THE SOVET TRIAL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23442, 5 March 1938, Page 13

THE SOVET TRIAL

EVIDENCE BY ACCUSED CONFESSIONS OF GUILT "DESERVE PUNISHMENT" (United Press Association) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) MOSCOW, Mar. 3. The British Ambassador was present in the court on the resumption of the trial and heard M. Ivanov declare that M. Bukharin had told him that the Rightists had an agreement with Britain to overthrow the Soviet and give Britain concessions in North Russia. M. Rosengoltz, as a guarantee of good faith, sold Britain millions worth of timber at a heavy loss. M. Ivanov, who followed what has become the normal procedure—selfdenunciation—said he was originally attached to the Tsarist Secret Police, at whose behest, he joined the Communists and later joined the British Intelligence Service. M. Zubar, a former Assistant commissioner of Agriculture, confessed in his evidence that he and M. Rykoff plotted sabotage, and added that there was an organised terrorist group within the Commissariat of Agriculture for the purpose of killing MM. Stalin, Molotov, and Yoroshilov. He also admitted that he had been a member of the Tsarist Secret Police since 1908. M. Bukharin, broadcasting 1 his confession to the nation, said: " I am fully guilty and deserve punishment." "You will be punished," declared M. Vishinsky, to which M. Bukharin replied: "Thank you. I know that without your consoling reminder." A CHANGE OF PLEA M. KRESTINSKY MOSCOW, Mar. 3. The most dramatic moment of the trial was when M. Krestinsky, his resistance breaking down under M. Vishinsky's searching examination, withdrew his plea of not guilty. " Yesterday, under the pressure of shame at being in the dock and illness, I said I was not guilty," he said: "I plead guilty to all the crimes." DETAILS OF INDICTMENT OBVIOUS DISCREPANCIES LONDON, Mar. 3. "The details of the indictment dovetail impressively as long as they concern Soviet territory, but as soon as they reach the outside world, where they can be verified, they do not fit so well," says the Riga correspondent of The Times. The indictment, for instance, declares that M. Rosengoltz confessed that in 1923 he and M. Trotsky worked in close contact with the German general staff, to which they delivered Soviet secrets. It is common knowledge outside Russia that by virtue of the Versailles Treaty Germany had no general staff in 1923 or for many years after. PRESUMPTION OF GUILT BELGIAN SOCIALIST PROTEST BRUSSELS, Mar. 3. The Socialist General Council decided to telegraph the Soviet Government protesting against presumption of guilt of the defendants in the spy trial until proved. M. TROTSKY'S THEORY REASON FOR THE CHARGES NEW YORK, Mar. 4. (Received March 4, at 11 p.m.) In a further message, which is copyright by the North America Newspaper Alliance, M. Trotsky, from Mexico City, advances the theory that the O.G.P.U.'s charges that M. Levin poisoned MM. Kibishev,- Menzhinsky and Gorky arose because immediately after the death of M. Ordjonikidze, head of the heavy industry, M. Levin had intimated that it was probably due to poisoning by O.G.P.U. agents because M. Ordjonikidze opposed M. Stalin. The O.G.P.U. then arrested MM. Pletnyev, Kazakov and Vinogradov because the last-named, who had been consulting with M. Levin, probably voiced the same suspicions concerning M. Ordjonikidze's death. M. Trotsky then says the O.G.P.U. said to the four physicians: " So you suspect that M. Ordjonikidze was poisoned. We suspect you of poisoning MM. Kibishev, Menzhinsky and Gorky. Confess! You won't? Then we shall execute you immediately, but if you should confess that the poisoning was accomplished on the orders of MM. Bukharin, Rykov and Trotsky then you may hope for leniency."