Canada: Not a Plugged Nickel?

Ever since the spy story broke, the Russian Embassy in Ottawa has watched the damaging developments in tight-lipped silence. Last week it turned a blast on the man who spilled the beans—ex-Embassy code clerk Igor Gouzenko.

In a curt statement, the Embassy charged that attempts had been made “to cast a shadow and to discredit” members of its diplomatic staff. Cried the Embassy: “The sources of this slanderous information are the false statements of the former employe . . . Gouzenko, who has stolen money from the Embassy and who is indictable for the committed crime in case of his return to the U.S.S.R. . . .

The slanderous statements of the criminal . . . are completely fictitious and deserve no credit.” A curious Canadian newspaper began to speculate on the life expectancy of 27 year-old Igor Gouzenko (who is still in the protective custody of the Canadian Government). The Montreal Herald reported that Lloyd’s of London, which will insure against almost anything, would not quote any rate to insure Gouzenko.

Concluded the Herald: Gouzenko’s life is not worth “a plugged nickel.”