Scent for Secrets

In a low, barely audible voice the dowdy Doukhobor farm girl told of her friendship with the Russian major.

"I have a feeling of love for [Russia]," whispered 25-year-old Emma Woikin, ex-cipher clerk in the Canadian External Affairs Department. "I wanted to help the Soviet but not to hurt Canada."

Widowed Mrs. Woikin, first of Canada's 14 spies to go on trial, had worked with the Soviet Embassy's Major Sokolov, a "handsome man." The major and his wife had been most friendly. Again & again they pressed her to come to their home. "They were very intelligent people," sighed Mrs. Woikin.

It was not until after a year of agreeable acquaintanceship with the Sokolovs that Mrs. Woikin began to talk. The major gave her cash and expensive perfume. In return, she gave him a watercolor and secret information. Once she left a confidential document in a dentist's room for another agent to pick up.

Emma Woikin listened quietly while her defense counsel pleaded her case. Said he: She was "flattered by the attention paid her by Major Sokolov, who was what might be termed an attractive, good-looking man." The judge was unimpressed: two and a half years for Emma Woikin in Kingston Penitentiary.

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