NORTHERN ADVOCATE DAILY THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 1933 BRITAIN AND RUSSIA

Northern Advocate, 20 April 1933, Page 4

NORTHERN ADVOCATE DAILY

THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 1933 BRITAIN AND RUSSIA

Registered for transmission through the post as a Newspaper.

The trial of six British engineers, who were charged by, the Russian Soviet •Government with espionage and sabotage, lias stirred the British Empire, and, indeed, the whole world, for it has exposed to a searching light the methods of Bolshevik justice. The proceedings at the trial, which was concluded yesterday, served to'show the farcical nature of the charges upon which, but for the intervention of the British Ambassador, and the solid front presented by the British Government, the men would probably have been executed without trial. It is also very probable that, but for the firmness of Britain, the court which tried the accused would not have formulated the judgment announced yesterday. It is safe to say that the lightness of the sentences surprised even those who were most convinced of the innocence of the accused. Instead of the death sentence, which was so freely predicted at the outset, two of the engineers were sentenced to three and two years’ imprisonment respectively, three were ordered to be deported and to stay out of Russia for five years, and one was acquitted. _ The sen-, fences are plain proof of the absurdity of the charges, which, if they had been justified, would have merited the death penalty according to the Soviet code. The imprisonment of two engineers is an outrage to the whole British nation, and it has moved the Imperial Government to take the drastic step of; prohibiting 80 per cent of Russian imports into Britain. This prohibition, which takes effect on April 26, includes butter, petroleum, grain, cotton and timber. This interruption of the relations between Britain and Russia is a serious matter. It has been generally approved by the press, though the hope is expressed that the Soviet, by commuting the sentences, may make it possible to close the entrance to an’ Anglo-Russian quarrel. It is to be hoped that, this may prove to be the case. But the first move must be by Russia,