OGPU’S METHODS

Hokitika Guardian, 13 May 1933, Page 6

OGPU’S METHODS

ALLEGED CONFESSIONS MADE

SUCCESSFUL USE OF DRUGS,

A suggestion has been made that Mr ■W. MacDonald, who was one cf the men tried by tlie Soviet Government on a charge of sabotage, has been subjected to- the influence of drugs, which made his statements unreliable.

A lecturer in materia medica, interviewed in Sydney, stated that drugs were known to medical science which would render the person to whom tney had been administered incapable of making a correct answer to a. leading question. The commonest of these drugs is know'll as liyoscine or scopola-. nunc. Tiiis drug has been used hi America to extort confessions under the third degree. A person under its influence may say anything in answer to a leading question, and a-ter tlie effect lias worn off he would not remember anything of what he had said under examination.

A. confession made in these circum-

stances, said the lecturer, would be" utterly unreliable, and may 7 have not a word' of truth in it.‘ “1 Teel' ahnpstcertain that in'the'Russian case this drug or some similar one has been used,” he said, “liyoscine is the commonest of these drugs. Indian hemp, or saimabis Indicia, is also used, but is much more erratic in its effect. I

would emphasise the fact that it has heen definitely proved that liyoscine lias heen used by tlie American police

to extort confessions by third degree methods, but its use has been abandoned, owing to the fact that statements obtained under its influence cannot, he relied on.

“The effect oil the drug w'ould be to make a man drowsy and confdsed, and

the pupils of Jiis eyes would be dilated. As a rule, it takes at least four hours for its influence to wear oif.

Suggestion of Hypnotism.

The suggestion made bv Mr Monkhouse at Gialystok, Poland, that Mr MacDonald had been hypnotised has been commented upon. Dr. Martin,

1 director of the Institute of Industrial Psychology and lecturer in psychology' In the University of Sydney. He said he did not believe that Mr MacDonald had been hypnotised so much as placed in a state of abnormal sug- • gestibility. “The border line' between hypnosis and suggestion is, however. 1 very vngu'fe,” ,he said. “In. the' classical sense hypnosis is preceded by a period of semi-coma, after "which the

subject will obey 'any suggestion made, provided,pf. course, that it is not coiitary ' tci "the dictates of his conscience. Air of us are liable to suggestion. The tsffecV"Pf 'intensive ‘advertising is evidence of that. “Tlie conditions under which Mr

MacDonald w 7 as tried,” Dr. Martin continued, “were ideal for'undue s’ugw,FH)m htTWlilfT seem to be of an extremely emotional •temperament.-' assuined that he actually'’did gather trade' information, i'll itself a perfectly legitimate action in a, !. liormal- country, tbjb knowledge

-tfiat't'hc Soviet” authorities would-re-gard it as equivalent to espionage would cause- Or state of mental uneasiness There is evidence to show 1 that alter his run'est lie feared the worst. His telephone message to his wife when he bade her farewell and said that he |hought it was ‘all up’ proves this. Liability to Suggestion.

■ “AVe can safely assume that Mr MacDonald, in common with the other prisoners, was submitted to an exhaustive third-degree examination. In view of his emotional make-up ana his state df fear, such an examination would almost certainly make him regard the Soviet authorities, including the prosetiufcor, with extreme submissiveness.

“This attitude of submissiveness, c'oupled with his emotional instability arising from his fear and uneasiness, would make .Mr MacDonald peculiarly liable to suggestion. Thus, if he were told often- enough that he was guilty lie would at last accept the conclusion .suggested by his examiners and comess His. contradictory statements, - a con-

fession, a retraction, and a further confession, could be explained by the temporary withdrawal and subsequent further application of intense suggestion.’’