MUST LEAVE MOSCOW

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22070, 28 September 1933, Page 9

MUST LEAVE MOSCOW

GERMAN JOURNALISTS

SEQUEL TO LEIPZIG INCIDENTS

(United Press Association.) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.)

MOSCOW, September 26,

German newspaper correspondents, including representatives of the Wolff Agency, the Berliner Tageblatt, and the Lokal Anzeiger, have been ordered to leave the Soviet within three days. This is a sequel to the Leipzig incidents. No reply has been received to the protests from the Soviet Embassy at Berlin, which threatened the expulsion of German journalists unless an assurance was given that the Russian journalists at Leipzig would not again be molested.

DECREE CAUSES SENSATION. MOSCOW, September 26. The expulsion of the German journalists has caused a sensation in foreign political circles, where it is regarded as the most serious development in RussoGerman relations since the Nazi regime was established. The expulsions coincide with a distinctly sharper tone in the press comments on the Leipzig trial, which is regarded as a farcical “ frame-up.” Those expelled include Herr Wilhelm Baum (representative of the Wolff Agency), who is also press adviser to the German Embassy.

Lili Kith, correspondent for the Izvestia, and M. Bespalov, correspondent for the Tass Agency at the Leipzig Reichstag fire trial, were summoned from their respective beds at 7 o’clock in the morning and taken to police headquarters, where they were stripped and searched for weapons and documents. A plain clothes man aroused Bespalov, and a policeman at the door levelled a revolver and threatened to shoot if he attempted to escape. The journalists were detained until 1 o’clock, when M. Hirschfield, Secretary to the Russian Embassy, secured their release, the police chief profusely apologising and said that a subordinate acted without orders. M. Hirschfield was not satisfied, and reported to the Ambassador. Russian journalists were not admitted to the trial, and this is arousing bitter comment in the Soviet press.

RUSSIAN PRESSMEN RECALLED.

BERLIN, September 27. (Received Sept. 27, at 10.15 p.m.) In addition to ordering the expulsion of German correspondents, the Soviet is recalling to Moscow four Russian correspondents in Berlin, namely, the representatives of Pravda and Izvestia and two representatives of the Tass Agency, indicating the Soviet’s intention to take a firmer attitude with regard to incidents involving Soviet citizens. '