GRAVE BRITISH VIEW

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 63, 16 March 1933, Page 11

GRAVE BRITISH VIEW

STRESSED BY BALDWIN

STRONG PROTEST TO SOVIET

SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES

(British Official Wireless.) (Received March 16, 11 a.m.)

RUGBY, March 15.

The British Government's grave view of the Moscow arrests was* expressed by the Leader of the House, Mr. Stanley Baldwin, who, in the absence of the Foreign Secretary, replied to a question in the House of Commons.

Ho said: "The information from iha British Ambassador at Moscow confirms the Press reports that the following British subjects: ; Messrs. Monkhouse, Thornton, Cushy, Mac Donald, Gregory, and Nordwall, employed by tho Metropolitan-Vickers Company,- together with more than twenty Soviet citizens employed by tho same' firm, have been arrested by the.Soviet political police on a charge of sabotage of electrical machinery. "Messrs. Monkhouse and Nordwall have since been provisionally released on the undertaking not to leave Moscow. The other persons arrested are still in custody, and tho Ambassador has visited them in prison. Their health appears generally satisfactory, and permission to exercise has been promised. "Immediately on receipt of tho news of the arrests the Ambassador made urgent representations to the Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, requiring to know, among other points, exactly on what charge the arrests had been made, and what facilities for. their defence would be granted them. As ho has received no categorical or satisfactory answer on these matters, he has been instructed to press for the fullest possible information fr.om. the Commissar for Foreign Affairs, M. Litvinoff.

"Moreover, as his Majesty's Government is convinced that there can be no justification for the charge on •which arrests were made the Ambassador, Sir Esmond Ovey, has been instructed to represent in strong terms the grave view which the British' Government takes of these proceedings against British subjects of high standing, engaged in normal commercial pursuits to the benefit of both countries, and the unfortunate consequences to AngloSoviet relations which may follow unless they are rectified. Similar language will be held to the. Soviet Ambassador in London tomorrow as his Excellency has been unable to come to the Foreign Office today."