MOSCOW ARRESTS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIII, Issue 80, 16 March 1933, Page 9

MOSCOW ARRESTS

SECRET PROCEEDINGS BRITISH AMBASSADOR MAKES STRONG REPRESENTATIONS. GOVERNMENT TAKES SERIOUS VIEW. London, March 15 It is understood that Sir Esmond Ovey made strong representations to Moscow about the secretiveness of the proceedings against the Vickers’ employees, stating that the Government is taking a serious view of the case. The Soviet Foreign Office then said that members of tho Embassy would be allowed to visit the prisoners, subject to representatives of the Soviet being present and no reference being made to the motives of the arrest. Sir Esmond Ovey visited Lubianka gaol and conversed with the four prisoners. He found them comfortable and in normal health. Mr Monkhouse states that he was questioned during the greater part of his 48 hours’ detention. No reference was made to espionage, while the questions chiefly related to alleged defects in machinery and supposedly faulty installation. Mr Monkhouse says that naturally during ten years of installing the equipment of large power stations there have been troubles such as are unavoidable in any big job, but charges of sabotage are ridiculous. FAILURE OF FIVE YEAR PLAN. ARRESTS FORM SMOKE SCREEN. London, March 15. ■’The Morning Post’s” political correspondent says that Mr Stanley Baldwin is making an important statement in the House of Commons to-day on the subject of the Moscow arrests. It is expected that an apology will shortly be forthcoming in the form of a statement. The arrests occurred without the knowledge of Litvinoff, Commissary of Foreign Affairs, who is taking steps to meet the representations of the British Government. ‘‘The Daily Mail” says that obviously the meaning of these arbitrary arrests is that the Five Year Plan has collapsed, and a smoke screen is being erected to conceal the truth from the miserable, oppressed population of Russia, who are being made to believe that British treachery has caused hardships and not the incapacity and dishonesty of the Bolsheviks.