ALL REPORTS CENSORED

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18064, 15 April 1933, Page 13

ALL REPORTS CENSORED

THE MOSCOW TRIAL BITTER SOVIET PRESS FURTHER EVIDENCE HEARD (Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (Received April 15, 3 p.m.) LONDON, April 14. Tbo British United Press message dealing with the Moseow trial states that tiic deiending counsel take voluminous notes, but say little, though Monkhouse’s and Thornton’s counsel several times elicited tacts useful to their clients. The proceedings are unorthodox, the accused cross-examining each other simultaneously. Thirty-live foreign journalists arc transmitting record reports, all of which must be submitted to the censor for perusal and signature. The newspaper Isvestia says the Good Friday broadcast of prayers will not help the accused. The only phase of the Easter story applicable to the case is that of Judas and the 30 pieces of silver. The Pravda, in an editorial, writes: “Although the trial is practically over, it brands the British White Papers as official lies, and shows the accuseds’ guilt beyond question. The British spies were caught red-handed, and can now merely lie unintelligibly. It is not for nothing that Britain feared an open trial.”

A dull-witted young man named Kotkiarevsky, Head of the turbine department of the Zuevka electricity works, gave evidence that bis “downfall” began with the arrival of MacDonald, wlnj requested him to conceal defects in oil pumps and remain late at the works to throw scrap iron, nails and stones into the generators. Monkhowse intervened, explaining that the Moscow office of Afetro-Vickers ordered replacement parts from London to enable the defects immediately to he remedied.

The prosecution retorted that the parts were ordered only after tho Russian commission of experts commenced in-

quiries. Kotliarevsky declared lhat lie had received 1000 roubles from MacDonald for throwing a bolt in a generator. MacDonald, when questioned, admitted that lie knew that Kotliarevsky wrecked it. Monkhouse declared that the bolt was missing from the generator casing, and suggested that it had fallen and not been thrown into tho motor. Sakhorutchkin declared that he .sabotaged two turbines affecting Moscow's electricity supply by Thornton’s orders. The court adjourned at 10 o’clock. The Daily Telegraph’s Moscow correspondent recalls that M. Ulrich, the president of the court, was sentenced in 1928 to 10 years’ imprisonment for espionage and the sale of State secrets to a little German commercial traveller who told his Swedish employers details of Soviet cream

separators. The Metro-Yiekcvs Board unanimously resolved to express sympathy with tho accused employees, emphasising its complete confidence in their integrity and loyalty. The board elected Mr. Richards a director as an indication of its confidence in his conduct of tho firm’s Russian business.