me to see him. asked him
why his agent was coming to New York and
he said, II do not know but he telephoned me
that he was coming about something impor-
tant"
l asked Djamgaroff what he thought of the
documents released by Whalen to the press,
whether he thought them authentic. Djamga-
rolf smiled and said,
II do not want to say definitely that they
are or are not authentic. You know" he ad-
died. II knew about these documents four
months ago"
Parenthcally l might add that this comedies
with the time that Wagner says he first print
ed them for a Russian. Then a little later
Djamgaroff said that he was called in by
Whalen to pass upon these documents and he
hoI n hof ba how {laxy o,,kL
entic.
Showed Police Card.
asked him how he came to know Whalen,
and he said, ooh, l know Whalen very we'll.
Like this" and he crossed his fingers to show
very close association. / looked bit ncredu-
lous and he said, "Well you showed me your
police card and I'll show you mine" Where
upon he took out police card and showed it
to me. 1t was made out to the A. B. C. News
Service. Its number was 1853
l asked him if l could take the number of
his card down and he said mo- taking the
card back Immediately.
Why a bonafide newspaper man, if he
were one, should be afraid to give any one
the number of his police card is a mystery
which perhaps Mr.. Whaen can explain.
jotted down the number a little later in the
conversation.
A desultory conversation was then carried
on for few minutes He got up and went into
another office. When he returned he said to
me, "By the way, are you the Spivak who was
the Moscow correspondent for the international
News Service?" / said was. He said, "They
didn't like you very well, did they?" referring
to the Soviet Government. / left with some
disfavor on their part against me. He said
That's what my records show" Since his rec
ords show that the Soviet Government did not
look upon me with great deal of favor, he
expanded and became very friendly and spoke
in detail about his connections with European
Russian monarchists, the espionage system,
etc, assuring me friendly cooperation in dig
ging up any anti-Soviet material wanted to
get in Washington.
Tried to Stop Story.
That night | left for Washington. In the
morning ! telephoned Swain. Swain said "Do
you know anybody by the name of Djamgaroff
and Captain Maines?" l said did, and asked
what was the matter
He said that Captain Names, whom he also
knew as press agent had been ringing his
telephone pretty near all night, telling him
that Johnny Spivak was about to write
libelous story about Djamgaroff and that
Djamgaroff knew nothing about the Whalen
documents. Names persisted in telling Swain