ALLEGED PLOT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 281, 27 November 1930, Page 7

ALLEGED PLOT.

SOVIET DOWNFALL.

Dramatic Trial Proceeding at Moscow. POPULACE AROUSED. (United P.A.—Electric Telegraph—Copyright) (Received 10 a.m.) MOSCOW, November 26. The "Tass News" Agency has issued a report of the trial in the Supreme Court, Moscow (the Trades Union Hall), of the eight accused men, including Professors Ramzin, Kalinnikoff, Charnovsky and Fedotoff, and the engineers, Laricheff, Sitnin and Kuprianoff, who are charged with organising destructive activities in preparation for the intervention of foreign States against the Soviet. The report says more than 1000 workers and many scientists and writers were present. Workers thronged the streets on their way to the trial. Many thousands of demonstrators carried 'banners inscribed with the devices: "Down with the accomplices of intervention," "We demand a firm attitude on the. part of the proletarian court," and "We will reply to intervention by executing the five-year plan in four years." The opening stages of the trial were occupied with the reading of the indictment and Ramzin's alleged confession. The accused pleaded guilty and consented to confess. Dramatically winding up a confession lasting seven hours, given from the dock, Professor Ramzin admitted that he realised too late that his activities.were distinctly anti-Soviet and would, if successful, irretrievably have injured the Fatherland. Ramzin trotted out the mysterious Colonel Lawrence, presumably of Arabian fame, as the go-'between for establishing British agents at Moscow. It was agreed that the intervention must not be later than 1931, otherwise the Soviet would be impregnably entrenched. There was a sensation when Professor Ramzin declared that.he was so convinced that it was French participation under M. Poincare's direction that he gave the French agent at Moscow a secret report of the Soviet's aviation organisation. England's Alleged Part. Ramzin, continuing his evidence, described meetings in London at which he said he was assured that England would participate in the organisation of intervention. Sir Henry Detcrding, Mr. Percy Urquliart, and groups of Conservatives, particularly Mr. Winston Churchill, were especially interested. In company with Laricheff he met Colonel Lawrence in the presence of Mr. Simon, a director of Vickers. After France had obtained a leading part in the interventionist plans, England's interest declined. France's participation was' the dominating factor of the beginning of the end. M. Poincare was the soul of the intervention and was actively supported by M. Briand. Intervention ■ was originally timed for 1928, then for 1930, which was regarded as the most difficult year for the fiveyear plan. Owing to the incompleteness of the diplomatic preparation and the unpreparedness of the industrial party, intervention was postponed until 1931, when it was proposed, as a preliminary to intervention, to organise an economic blockade of Russia. Controversies broke out among the interventionist Powers regarding the territorial acquisitions. The Deterding. group and France sought concessions in the Caucasian oil fields tantamount to annexation. It was proposed to utilise the separatist tendencies of Ukrainia and Georgia. "Therefore, despite the painfulness of my confession, I must admit that by agreeing to intervention we headed for division of the country," said Ramzin. Accused also declared that Mr. A. A. Simon, who, he said, was connected with the firm of Vickers, Ltd., had been used to deliver messages relating to the conspiracy. The firm of Vickers, Ltd., has denied knowledge of Simon.

Laricheff followed with a similar confession, in greater detail, and the hearing was then adjourned. Over 100,000 workers demonstrated against the accused this evening under military guidance. The proceedings are being broadcast. Cruel Theatrical Effects. •In a message descriptive of the scene at the trial the "Tass" Agency says: Under hissing arclights illuminating the great white-pillared hall —sometimes used as a ballroom for the proletariat—the eight men stood on trial for their lives. Outside the glare of blue and white searchlights lit up the tossing scarlet banners of thousands of workers who trampled the snow into slush as they marched toward the Court. The workers had road the: morning newspapers which contained Lenin's slogan printed in sledge-hammer type: ' "Dictatorship is a grand word, a cruel, hard, bloody word, expressing a merciless death struggle." The accused were surrounded by all the accessories for a great boxing contest —amplifiers, cameras,, and cinema operators. Overhead 52 gilt chandeliers added redundant radiance to the arclights' cruel dazzle. The State Prosecutor, Kreylanko, who wore a shooting jacket and putties as if he were prepared for a day's sport, consumed sandwiches in the wings on the stage before hastening to his seat at a red-covered table. Near him were many officials who had hunted down the counter-revolutionaries and' now were taking a busman's holiday. COMMONS PROTEST. NO ACTION TO BE TAKEN. (licceived 2 p.m.) LONDON, November 26. In the House of Commons Sir Alfred Knox (Con., Wycomb) and Sir R. Rodd (Con., St. Marylebone) drew attention to the Soviet prosecuto'-s' allegations in the course of the current trial in Russia, that England and France were plotting to invade Russia in 1931. ,Mr. Arthur Henderson, Foreign Secretary, in reply, said the documents printed in the Russian Press made unfounded accusations against British subjects and the Government. The majority related to 1927-1928. Some of the charges involved France, but not England. At present he did not see anything justifying a protest to the Soviet. He would consider the question of action relating to further allegations against Britain, which thi questioners had pited from the Russian ltass.