TREASON TRIAL IN MOSCOW

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22344, 7 March 1938, Page 9

TREASON TRIAL IN MOSCOW

<► Alleged Plotting By Powers ESPIONAGE FOR BRITAIN ? Confessions Made By Accused TISITIU I'KESH ASSOCIATION--COPVIUGin .1 IReceived March 6, 9.30 p.m.) MOSCOW, March 5. 1 Further confessions of his relations with the intelligence services of Britain and Japan were made byChristian Rakovsky, former Chief of the Department of Scientific Research in the Health Commissariat, upon the resumption of the treason trial to-day. Rakovsky said that after the fall of Mr Ramsay Mac Donald's Ministry he made contact with an Englishman named Armstrong. Rakovsky admitted that since his return from a conference in Tokyo, he persuaded Dr. Naide, secretary of the Soviet delegation to Tokyo, to act immediately between him and the Japanese Embassy. A high personage told him that he knew Rakovsky was a friend of Trotsky and that certain Powers were not satisfied with Trotsky’s articles on the Chinese question and Trotsky's behaviour toward Moscow. Therefore, it would be desirable to provoke an incident with China and cause Japanese intervention. Later, Rakovsky talked with Yurenev about British and Japanese rivalry in China and expressed the view that Trotsky had to play off British, Japanese, and Germans against one another. Rakovsky added that he told Yurenev that although Japan had great potentialities as an aggressor it would not do to over-estimate this strength. Even should war come with Russia, the Japanese would be bogged down in the vast territories of the Soviet Union. Letter From Rumania Rakovsky went on circumstantially to detail his alleged work on behalf of the British Intelligence Service when he was Ambassador in London in 1924. He mentioned a number of prominent British personages and said that in November, 1924, two British ' naval officers, “Messrs A and L,” visited him and produced a letter which purported to have been written by Rakovsky 1 during the Great War from Rumania. L Rakovsky is a Bulgarian by birth f and was released from a Russian prison by the Russian soldiers in 1917. The letter indicated that Rakovsky had been a German agent in Rumania. Rakovsky declared that the Englishmen threatened to expose him, so he demanded proof that they really represented the British Intelligence Service. A meeting was arranged in Oxford street where he met the chief of the Russian department of the British Intelligence, whose name was Richardson, or Robertson, or, perhaps. Nicholson. After that confirmation, Rakovsky returned to Moscow and talked with Trotsky, who approved his joining the British Intelligence Service. When he resumed his post in London. “Mr A” introduced him to an English journalist, “Mr F,” who served as contact man, and .to whom he gave an analytical report on the situation in Central Asia. Rakovsky alleged that in 1936 he prepared an analysis of the Soviet Constitution for the British Embassy.

At this stage Rakovsky divulged the names of the naval officers as Armstrong and Leckert. The journalist was Michael Farbman. He added that he renewed his connexion with Britain in 1934, at the request of Lady Paget. “Enormity of Crimes”

Rakovsky concluded: “During my eight months’ arrest I saw no newspapers. When the magistrate? showed me the papers I was shocked at the Fascist aggression in Spain and China, and I realised the enormity of my crimes.” Rakovsky then declared that Trotsky told him he had served the British Intelligence Service in 1927 by provoking the Arcos raid, which gave Sir William Joynson-Hicks, then Home Secretary, the opportunity of breaking off diplomatic relations with the Soviet.

Isaak Zelensky, a former member of the Central Executive Committee, giving evidence at the afternoon session, admitted that he was * Paid agent of the Tsarist Secret Police. He said M. .Yagoda had decoyed the records of the organisation.

Zelensky coldbloodedly recited the of the food distribution, including the placing of nails and ground glass in butler. He said he frequently deliberately deprived Moscow of butter and eggs, and onc^,destroyed 50 car-loads of eggs kVnie way to Moscow, so as to create discontent. He also arranged 13 stores to give short weight. Okranhov admitted his guilt in Wrecking agriculture, including the sowing of cotton unsuitable to various areas. He disclosed an attempt fr> create a revolt among the Uzbekistan peasants. Bukharin, who, next to Trotsky, is apparently regarded as the archviilain, gave evidence at the night session of the Court, He passionfltely demanded to be allowed to tell con u ec ted story, but M. Vishinsky, ne prosecutor, sharply interrupted, ■ eclaring that he would ask any Questions he chose- M. Vishinsky then proceeded mercilessly to crossfamine Bukharin, and there were umerous heated exchanges. Bukharin pleaded guilty to be™nging to the Right Trotskyist bloc ince its formation and also to being leader since 1928 of tho illegal organisation aiming at the estoration of capitalism. Bukharin emitted his guilt for “all the crimes ..emitted by the organisation, even nose of which I was not aware, as t w f, s the leader, not a switch operaj r ' admitted that he had been 'solved in terrorism plots against soviet leaders and had planned to.

arrest Lenin, Stalin, and Sverdloff in 1928. He firmly denied that there was a plot to kill them. Bukharin pleaded for permission to expound the Rightists’ ideology, involving the restoration of capitalism, because public opinion in Russia and throughout the world might ask why people like himself became criminal counter-revolutionaries. He added that the restoration of capitalism and the overthrow of the Government were faced with difficulties in the event of war or defeat. Therefore, they planned to ensure a Russian defeat, even If it involved ceding the Ukraine, the Fan East, and White Russia to Germany. Japan, and, to some extent, to Britain. Bukharin said that he was not striving for power for his own sake but for a political object. Replying to M. Vishinsky, Bukharin said that while he had participated in terrorist organisations he was not connected with putting terrorism into practice. The assassination of Kirov was carried out without the knowledge of his group.

Rosenholtz, a former Commissar for Foreign Trade, confessed that since 1925, he had been connected with the German Secret Service. He added that the German Reichswehr financially supported the Trotskyists. He had received £20,000 annually for the last eight years from German generals, as an unnamed American journalist conveyed to the Trotskyist spies information which he received through M. Mironoff, chief censor of the Foreign Office, and M. Stern, the former head of the western department of the Foreign Office, who was executed in January. Rakovsky, giving further evidence, testified that he went to Tokyo in 1934 to represent the Soviet at the Red Cross Conference. Piatakov tricked him into taking a cypher letter to M. Yurenev (then Ambassador to Japan) containing secret information for the Japanese. The letter mentioned Bogbmolov, for a long time counsellor to the Embassy in London, who was recently recalled from the Ambassadorship in China, and Sabanin, head of the Foreign Office legal department as “good people to use.” Rakovsky added; “The letter compromised me, so I became a Japanese spy, a course into which I was blackmailed.”

The Court adjourned till Monday.