LEAVING MOSCOW

Southland Times, Issue 22132, 28 September 1933, Page 7

LEAVING MOSCOW

GERMAN JOURNALISTS EXPULSION ORDERED BY SOVIET RETALIATORY ACTION (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) Moscow, September 26. German newspaper correspondents, including representatives of the Wolff Agency, the Berliner Tageblatt and the Lokal Anzeiger, have been ordered to leave the Soviet within three days. This is a sequel to the Leipzig incident, when two Russian journalists were hastily summoned from their homes and taken to the police headquarters. No reply has been received to protests from the Soviet Embassy at Berlin, which threatened the expulsion of German journalists if no assurance was given that Russian journalists at Leipzig would not again be molested. The expulsion of German journalists has caused a sensation in foreign political circles, where it is regarded as the most serious development in Russo-German relations since the Nazi regime was installed. The expulsions coincide with a distinctly sharper tone in the Press comments on the Leipzig trial, which is regarded as a farcical frame-up. Those expelled include Wilhelm Baum, the representative of the Wolff Agency, who is also Press adviser to the German Embassy. Besides ordering the expulsion of German correspondents, the Soviet is recalling to Moscow four Russian correspondents in Berlin, namely, the representatives of the Pravda, Izvestia and two representatives of the Tass Agency, indicating that the Soviet intends to take a firmer attitude in regard to incidents involving Soviet citizens.

It was previously reported that Madame Lili Kith, correspondent of the Izvestia, and M. Bespalov, the correspondent of the Tass Agency, w’ere summoned from their beds at seven in the morning and taken to police headquarters at Leipzig, where they were stripped and searched for weapons and documents. A plain clothes man aroused Bespalov, while a policeman at the door levelled a revolver and threatened to shoot if he attempted to escape. The journalists v/ere detained until one o’clock, when M. Hirschfeld, secretary of the Russian Embassy, secured their release, the Chief of Police profusely apologizing and saying a subordinate had acted without orders. The fact that Russian journalists are not admitted to the trial is arousing bitter comment in the Soviet Press.