ASSASSINATION AT LAUSANNE.

SOVIET LEADERS SHOT.

MURDERED AT DINNER.

A sensational murder was perpetrated last night at Lausanne, M. Vorovsky, one of the Russian delegates to the International Conference, being shot dead, while two of his companions were seriously injured. Late this evening the news spread at Lausanne that M. Vorovsky, the Soviet representative, had been killed at his hotel, the Cecil, about half-past nine. The intelligence was given at Beau Rivage about a quarter past ten, where Sir Horace Rumbold, General Pellé, Signori Montagna, and the Secretary of the Conference all happened to be present.

The story of the tragedy was told at the hotel with dramatic simplicity. M. Vorovsky, M. Ahrens, publicity agent, and M. Dimitrieff, secretary, were finishing their dinner in the Cecil. A man named Alexandre Conradi, a Swiss who had at one time served in the Russian army, had taken his place at another table, and had eaten his dinner without attracting any notice.

At about half-past nine Conradi rose, went over to the table at which Vorovsky was sitting, and fired two shots from a revolver at the Soviet representative. The first hit him in the right thigh, while the second penetrated his heart. The assassin then fired at Ahrens, wounding him slightly. The fourth shot struck Dimitrieff, who is reported to be very seriously hurt, though not mortally.

ASSASSIN A SWISS.

The assassination was committed with the utmost coolness. The murderer, having emptied his revolvers, turned to the guests, who had risen in alarm and horror, and said: “Well, call the police. I do not regret what I have done.” He then calmly awaited the arrival of the police, in whose custody he left the hotel. The authorities refused to give the name of the assassin, but it has been ascertained that his name is Conradi and that he travelled from Zurich to-day, only arriving in Lausanne to-night. Conradi, who belongs to the Grisons Canton, is not associated with the Fascisti organisation, but was formerly a captain in the Russian Imperial Army. He is 38 years of age. Late last evening M. Ahrens gave the. following details of the murder to the Exchange Telegraph Company’s representative: “When we sat down to dinner, I noted an elegantly dressed young man sitting two tables away from us. He was drinking continuously small glasses of cognac. I kept looking at him throughout dinner. When he got up, the first thing I saw was the muzzle of his revolver pointing directly at the back of Vorovsky’s head. Vorovsky was shot point-blank and was killed instantaneously. I immediately tried to seize my revolver, but I was too late and was shot in the leg. I fainted, and fell over the corpse of Vorovsky.”

According to Reuter’s special correspondent, the assassination of Vorovsky and the effect it will have on the Conference is the all-absorbing topic in Conference circles. There is considerable indignation in all quarters. The crime is undoubtedly political. It is the first of the kind committed in Switzerland by a Swiss. The firing caused a stampede in the dining-hall of the hotel. The assassin fired quite a number of shots – one version says ten. Ahrens was hit in three places, while Dibrilkovsky, secretary to Vorovsky – and not Dimitneff – was severely wounded.

LENIN’S TOOL.

Only a few days ago Vorovsky, the Soviet representative in Rome and a prominent Communist, was trying to get Macedonian terrorists to agree with his plans for a murder campaign in the Balkans, and especially in Serbia, and now he himself has been destroyed in a similar fashion. It is not impossible that his assassination is the work of some of the violent men whom he wanted to engage for his nefarious schemes.

Vorovsky belonged to the so-called Krassin group, that is to the members of the Bolshevik party whom Krassin before the war had been able to place in lucrative positions with the German firm of Siemens, when the Bolsheviks, with Lenin at their head, were exported by the Germans in 1917 from Switzerland to Russia, Vorovsky was left on the way in Sweden to co-operate with another well-known Communist and German spy, Helfand-parvus, and to serve as a connecting link between Lenin in Petrograd and Parvus in Copenhagen. The money sent from Berlin for the first Bolshevik rising in June, 1917, went through the hands of Vorovsky.

After the Bolshevik success Vorovsky was appointed representative in Stockholm. From there he was transferred in 1922 to Rome, where his arrival provoked much scandal and some rioting. He was present in Genoa with Chicherin, and took part in the signing of the Russo-german Treaty of Rapallo. He also came to Lausanne with the Soviet delegation to the first conference, and with a watching brief for the second.

The men who were shot, with him in Lausanne, Ahrens and Dimitrieff, are Communists of no great importance. Vorovsky was not a great luminary among the Bolsheviks, but he displayed great ability in carrying through the curious transactions which are typical of the Soviet régime. During the Fascisti coup in Rome last September he passed through a few disagreeable hours, especially when a squad of black shirts penetrated into his house and absolutely wanted to force him to drink a pint of castor oil. He was saved from the ordeal at the last moment.