DEATH PENALTY

Stratford Evening Post, Volume II, Issue 222, 18 April 1933, Page 5

DEATH PENALTY

DEMANDED FOR RUSSIANS I

Trial at Moscow Nearing End "CRIMES WORSE THAN i THOSE OF ENGLISHMEN" Prosecutor's Summing Up Press Association —Copyright * Moscow, April 16—In the ■' course of his summing-up at the • trial tonight, the prosecutor, M. M Vishinsky, claimed the accused Russians proved traitors and he therefore demanded the death penalty, He emphasised the crimes •of the Russians were more hein- | vus than those of tire Englishmen. This is taken to mean that he will not demand the death penalty for the Englishmen. The city was cloaked in white after an overnight snowstorm when the trial of the British engineers, charg«<t with sabotage and espionage, resume*.!. Monkhouse's counsel, M. Nicholas Komodoff, requested the court's ruling as to the admissibility of 10 technical questions submitted by Monk.house. M. Ulrich, president of the court, ■disallowed two referring to Metropolitan Vickers machinery, declaring emphatically that only individuals were on, trial, '.he company was not. "Those answers don't satisfy me," cried Monkhouse, springing to his feet after the black-bearded Slav judge's replies to his questions. The answers included an assertion that a turbine at Ivanovo had failed to fulfil the guarantee and the Vic-ken:' employees had neglected to correct defective blades. V* "I would like to argue some of 'the points," continued Monky nouse. "You should have notified Arcos if we did not fulfil the guarantees." j M. Vishinsky, the prosecutor, I entered with a bulky brief case, yawned, glanced at his .Watch, drank a glass of Russian tea ' brought by his guard, and then » began a perfervid speech. 1 "We are approaching the end of the trial. We snail soon have accurate results. Our enemies have tried to press us too hard; they have lost patience. I hope that the result is a blow to them; they forgot that they were dealing with u Soviet which will not allow anyone to interfere m Ho internal affairs." M. Vishinsky, nis face more and more hectic, punctuated his sentences with downward cliops of his left hand as he contradicted the .English views of Russian justice. He alleged that Britain had practised third degree in India and in the Baillie-Stewart case. He added: "We have the only true justice in the world." The session was adjourned at 5 p.m. Class Justice When the trial was resumed tonight the grim red-visaged M. Visninsky, wearing tlie Order of the Red Banner, began a speech urging the importance of the trial' in the eyes of the word. He piled adjectives iu denunciation of enemies. Referring to the British attacks. M. Vishinsky said: "We never concealed the class nature of our justice. Our courts defend the proletariat, theirs defend the capitalist class. MonKhou.se must remember he is here not as a representative of Vickers, but as an individual accused or espionage, sabotage, and bribery." Toward the close of the session the accused listened apathetically to the weakening rhetoric of M. Vishinsky, who fell back on technicalities. He discussed the meaning of espionage, declaring the Soviet interpretation corresponded to that in the English legal dictionary.

It was decided to conclude the j summing up tomorrow, after which i the last pleas of accused will follow the defence counsels' speeches. The , verdict is expected late on Tuesday j or early Wednesday. M. Vishinsky spoke four hours, j He was never at a loss ror a word or-i phrase and addressed the bench as comrades. i i The newspaper Izvestia's offi- j cial version of the conversations between Sip Esmond Ovey, Brit- i ish Ambassador, and M. LitvinOff, Foreign Commissar, demon- j strates the earnestness of Sir I Esmond's efforts on behalf of the | accused Vickers engineers. M. ; Litvinoff promised them special liberties, but declared that the I British Government's alarums l and excursions would not help them, while further pressure would neutralise his efforts on their behalf. Sympathy with Russia's resentment at the sabotage outweighed Mr. Stanley Bald- j win's statements. The storm in the teacup could not dismay Russia, and nothing could stop the j trial, and, therefore, Sir Esmond need not trouble to read the terms to his Government. j This neutralised Sir Esmond's last effort. i