HELD IN BRITAIN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27082, 17 May 1949, Page 5

HELD IN BRITAIN

AMERICAN COMMUNIST' POLISH PROTEST EXPECTED UNITED STATES SEEKS EXTRADITION NZPA—Copyright Rec. 9 p.m.N. * LONDON, May 16. The Polish Government is expected to protest officially to the British Government to-day against British police officers arresting the German-born Gerhard Eisler. America’s No. 1 Communist. on board the Polish liner Batory off Southampton. The British Communist Party’s newspaper, Daily Worker, declared the arrest had smashed Britain’s tradition of granting exile to the persecuted. “ Garibaldi, Mazzini, Marx, Lenin, and those who fled from Hitler and Franco—political refugees from all over the world —have in the past found a haven in Britain from tyranny and persecution: that tradition was violated at Southamptton when Eisler was seized because he is a political refugee,” the paper added. “ Violation of Flag ” The Polish Embassy, in a statement issued yesterday, said that it regarded the action of the British authorities in arresting Eisler as a violation of the Polish sovereign flag and of interna-tionally-accepted principles of law and order and human rights. British police officers carried Eisler down the three-stair flight to the police tender and took him to the Southampton cells. Eisler will appear before a magistrate to-morrow, when application will be made to remand him to appear at Bow Street Police Court. Eisler is reported to have boarded the Batory in New York as a stowaway and then to have paid firstclass fare to Gdynia. It was reported previously from the United States that the authorities had asked Scotland Yard to arrest Eisler. The protest, which referred to the “ seizure and forcible abduction ” of Eisler, added: “ The British police who boarded the ship and guarded it from outside took with them representatives of the United States Government, deprived the captain and his officers and representatives of the Polish Government of freedom of movement, and made it impossible for the captain to carry out the order of the Polish Government to leave British waters without surrendering Eisler. Surrender Refused

“ When the captain of the Batory and representatives of the Polish Government refused to surrender Eisler on the grounds of a warrant issued by the Southamptan court, which alleged a breach by Eisler of American visa regulations and invoked the AngloAmerican Treaty of Extradiction, the British police officers enabled the American representative to read a telegram from the State Department containing the threat of a seizure of the Batory by the United States if it should not return to United States waters, and if Eisler were not surrendered it-also threatened other measures which implied the closing of the Gydnia-America line in the United States.” The statement continued: “ The Polish authorities refused to yield to these threats and disregarded the British warrant of arrest l on the grounds that Eisler was a political refugee entitled under international law to asylum and protection under the Polish ' sovereign flag. As Eislei did not commit any crime under British law and within the jurisdiction of the English courts, the British police had no right to interfere with him. Eisler’s Statement A, statement from Eisler issued by the Embassy at his request declared: “ I am being kidnapped by the British authorities by force and violence, acting as gendarmes for American reaction. The British authorities, for the sake of the Un-American Activities Committee, have brutally violated the old British tradition of asylum for political emigres.” 4 A British Foreign Office spokesman said: “The Batory was lying within British territorial waters, and was within British jurisdiction. Therefore it was within our competence to arrest someone wanted on an extradition charge. The fact that Eisler has been arrested does not prejudice in any way the question of whether he should be extradicted or not. That will be decided when he appears before the magistrate, and when it is seen- whether there is sufficient evidence for the AngloAmerican Extradition Treaty to be invoked.’’