RAID ON RED EMBASSY

Gisborne Times, Volume LX, Issue 9798, 7 May 1924, Page 5

RAID ON RED EMBASSY

BOLbLiEV I K STATE GERMANS BROKE SAFE

BERLIN POLICE DENY USE OF FORCE

United Press Association.---Copyright. LONDON,- May 5,

An official Soviet source in London states it became known in Berlin last week that, a German secret Monarchist organisation intended to con> mit some outrage against the Soviet Embassy on the eve of the elections, with the object of influencing their course. The raid represented the carrying into effect of the plans previously prepared. Secret police alleged their object was to find a fugitive criminal They spent four hours in the building, breaking open safes, and examining official correspondence. The statement adds: “This act of violence 1 will probably act on German and Soviet commercial relations.”

BERLIN May 5. An official account of the search of the Russian Embassy states that courtesy and moderation were shown, the task being carried out under the personal supervision of the chief of, the political police. There was no molestation of Russian clerks, force only being used in the case of one most obstinate official. The cupboards in only one room were forced, because the occupants refused to hand over the keys. The' diplomatic identity papers which were seized under suspicion of not being genuine were banded backafter verification. —A. and N.Z.C.A.

RAID DUE TO THIRSTY POLICEMEN HUMOROUS SIDE OF INCIDENT BERLIN, May 5. An amusing side of the Russo-Ger-man quarrel is the fact that it originated from the thirst of two policemen. The latter arrested a Communist, Botzenhardt, in Wurtemhurg, and were escorting him to Berlin, when Botzenliardt offered to procure a drink from the Russian delegation in the building. The policemen fell into the trap, and entered the building, where they state -they were made prisoners for some time, while Botzenhardt escaped during the confusion, and has'not been seen since. —Reuter.

ARCHBISHOP’S TRIAL. “THERE IS NO LAW HERE BUT THE SOVIET.” Captain Francis McCullagh, who was at the time the Daily Mail’s special correspondent in Moscow, was present throughout Archbishop Cieplak’s trial, which took place in March 1923.

The Archbishop’s first “offence” was that he refused to issue a circular letter to his clergy ordering them not to resist the confiscation of church treasures. With the Archbishop on trial were Mgr. Budkiewics and a number of priests. This was one typical passage in the cross-examination of one of the priests:

Krylenko (the Bolshevist prosecutor): Did you not know tiiat the. Soviet law" forbids the teaching of religion to persons tinder 18 ?—But there are other laws—'those of God and of the Catholic Church. _ And the law to teach religion is Divine. We'care not about any other law. There is no law here but Soviet law. —I will obey the law of God

and of my conscience. When Krylenko began his speech calling for the death of all the accused, he shouted to Archbishop Cieplak:

No Pope in the Vatican can save you now. Your religion, I spit on It, as I do on all religions—on Orthodox, Jewish. Mahommedaa, and the rest.