MOSCOW TRIAL

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22003, 29 January 1937, Page 11

MOSCOW TRIAL

4> ALLEGED ATTEMPT TO

CAUSE WAR

ESTABLISHING CONNEXION

WITH FOREIGN AGENTS

(Received January 29, 1.30 a.m.)

MOSCOW. January 28

Karl Radek, recalled to give further evidence at the trial of the 17 prisoners charged with plotting against the Soviet, testified that he received a message from Trotsky through Piatakov, alleging that a deal had been completed with Germany for the purpose of causing a Russo-Japanese war in 1937. Piatakov told him that Germany wanted England's neutrality and complete fredom in the Danube and the Balkans. Knyazev gave evidence that the Japanese held similar views. A secret night session was devoted to the production of documents to establish the connexion of the various accused with foreign agents.

EVIDENCE COMPLETE

WITNESS CONFESSES TO TRAIN-WRECKING

MOSCOW, January 27. " The first witness on the fifth day of the trial of the 17 men who are accused of plotting against the Soviet, was Knyazev. He said in evidence that 1500 train-wrecking attempts occurred on the south Ural railways in 1934 and 2000 in 1935. These attempts, he alleged, were made at the instigation of Japan. Turek declared that he perpetrated 40 major train wrecks in the last three years, and to convince the authorities that they were accidents the responsibility was often shitted to innocent persons, some of whom were arrested and shot. Ivan Grasche said he came to Russia in 1920 as a professional spy paid by the Czechoslovakian Intelligence Service, and he transferred to the German Intelligence Service in 1932 The evidence has now been concluded and the case was adjourned until to-morrow, when the prosecutor, M. Vishinsky, will sum up. The entire press of Moscow demands that the accused be sentenced to death, and it continues to publish frenzied denunciations from various bodies. The Soviet Embassy in Warsaw has refused transit for a petition to M. Stalin from Karl Radek's mother begging for mercy. Sergi Sedov, the younger son of Trotsky, is reported to have been arrested on a charge of attempting to poison his fellow workers in the Krasnoyarsk machine factory by neglecting to provide an outlet for the fumes from the generators. A nephew of Zinoviev named Zak, who was employed in the same factory, is also reported to have been arrested.

Both men were denounced at a mass meeting of factory workers. The Nazi journal "Der AngrifT" alleges that two electricians were detected while attempting to install a time bomb in a room adjoining M. Stalin's office.

PROTEST BY JAPAN

"FARCICAL NATURE OF TRIAL"

LONDON, January 27

The Tokyo correspondent of "The Times" states that a spokesman at the Japanese Office describes the statements at the Russian trial as fantastic.

"They testify to the farcical nature of the trial," he said. "Japan' will take appropriate steps to protest against the trial."