Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING GISBORNE, THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 1933 IN THE TOILS OF THE SOVIET

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18068, 20 April 1933, Page 6

Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING GISBORNE, THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 1933 IN THE TOILS OF THE SOVIET

It is difficult to write in temperate language concerning the trial at Moscow which lias occupied so much attention during the past week. To British people it has been extremely galling to witness their fellow subjects in the toils of cruel and merciless inquisitors and to contemplate the intense mental torture to which they have been subject since their seizure by the Russian secret police. According to British traditions a person is presumed to be innocent until his guilt is established, but in Russia people who arc taken for alleged offences against the State are condemned from the outset and subjected to treatment which it utterly revolting to the British sense of justice. Thoso six men were suddenly seized by officers of the Ogpu, Not one of them was told of the charge ho had to meet; not one of them was aware that his colleagues had been arrested. Then proceeded the inquisition with its process of torture of mind in the endeavor to extract confessions, and finally tho trial, the censored reports of which have given sufficient evidence of tho crude, inhuman and almost barbaric methods of the Russian judiciary system. Not by any special pleading can it be urged that tho accused men have had a fair trial or that the proceedings .were otherwise than a gigantic “frame up" by the Russian authorities, the purpose of which can only be surmised as either a desire to distract attention from the failure of their much-taunt-ed industrial plan or to escape payment of the largo sum due to the British engineering firm. The suggestion that these engineers, employed by a reputable English firm, wore engaged in an espionage and sabotage

conspiracy was altogether ridiculous. All their interests were to maintain their positions of trust and to make a success of the undertakings, for Metro-Vickers, as any other progressive firm, would doubtless he looking for fresh contracts, giving them further opportunities for employment. The categorical denial by the British Foreign Minister, Sir John Simon,

that the engineers were in any way connected with the British Intelli-

gence Service must bo accepted. But for the firm action taken by the British Minister there would probably have been no trial; the hapless victims of the Ogpu would most likely have met the fate which was threat cued the terrorised woman and other Russians who were arrested with them. The fact that the Britons are to escape the death penally can only be ascribed to the Soviet l’ear of reprisals from Britain, but whether tire British Government and people will accept the sentencing of two of these men to terms of imprisonment is quite another matter. Public opinion in England has been greatly inflamed and there must be strong pressure on the Government to take stops to redress a palpable injustice to British subjects. It was once the proud boast of the nation that it would protect its subjects from injustice in any part of the world, and on more than one occasion effective steps have been taken to that end. Somo of our readers may recall the affair of Don Pacifico, a Gibraltar Jew, living in Athens, who was set upon by a Greek mob, maltreated and his property stolen. The man claimed British nationality and this being established Lord Palmerston, the

Foreign Minister of those days,, promptly took steps to secure redress. British naval vessels blockaded Piraeus until an indemnity of £.150 for tho injured person was recovered. In a notable speech in the House of Lords, when his policy was questioned, Lord Palmerston gave dramatic rendering of the phrase “I am a British citizen,” and Parliament expressed its accord with the action taken. It is not suggested to-day that the British navy should be sent r i blockade the Russian ports in tho Baltic or Black Sea, but public opinion throughout the Empire, we should say, will be firmly of tho opinion that Britain must shut down on all commercial relations with Russia. It has been largely a one-way trade. England has taken from Russia, to the detriment of her own overseas producers, vastly more than sho has supplied to that country, and her hospitality in admitting Russians to her shores has been persistently abused. It is high time that relations between the two countries were suspended, and as the trade treaty which has been in existence for tiie past few years expired on. April IS the time .is opportune for refusing to renew it. It may be that the National Government has in contemplation even sterner measures to redress Hie wrong done to those Britons and to secure the sitfe.return of all of them to their own country. 'The developments of the next few days will be interesting.