BRITAIN RETALIATES

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18068, 20 April 1933, Page 7

BRITAIN RETALIATES

EMBARGO ON IMPORTS LONDON’S KEEN INTEREST BITTER PRESS CRITICISMS (Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (Received April 20, noon.) LONDON, April Iff. The Foreign Office states that a Meeting of the Privy Council was summoned this morning ‘to authorise the proclamation under the Russian Goods Import Act. llis Majesty presided over the Council at Windsor Castle. It was attended by Air Stanley Baldwin .and Sir John Simon. A proclamation was signed prohibiting Russian imports. i lie -proclamation is effective from Ajiril 2!i. It prohibits SO per cent, of Soviet imports, including butter, grain, cotton, petroleum and timber.

The expiration of the Anglo-Russian trade agreement ends the diplomatic immunity of the Soviet tiade delegation, which henceforth must obtain a permit to remain in England and report regularly to the police, like other aliens. Intense excitement prevailed in London last night. Many clubmen waited rill midnight watching the tape machines. Special editions of the -veiling papers, with the sentences, were sold in the West End streets.

There, is. a feeling of relief, coupled with sympathy with Thornton and Msie-DohaldJ'i.: . a ! 'MacDonald’s mother at Sheffield refused to be interviewed, his sister stating that the mol her received the news of the sentence quietly.

Monkliouse’s wife is naturally delighted that her husband is not imprisoned. “At the same lime,” she said, “it is a bitter end to eight years of indefatigable work he has done for the Soviet. He had many friends in Russia, and worked ceaselessly for the ,uiiion. 'The idea that ho could be guilty of. such charges is monstrous.” Owing ta the lateness of the news, few morning papers comment on the Moscow sentences editorially.

As the news spread there was everywhere feeling of relief that the sentences were much lighter than seemed likely from the bitter spirit manifested at the trial. < ‘ INTOLERABLE INJUSTICE ’ ’ The Daily Telegraph says: “Though lighter than feared, the sentences on Thornton and MacDonald arc an infolerable injustice, for the charges are absurd to the point of imbecility. The so-called trial has been an affront to the universal conscience. The British Government must make every effort to procure a commutation. The effect of the 1 1 i:i 1 must be far-reaching, and is bound to affect the whole of the Soviet’s relations with civilised mankind.”

The Daily Express says: “The imprisonment of Thornton and MacDonald is an outrage to the whole British nation. The cause of it all was because the five-vear plan failed.”

The Morning Post considers that the sole directing influence of the trial has been political, but before the trial had gone far Moscow saw clearly that it stood to lose much more than it could possibly gain. “By assuming a sudden leniency that really indicts its sensational procedure, the Soviet now tries to avert the consequences of its blunders, among which is the censure of the world,” the paper adds. The News-Chronicle says: “Tho British Government cannot be expected to accept the sentences without protest. Their relative mildness suggests that, if the Soviet is properly approached, it may be induced to commute them. It all depends on the form of approach. Threats are useless and an embargo is worse than useless. It should he possible to close the entrance of an Anglo-Russian quarrel from which both parties have much to lose and nothing to gain.”

The Daily Mail’s Paris correspondent says that Russians there declare that Giiiscv is a police informer who figured previously as the recipient of sentences, but simply played a role, fully assured that the Ogpu chiefs would arrange for his safety and subsequent reward.