MUNICH TREASON TRIAL

Otago Witness, Issue 3614, 19 June 1923, Page 21

MUNICH TREASON TRIAL

SECRET POLITICAL SOCIETY. BERLIN, June 10. In the high treason trial at Munich the central figure is Dr Runge, who is a violent anti-Semite and the founder of the so-called Bundbluter. He was originally arrested and released owing to lack of evidence; but two of Runge’s associates have given evidence that Runge established an organisation on the lines of the Bolshevist Cheka for the extermination of' political opponents. The members were bound to obey unto death, and were formed as a blood brotherhood. One of the proposed victims was Dr Heim, whose extermination was assigned to a student named Weinprecht. One witness gave evidence that Runge undertook to poison the notorious Dietrich Eckhardt, and others were also to be poisoned. The selected persons were given tubes of poison. Runge, in giving evidence, pooh-poohed the whole business, saying that the tubes contained carbonate of soda for stomachache. Another member of the Bund stated in evidence that a student named Bauer, who was recently found murdered, had previously been appointed leader of the Bund by Runge. The evidence left the impression of people mentally unbalanced and acting extravagantly, but involving tire gravest oonsequences.