The Stratford Evening Post With which is Incorporated "THE EGMONT SETTLER" (Established 1890.) WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 1933 The Moscow Trials

Stratford Evening Post, Volume II, Issue 223, 19 April 1933, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post With which is Incorporated "THE EGMONT SETTLER" (Established 1890.) WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 1933 The Moscow Trials

NO objection can be raised to the Soviet authorities taking action against persons suspected of sabotage, and that absence of objection cannot be ignored simply because the suspected persons happen to be Englishmen. If Englishmen are found to be guilty of malpractices in Russia they have even less excuse than the Russians themselves for their misconduct, because the standard of social and personal morality is higher in England than it is in Russia, and Englishmen are accustomed to conform to the higher moral standard. Nevertheless, Englishmen in Russia will, and always have been, compelled to act in manner different from that which they have been accustomed to act in England. The Russian is so constituted that he would rather find reasons for not doing a thing than for doing it. To overcome this inertia, or holding back in the shafts, it has always been necessary to provide presents by way of lubrication. The giving of money to Russians to which the accused Englishmen have admitted, has not the same significance as would be the giving of money to higher members of the Civil Service in a British community. When, therefore, the prosecution bases its case upon the information given by self-confessed receivers of money — whether the confessions be tru e or false in this regard matters not for the moment —it is relying upon a very insecure foundation. The insecurity lies in the fact that the purpose for which the presents were given may not have been anti-social or antiSoviet, and in all probability were not, while if the receivers of the presents were under the impression that they were being paid to further a nefarious design they should have refused to have become implicated. When, however, a witness admits that the sight of money made "blood rush into his eyes" on one occasion, he is quite likely to suffer a similar experience if a like temptation confronts him to perjure himself to the detriment of the accused Englishmen. In fine, the evidence of selfconfessed bribe takers is wholly unreliable. In English jurisprudence and legal systems based thereon the unsupported evidence of an accomplice is deemed to be inadequate evidence on which to base a conviction. Soviet Russian law seems to be yet in such a fluid state that such a refinement has apparently not yet evolved, and the question as to whether a Sovereign State with an inadequately evolved legal system is to be interfered with in the application of that inadequate lejral system when such is apolied to the nationals of another countrv resident wi thin that Slate's territory, is a question of particular nicenes s which the conviction and sentencing of the British prisoner s, as reported to-day, will bring to a head.