SPYING AND WRECKING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23220, 18 June 1937, Page 9

SPYING AND WRECKING

RAMPANT IN WHITE RUSSIA CABINET MINISTERS INVOLVED MOSCOW, June 16. A drastic purge of White Russia, involving Cabinet members, was revealed at the White Russia Conference at Minsk. An immediate sequel was the report of the suicide of M. Cherviakov, President of White Russia, and the existence of Trotskyist spying and wrecking. The organisation was led by the Commissar of Agriculture (M. Benek) and the Commissar of Education (M. Diakoff). It is alleged that the wreckers are accused of destroying live stock and crops, scientists being instructed to infect cattle with cholera. The collective farms are allegedly hotbeds of Polish espionage. Ex-Premier Goloded was arrested, also ex-Com-missars of Agriculture and Education. AGRICULTURAL WRECKERS LONDON, June 16. The Riga correspondent of The Times says the trial of the high Communist officials charged with creating anti-Stalin discontent among the peasants in the Ukraine has been announced from Moscow. Further " Communist agricultural wreckers" were discovered in the Crimea, South Russia, and the chief grain and sugar beet centres. The chief crimes are allegedly efforts to wreck spring sowing and destroy the crops, but the real reason is the poor crops. It appears that the grain collectors last autumn left insufficient food, and the peasants were obliged to cat part of the seed grain.