Evening Post. THURSDAY, MARCH 1, 1934. MOSCOW'S NEW CITIZENS

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 51, 1 March 1934, Page 10

Evening Post. THURSDAY, MARCH 1, 1934.

MOSCOW'S NEW CITIZENS

; Ever since Russia succumbed to the Red Terror of the Bolsheviks and murdered her Tsar, she has been so out of tune with the world that when Russia has rejoiced the other nations have been more disposed to mourn, and conversely, in their rejoicings she could take no part. But the Brown Terror by which .Herr Hitler has accomplished such astonishing changes in his own country has at the same time so changed the international outlook as to break this rule of more than fifteen years' standing. The world has no kindlier feelings for Communism than-itvhad: fifteen or sixteen years ago;;hut ;irlias;heard with a sense of relief and;a'genuine sympathy of the enthusiasm with which Moscow welcomed on Tuesday the addition of three* Communists to the millions already included in the Red Republic. >It was the anniversary of the Reichstag fire, and "whether by coincidence or design" —the correspondent was surely unduly cautious who left the possibility open that such a timing could have been accidental—the German Government chose that day for icleasing the three foreign Communists whom it had held ever since and sending them ofT'tQ Russia. * The .world which abominates their politics is,thankful nevertheless that three innocent men have escaped in ,safety from the land, in which for a full year they have suffered injustice .and persecution, and where popular hatred would have given them/short shrift if it had had the chance. ! - Yesterday's report said that the crowd which welcomed Dimitroff and his 1 companions, on their arrival in Moscow nearly mobbed theni. There would have been no "nearly" about it if the release had taTcen place in Berlin. It would have been easy for Herr Hitler to "keep the word of promise to our ear, And break it to our hope" by discharging his prisoners from official custody to perish at the hands of the Nazi Judge Lynch, and it is to his honour that he ensured their safety by sending them off by aeroplane, at dawn. Dimitroff, who was formerly, like his mates, a Bulgarian, but has now been admitted with them to Russian citizenship, was hoisted shoulder-high by his fellow .citizens in Moscow, and he had fully earned the honour. The' courage, the audacity,' the the, persistence^ the skill; the eloquence; and the wit with which Dimitroff conducted his own, defence must surely have, made" it '.one -of the mos ( t wonderful achievements ever witnessed^ in a court — of-1 /Horatio Bottomley's. defence, of -himself' has received extraordinarily1 rhigh .praise from 'the laje Lord Birkenh'ead and others. Such praise from such an advocate means that Bottomley's performance cannot have fallen far short of perfection, but the fact -remains that his task was almost child's play, in comparison with' Dimitroff's. Botlpmley was ( not a friendless outcast in a foreign land. Bottomley had not to face the tangles of foreign law, the prejudices of a foreign Bench, and the fierce hatred of almost everybody in the court or in the country. Bottomley had not to conduct his defence in a foreign tongue. Bottomley had not to face the ordeal of seven months of solitary and in some respects barbarous confinement before his trial. And, perhaps above all, Bottomley was not on trial for his life. Dimitroff had ,to wrestle with every one of these, difficulties,' and he triumphed over them all. His energies' never flagged. His acute and ruthless cross-examination even of the official witnesses rudely shocked the German ideas of propriety. The Bench was mostly, unable ; lo suppress him, • but got occasional -spells by turning hint out of court. Except for the c unconscious humour of some of the witnesses Dimitroff's irrepressible 'sallies seem to have supplied air exceptionally futile, tedious, and long-drawn-out trial with the only relief that it received. Mr. Arthur Garfield Hays; who was the American representative on the International Lawyers' Defence Committee and attended the trial in the Leipzig Court for thp first six weeks, may be considered to speak with authority when, he describes • DimitiofTs performance as follows in the New York "Nation" of November 22: From the beginning he has been the stormy petrel of the case. The man is not only brave but reckless. Whenever during the course of the trial he got to his feet he would by the force of his personality place the Court, the German audience, and the Nazis'on the defensive. At the first question "of the Court Dimitroff insisted upon making a statement. Tlio Court said it was not the time. IMmitroff answered that ho had been .Availing for months to declare his.annoeenee. The Court tried to stop )iim, but Dimitroff, apparently smarting under a sense o£ injustice, shouted: ''You must excuse me if I am not calnti, For five months, day and night, I Was kept in chains! The whole

* case has been framed! lam an accidental defendant. I am an innocent man!" .-,,•■ It is-certainly an astonishing thing that a lawyer's criticism of a layman's conduct of his own case should h^ve no more serious set-off to all this praise than that it was "reckless" as well -as brave! That with these great fighting qualities Dimit- \ roff should have combined apparently perfect candour as a witness is : another surprise. After adding in the : statement which the Court had for- , bidden him to make, that he had not been in Berlin for ..days before the j fire, that he had never met Torgler or ( Van der Lubbe, and that his own activities in Berlin had been on ■ behalf of the Bulgarian Communist , Party only, Dimitroff was asked by the President whether he had been ■ travelling under a false passport and had failed to report to the police. By ' the prompt and frank reply, "Natur- ' ally," Dimitroff completely disarmed ; the attack and made a good impres- : sion instead of a bad one. ' The Court asked, Mr. Hays continues, ! if he had been involved in the bombing ' of the- Sofia cathedral. Dimitroff ( answered that he had ■ left Bulgaria I years before that time. The Court said: "You were sentenced to death in connection with that affair." Dimitroff replied that he had read that in various foreign papers.but that it did not interest'him, and added, was a provocative act in order to put the blame on the Communists"; and then loudly and with great emphasis, < "Those things sometimes happen in Germany." So Dimitroff began, . and i throughout he showed the same moral force and courage. • . - -a. -. ... j ■,-,■ Next only to Dimitroff the out- J standing personality of the trial was ! General Goering,- the loudest, most ' violent, vand most tyrannical of the ' Nazi fire-eaters, and the meeting, of ' the two or^ November 4 provided ex- ' citement enough to compensate for ' Weeks of the normal tedium.^ It was ' on this occasion that General Goering '• shouted at his intended victimV "You ' wait till we get you out of the power ; of this Court." Inside the court ' Dimitroff had proved himself the J stronger man of the two. His safe arrival in Moscow is taken by the i "Manchester Guardian" correspon- ' dent to prove that Herr Hitler also ' is a stronger man.