DEATH FOR THEFT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 260, 2 November 1932, Page 7

DEATH FOR THEFT.

RUSSIA BACK TO DARK AGES. LONDON, October 26. "Lenin himself said that Socialist property was sacred," says the Soviet Commissar of Justice, M. Krylenko, notorious for his relentless pursuit of "enemies of the Soviet," in a retort to "comrades" who charge him with having used religious phraseology in.a recent decree on the subject of property, the Riga correspondent of "The Times" reports. In his decree, Krylenko declared that property was both sacred and inviolate. He prescribed the death penalty for thieves.

In a long apologia, the Commissar admits that the death sentence for trifling offences, such as stealing a cartwheel, is cruel, but it is also necessary because such malefactors are incorrigible. The decree, he explains, is primarily aimed at three classes of evil-doers:— (1) Class enemies who destroy Soviet enterprise by means of arson and sabotage. (2) State employees who abuse their position to accumulate commodities. This has necessitated the shooting of batches of offenders in Moscow, Leningrad, and elsewhere. (3) Peasants who steal produce and agricultural implements for private sale. (4) Brigands. "The class war," says Commissar Krylenko, "has now developed into a war of grain and bread. The workers cannot be blamed because their enemies force them to resort to pitiless retaliation."