CHARGE OF ESPIONAGE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19738, 10 September 1927, Page 9

CHARGE OF ESPIONAGE.

ALLEGED BRITISH SPYING. TORTURE OF THE DEFENDANTS. (Received September 9. 10.55 p.m.) Sun. LONDON, Sept. 9. The Riga correspondent of the Daily Mail states that in spite of careful stage management the trial of 26 alleged British spies is attracting little attention, according to the Leningrad newspapers, which report that the population is more concerned by the recentlyinstituted ration cards for bread, flour, sugar, petroleum, tea and other necessities. Most of the evidence is based on the alleged confessions of the defendants, many of whom were imprisoned and tortured for months before they consented to sign statements admitting writing political reports for a British naval officer, Captain Boyce, to whom they were transmitted through the Finnish Consulate. The tortures of the Cheka, have driven many prisoners insane. Others, believing in a promise of leniency, often sign documents which later prove their death warrants. A Dutchman, Huyer, is the Bolsheviks' principal witness. A former Tsarist officer alleges that Captain Boyce forwarded funds to blowup several destroyers in the Soviet's Baltic fleet. The testimony of other witnesses was equally ridiculous. The Riga correspondent of the Times recently reported that the Soviet announced that a great trial of alleged British spies would be commenced before a military court at Leningrad. The announcement promised the unfolding of details of an elaborate British spying system in and around Russia since 1919, under a British captain named Boyce, | until the arrest of Goyer, who was acting as Boyce's agent from Warsaw. Altogether 26 persons were to be tried. They included Goyer, a former officer named Sckoloff, who was described as one of the chief organisers of the service, and a number of other Russians, who were charged with offering shelter and assistance to the alleged spies.