CONFESSION BEFORE COURT

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 30 September 1933, Page 5

CONFESSION BEFORE COURT

LAYING OF REICHSTAG FIRE STATEMENT BY VAV DER LUBBE . SHORT TIME IN BUILDING. LEIPZIG TRIAL ADJOURNED. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph Copyright.) Received 11.40 a.m. to-day. BERLIN, Sept. 29. A mass of conflicting evidence regarding the relations of Van der Lubbe 'and the three alleged Communists, who are also charged, was heard at the Reichstag fire trial to-day. Zaehow, one of the three, stoutly denied that he was a Communist,, and wept bitterly in court. He was manifestly cowed and terror-stricken, his nerve being shattered as the result of his experiences in & concentration camp. . | Cross-examined, he admitted using l uncomplimentary language about a Storm Troper who kicked a. Communist. Turning to the president of the Court he said: “Sorry, Mr Councillor. T ought not to have done such _a j thing,” and implored the president to release him from the camp, saying: “I have been punished enough.” The president sprang a surprise by announcing that Van der Lubbe would be heard in regard to the actual laying of the fire. Van der Lubbe adopted his usual morbid attitude and , mumbled his answers despite the remonstrances of the court. j AH eafls; were strained when tlie president asked: “Do you admit firing! the Reichstag?” j “Yes,”" muttered Van der Lubbe ! almost inaudibly. _ j While an assistant with a lecturer’s j rod traced Van der Luhbe’s movements | on huge coloured diagrams of the I Reichstag, the president read Ban der I Luibbe’s confession that, after looking j over the building in the afternoon, he j returned at nine at night and climbed j the main front to the balcony of the central building, where he affixed firelighters. He then smashed a window, the curtains of which ignited. He then lit other parte of the building, using his shirt and waistcoat for fuel. Eventually he was arrested in the Bismarck Hall after being 15 to 2D | minutes within the building. Van der Lubbe, replying to the president, confirmed the statement. The trial was adjourned until October 4. The interim will he devoted to a jurists’ convention, when 10,000 Nazis will celebrate the triumph of the “New. German Justice.”

PROTEST TO SOVIET,

EXPULSION OF JOURNALISTS

Received 11.50 a.m. to-day,

BERLIN. Sept. 29

Germany has protested to the Soviet Embassy against the expulsion of German journalists, and declares it is likely to strain the friendly Russo-German relations. While there is no discrimination in Germany against Soviet journalists, despite the tendencies of reports and attacks upon Hitlerism, German journalists at Moscow have been continually controlled and are unable to leave without special permits.