THE DEATH SENTENCE

Evening Star, Issue 19583, 15 June 1927, Page 5

THE DEATH SENTENCE

RUMANIANS CHARGED WITH ESPIONAGE A SOVIET TRIAL Press Association—By Telegraph-Copyright. LONDON, Juno 13. An Odessa message reports tho trial of sixteen persons who were charged ■with espionage on behalf of Rumania on the Bessarabian frontier. Eleven were condemned to death, three were imprisoned for ten years, and two were acquitted. Those who were condemned were also accused of illegally conveying persons to Rumania who were escaping irom Russia.—Sydney ‘ Sun ’ Cable. [Bessarabia, a rich province of 17,000 square miles, adjoining tho Soviet Republic of Ukraine, and formerly belonging to Russia, was allotted to Rumania in March,, 1918, at the conclusion of tho Great War, by a treaty which was ratified by Britain and France, but did not really become operative until ratified later by Italy. The ratification confirmed one of the biggest alterations of, the European map made by tho war. A Note Iron) Moscow protesting against tho ratification of the treaty was presented to Signor Mussolini. Tho Note said such ratification would complicate a peaceful solution by making Rumania still more opposed to a free plebiscite, and would also lead to protest meetings in the adjoining Soviet territory of Ukraine. The anxiety of all the Rowers to have access to supplies of Rumanian oil was claimed by the Soviet to have been a factor in the treaty.]