M. TROTSKY’S THEORY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 82, 5 March 1938, Page 9

M. TROTSKY’S THEORY.

POISONING CHARGES. NEW YORK, March 4. In a further message, which is copyright by the* North American Newspaper Alliance, M. Leon Trotsky from Mexico City advances the theory that the Ogpu’s charges that M. Levin (head of the Kremlin Hospital) poisoned MM. Kuibishev, Menzhinsky and Gorky arose because immediately after the death of M. Ordjonikidze (head of the Heavy Industry Department), M. Levin had intimated that it was probably due to poisoning by Ogpu agents because M. Ordjonikidze opposed M. Stalin. The l Ogpu then arrested MM. Pletnyev, Kazakov and Vinogradov because the last-named, who had been consulting with M. Levin, probably voiced the same suspicions concerning M. Ordjonikidze’s death. M. Trotsky then says the Ogpu said to four physicians, “So you suspect that M. Ordjonikidze was poisoned. We suspect you of poisoning MM. Kuibishev, Menzhinsky and Gorky. Confess! You won’t? Then we shall execute you immediately. Rut if you should confess that the poisoning was accomplished on the orders of MM. .Bukharin, Rykov and Trotsky then you may hope for leniency.”