Stratford Evening Post With which is Incorporated "THE EGMONT SETTLER" Established 1890. FRIDAY, MARCH 6, 1931. MORE RUSSIAN TRIALS

Stratford Evening Post, Volume I, Issue 74, 6 March 1931, Page 4

Stratford Evening Post With which is Incorporated "THE EGMONT SETTLER" Established 1890. FRIDAY, MARCH 6, 1931. MORE RUSSIAN TRIALS

THE Five-year programme in Russia is undoubtedly an heroic plan. The chief doubt that must be felt concerning it is whether it does not expect too much from human nature. A whole nation may consent to work at the bayonet's point, like conscripted soldiers —for that is what the plan really involves — for a while. But the best energies will slacken when the strain imposed on them is 4.00 intense or lasts too long; and five years—even four years—is a long period. The Russian was used to be known as an easy-going man. He is sweating now, as few workers sweat, for a hope and present rations. The rations are poor enough. The hope is that his miseries will be ended when the Five-year Plan achieves success. If he ever begins to doubt that it is capable of success the equivalent of the drill sergeant over him may appear an intolerable tyrant. The fears of the authorities for their plan are seen plainly in the strained efforts they are making to reinforce his hope with other stimulants. He is working, they tell him every day, not alone that he may work less, feed better, and be housed better when this inhuman concentration of toil is ended, but to defend the soil of Russia against invasion. They conjure up enemies, banded to invade her, on every frontier; that no excitement which will aid him. to work may be wanting they picture her as swarming with enemies within. A new great trial, which" will be thrilling as a spectacle, is being staged in Moscow. The last was wholly a farce, but its farce character may easily have passed unseen to the Russian masses, told nothing, or told only lies, of what happens beyond their borders. The accused professors all had their sentences commuted when they had played their part of raising the wildest resentment against France and Great Britain, made chief villains in a preposterous plot against worldleading Russia. That a main role in this conspiracy was assigned to a mouldy corpse mattered nothing to Krylenko's court. The prisoners in the new trial are 14 Socialists who entered the Bolshevik service as economic and technical specialists, and are charged with plotting with foreigners to wreck the present regime. The foreigners, no doubt, will be the most important parties to this trial—the more effectively because they will not be present. And when the trial is finished there will be another, unless it proves too much of a farce. It is not fitting that all the excitement should be confined to Moscow. In Minsk also, no doubt, there are slackers, and a third trial has been fixed for Minsk. Russia is a "Union of Soviet Republics," of which there are seven in all, White Russia, which has Minsk for its capital, being one of the number. Until recently the central authorities in Moscow allowed a good deal of selfgovernment to the regional Soviets, but. of late they have been tightening their control; and it is thought evidently that the central influence will be strengthened if White Russians, Little Russians and others who have resisted this centralisation can be held up to popular obloquy as allies of the external foe. Certain White Russian intellectuals, accordingly, made too prominent by their local patriotism, will be charged with plotting with Poland for an invasion of Russia. Slaves of the Five-year Plan, therefore, in the weeks ahead will have much more to think of Ciaii their industrial troubles. it is all very ingenious, l)"l the question will obtrude it. elf: How long can it last? davlitttor eya wdA aCok