ATTACK ON TROTSKY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 226, 22 August 1940, Page 7

ATTACK ON TROTSKY.

STABBED WITH ICEPICK. IN SERIOUS CONDITION. Received August 22, 9 a.m. MEXICO CITY, Aug. 20. Stabbed in tlie bead with an instrument like an icepick by a man who visited liis villa, M. Leon Trotsky was so seriously injured that the hospital physicians said he might not live through the night. , After an operation, M. Trotsky s condition was pronounced to be most serious. It is believed bis assailant confessed that his real name was Jacques Mornard Vanden Dreschd, who was born at Teheran (Persia) of Belgian parents. ~ ... . His assailant was earlier identified as Frank Jackson, lie speaks J)rencli fluently, and is reported to be an ardent Trotskvite who had been admitted to extended hospitality at the villa for almost a year. A guard said the attack occurred about 4.20 p.m. by one man who had been allowed inside the villa shortly before. It is believed the man went directly to M. Trotsky’s study and stabbed him with a siiarp instrument like an icepick. M. Trotsky immediately screamed, whereupon two guards rushed in and captured the, assailant. M. Trotsky’s skull is reported to have been fractured. When the guards rushed, m .M. Trotsky was bleeding so freely that he was hardly able to talk.and could not describe what had happened. The guards said they found the assailant Holding an uufired. pistol, which they wrested from him. He admitted that he intended to shoot his way out it necessary, but apparently lost courago after hitting Trotsky. ■/ M. Kerensky, President of the shortlived Russian "Republic which preceded the triumph of Bolshevism, says the attempt on Trotsky’s life was merely an act of revenge since at present lie has no influence with the Russian masses.

A Baltimore message says a leading brain surgeon, Dr \\ r . Dandy, from Johns Hopkins Hospital, is travelling by aeroplane to-night to attend Trotsky. He will be joined in Mexico by Dr H. Fischlcr, a Los Angeles surgeon. • ' New York reports that Joseph Cannon, secretary of the Socialist Workers’ Party, said Trotsky’s last words before losing consciousness were: “I will not survive this attack. Stalin has Anally accomplished the task he attempted unsuccessfully before.” . Leon Trolskv, the Russian Bolshevist loader, whoso real name is I.eiba Bronstein, became a supporter of Lenin during tlie revolution in 1917 and Hie two established the Bolshevik regime. In 1924 'Trotsky resigned from all his Soviet offices owing to a difference; in policy and in 1929 lie was deported. He has lived abroad since, in recent years in Mexico, and has been a strong critic of Stalin and bis form of government. An attempt on Trotsky’s • life was' made a few months ago when armed assailants broke into his home and fired shots, both Trotsky and his wife escaping injury.