TO LEAVE RUSSIA

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18204, 27 September 1933, Page 7

TO LEAVE RUSSIA

GERMAN JOURNALISTS LEIPZIG REPRISALS SERTOIIS DEVELOPMENTS (Elec. Tel. Copyright —United Press Assn.) (Received Sept. 27. 11 a. 111.) MOSCOW, Sept. 26. German newspaper correspondents, including representatives of the Wolff Agency, the Berliner Tageblatt, and the Lokalanzeiger, have been ordered to leave the Soviet within three days. This is a sequel to the Leipzig incidents Irfst week. No reply has been received to protests from the Soviet Embassy at Berlin, which threatened the expulsion of German journalists if no assurance is given that Russian journalists at Leipzig are not again molested. The expulsion of the German journalists caused a sensation in foreign political circles, where it is regarded as the most serious development, in RussoGerman relations since the Nazi regime. The expulsions coincide with a distinctly sharper tone in press comments on the Leipzig trial, which is regarded as a farcical frame -up. Those expelled include Hen' Wilhelm Baum, a representative of tho Wolff Agency, who also is press adviser to the German Embassy.

Madame Lili Kith, correspondent for the T/.vestia, and M. Bespalov, correspondent for the Tass Agency, were summoned from their respective beds in Leipzig at 7 o’clock in the morning, and taken to police headquarters, where they were stripped ami searched for weapons and documents. The journalists were detained until 1 o’clock, when M. Hirschfeld, secretary to the Russian Embassy, secured their release, the police chief profusely apologising and saying that a subordinate had acted without orders. The. Russian journalists were not admitted to the Reichstag fire trial, arousing bitter comment in the Soviet press.