TERRIBLE STORY

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 81, 6 April 1933, Page 12

TERRIBLE STORY

THE VICKERS VICTIMS

OGPIT THIED DEGREE

SHOOTING FOR SABOTAGE

SIMON TELLS COMMONS

(British Official Wireless.) (Received April 6, 2 p.m.) RUGBY, April 5. Extra time has been allotted for the debate in the House of Commons on the Bill giving the Government power to prohibit the importation of Soviet goods, but the Bill will be disposed of tomorrow night. Sir John Simon (Foreign Secretary), moving the second reading, said that notice to terminate the Anglo-Soviet Trade Agreement expired on April 17. The Government desired to negotiate a new trading agreement, and the negotiations were proceeding, .when1 a very disturbing event occurred which was the subject of a White Paper. Russia had brought power plant from the Metropolitan Vickers Company extensively for the last ten years. It had received the highest praise from Soviet engineers, and under arrangements for technical assistance, "of which the current one had five years to run, the company supplied some of,'their best and most skilful men for the purpose of installing, starting, and running the plant. It had some bearing-on the matter that the company's experts might therefore expect to remain in Russia* for another five years. i" No complaint was alleged as to the operation of the agreement, ariS. six months / ago the Soviet placed an order for tv/bo-generator equipment to work at tho highest combined temperature and pressure yet attempted in the woi'ld. .' ! On the night of March 11 tho Ogpu police searched the house where some of tho engineers were living and arrested Messrs. Monkhouse and Thornton, who were removed at two o 'clock in the morning to prison.' Next morning Messrs. Cushny and Mac Donald were similarly taken off to gaol. Nobody disputed tho ' sovereign authority of any foreign. Government,' but ho was entitled to call attention to the circumstances immediately accompanying the arrests. At the' same time the Ogpu. police, in .the same prison not merely sentenced 35 Russians to death, but carried out the sentence there, and then without,-so far as was known, any trial, and certainly without putting ' into motion any ordinary judicial proceedings. ' SHOT WITHOUT TRIAL. "When the Foreign Office received a telegram, that a certain number .of British engineers were in the hands of tho Ogpu' and another telegram came stating that the Ogpu had shot 35 people without trial, I thought I was entitled to.: . . ." • ' ■ The end of tho sentence was lost in cheers. "Three or four days before tho shooting of 35 Russians the Soviet Pressstated that 45 Russians had been arrested for tho crime of agricultural sabotage." ■ Sir John added, amid laughter, that the deliberate propagation of weedsin the fields arid the lowering'of crop yields was one of the charges. . Continuing, ho said:—"Tho British Ambassador immediately inquired as to the chargo on which the British arrests were made,' where the arrested persons were located, and whether they could be visited. /.'... "As it was rest day, the answer was delayed till the following day. At the risk of incurring the accusation of prejudging an issue on .which, legal'remedy had not been exhausted, the Ambassador told the Soviet Minister that if his Government wished to continue friendly relations they must refrain from being drawn by tho police into trumpedup and fantastic accusations against a friendly,, reputable British company., SOVIET ANSWER. "Tho Soviet answer stated that tho investigations lhade by tho internal authorities regarding a series of. unexpected breakdowns in the electrical station at Moscow had'established that the breakdowns wore the result of, tho wrecking activities of criminal elements whose object was to .destroy electrical stations and put -out of operation factories dependent upon them. It was added that the investigations showed the active participation by certain employees of MetropolitanVickers. ' ■ EXAMINED BY TEAMS. Mr., Monkhouse, with no charge made against him, was submitted to a first examination of nineteen hours by three teams of examiners in an effort to get him. to commit himself to something. Although not informed; of the charge, he was called upon to make a complete- confession. He admitted visiting London two or three times yearly to keep his company. informed of the state of business and the general situation in the Union, and the prospects of further business. In Russia that was espionage. After referring to a second examination lasting seventeen hours, Sir John Simon said that during his' professional life he had studied many systems' -of law. No one could dispute that any testimony obtained by these means was rubbish. The, House would be impressed by Sir Esmond Ovey's telegram, in which, after seeing these men, he said that, while they seemed in good health, their drawn expressions gave a definite impression of their having been put through it. THE ONLY WAY. . The Government had not the slightest desire to sever friendly relations with Russia, but let there be no mistake; there was no proper basis for really friendly relations if the story presented in the White Paper represented the way in which men who went to that country were treated. He knew of no way in which ho could secure for these men a fair trial, but one thing they could do was to convince tho authorities of tho anxiety felt here. He desired a trade agreement on proper terms, but the real difficulty was that owing to the constitution of Soviet Russia and the tact that the Government was the sole producer and sole buyer, any application of any trade agreement under the most-favour-ed-nation treatment clause was distorted and ridiculous. At any moment tho Soviet had power to stop goods coming from this country to them without a breach of the most-favoured-nation clause. In the interests of theso men and in order to bring home to the Soviet State tho real gravity of the situation, theGovernment asked in this Bill for tho power which tlip Soviet Government already had. Tho Government had not the slightest intention of making any statement as to the\ use of that power which could not possibly be used before April 18. If there was nothing else the House could do to help British subjects in peril, it at least could give to the Government of the country; to

which these men belonged;the authority sought for in the Bill, and the House could ask the Government to fix it in their interest at their discretion. The debate is continuing.