HISTORY OF THE CASE

Northern Advocate, 20 April 1933, Page 4

HISTORY OF THE CASE

The history of the Moscow prosecution is interesting in the light of the revelations made during the trial. The six men concerned were suddenly seized by officers of the Ogpn. Not one of them teas told of the charge he had to meet; not one of them Avas aware that his colleagues had been gaoled. Ogpn is alnwo the hnv. Upon its activities there is, in normal circumstances, no cheek, and against its sentences, which include the death penalty, there is no appeal. Hut Sir Esmond Ovey interposed. M. Litvinoff said that Ogpn “kmnvs what it is doing, the truth of which statement, although not in controversy, did not satisfy the Ambassador’s demands. As a result of his plain speech, Die prisoners were transferred tcMho jurisdiction of the accredited courts, but their lot A\ r as not greatly improved thereby, as they were kept in solitary confinement and, on Sir Esmond’s testimony, browbeaten, if not physically ill-used. His pertinacity discovered that their alleged crime Avas sabotage, later amended to espionage. His representations secured the release of lavo of them on bail, but his access to the other four Avas impeded. When, at last, he intervieAved them, Avith Soviet officials listening, the hapless men seemed dazed and intimidated. Sir Esmond gained the impression that they had been put through the third degree. These men had not 1 stood * tfyeir trial, and had had

no opportunity of obtaining legal advice. The Ambassador’s original, reports were, supplemented, after bis return to England at the summons of the British Government, by a second. White Paper. This, while con-1 firming the previous accounts of the barbaric practices of the Soviet police, suggested that there was more in the affair than appeared on the fact* oi the indictment. The obvious inference to be drawn from this document was that a deliberate attempt had been made to fasten upon the six a charge of being members of the British secret service. To this end agents provocateurs were employed. If there was any conspiracy, the commissars of the Soviet seem to have been the culprits. and the prolonged crossexamination which the accused had to endure was clearly intended to exhaust them and entrap them. It is a sorry story, the ending of which is not to be found in the decision of the Moscow tribunal.