DREADFUL DRAMA

Northern Advocate, 18 April 1933, Page 5

DREADFUL DRAMA

TIRADE OF ACCUSATION

ESPIONAGE AND BRIBERY.

RIGOROUS PENALTY URGED

-United Press Association— By Electric

Telegraph.—Copyright.! (Received 10 aim.) MOSCOW, April 17.

The faces of Messrs Thornton and MacDonald were noticeably strained, and Mr Monkhonse looked paler and more careworn when the trial resumed. M. Yishinsky, the prosecutor, pounding the table with his fist, continued to address the court Avith rencAvcd vigour. . , He described the breakdowns ! lit Amrious povrer stations, and declared that sabotage could be the only reason for them. Sometimes doctors, when operating, left their instruments in the body, he said, and something of that sort had happened at the Zouisvsky station, Avhieh Consequently became pretty sick. Referring to the first Moscoav station, he said that the Avreekers evidently had a fire-year plan for sabotaging,' Avhieh Avas started in 1928.

The prosecutor produced a minor sensation by remarking, apparently referring to Mr Gregory: “I am not certain about the guilt of one of the accused. I will discuss him later.” He described Mr MacDonald as an experienced and clcA r er secret service officer, avlio had been caught red-hand-ed Avhile sabotaging, but lie Avas eomparatiA T ely honest and braA r e. ” ' “Gusev has confessed to being a sabotageur and a secret agent, and I will ask for the severest punishment for him,” said M. Yishinsky.

There Avas a commotion in the court when he referred to Mr Cushney as Avorking like a crack secret agent. Mr Cushney jumped up and shouted: “I did not do any spying.” Tho judge called him to order.

Bitter. Invective. After an adjournment, M. Yishinsky directed the main attack -on Mr Thornton. Once he turned Avrathfully towards him and exclaimed: “You Avill be of no use in Russia or England. Perhaps you Avill be used as manure for our Soviet fields somewhere.'”

Pacing Mr Cushney, he'said: “You deny everything, but we will unmask you like Messrs Monkhouse, Thornton and Nordwall.” '

Continuing, the prosecutor declared: “All the prisoners arc guilty except Mr Gregory, and all deserve ' death, but our courts are not vengeful. Nevertheless, if the court considers it necessary to order that extreme measure, your hands must not shake.” . M. Vishinsky, concluding, loudly denounced Mr Monkhouse, who had admitted giving bribes through Mr Thornton, euphemistically called presents. Mr Monkhouse had gathered State secrets. Mr Monkhouse: ‘ 1 What constitutes secrets;”

M. Yishinsky: “We will judge and convict you according to our laws.”

He described < Madame Ivutusova as a pleasure-seeking woman without conscience, but pleaded for mitigation, as she ultimately turned State witness. Again addressing Mr Thornton, the prosecutor said: “You are a worthless creature. The evidence shows that you are guilty of espionage, wreckage and I see no reason to uphold the charges against Mr Gregory, who has not harmed the' Soviet, but •the; punishment of Messrs MacDonald, Monkhouse, Nordwall and Cushney must be the most severe that is possible. The court in deciding its verdict, must remember that the Soviet does not seek blood or vengeance, but defence of the Socialist Revolution.”

INHUMAN METHODS. EXACTING CONFESSIONS. PROFESSOR’S GRIM STORY. (Received noon.) LONDON, April 17. The “Daily Mail ’’ states that Ogpu spies should bo expelled from: Britain, to prevent the execution of M. Yishinsky’s threat to investigate Mr. Thornton’s activities in London, or else there might result a repetition of crimes like the murder of M. Kutepov at Paris. In a letter to “The Times,” the scientist, Professor Tchernavin, formerly head of the laboratories of the Northern Fisheries Trust, discloses the Ogpu’s methods to extract confessions. He was accused of sabotage in 1931 and placed with .100 others in a cell 75 yards square and infested with bugs and lice.

He states that he was threatened: that if he did not sign a confession he would bo shot and his wife would be arrested. Professor Tchernayin ..refused and was sent, without, trial, to five years’ penal servitude at , the Solovetsky concentration camp,, from which he escaped in 1942. The measures that the Ogpu applied to Professor Tcheruavin’s follow prisoners included forcing them to stand without food or drink for six days and nights, placing them, undressed before open windows in the winter cold, the crowding of 400 men and women in one single room kept at a high temperature for six days, then forcing them to run in batches of 40 from the room until they signed confessions ‘or dropped senseless.