… Mykolo, the “foreign-looking” man, or “dashing” some might even say, a cultivated man, with what is called a Van Dyke beard, a man with “penetrating” eyes, like some cheap conjurer, in his soft skin, his European voice, his culture, the brilliance of his playing on the violin, his difference that impresses men like Barnwell, a difference that says “I have been elsewhere—and particularly there, in Europe, where you Australians are as nothing, mere colonials, … [RED, page 268]
Mykolo (Michael) Bialoguski, who became a source for ASIO in encouraging Vladimir Petrov to defect, could be seen as alien by provincial Australians at the time because of his European accent, beard and violin.
Bialoguski with violin, Daily Telegraph, 8 October 1950, p. 45
This episode, based on the opening pages of Eunice Wells’ ASIO file, is set near Angel Place, Sydney.
Lesley Moline, “A wet day, Angel Place”, c. 1950.
