CAUSE CELEBRE OPENS IN MOSCOW.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19236, 25 November 1930, Page 1

CAUSE CELEBRE OPENS IN MOSCOW.

international plot ALLEGED BY SOVIET. (United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. > (Received November 25, 12.30 p.m.) • MOSCOW, November 24. In connection with the trial to-mor-row of eight professors on charges of counter-revolutionary plotting, the confession is published of an emigre manufacturer, M. Krestavnikov. It alleges that two of the accused professors, M. Ramzin and M. Larichev, in 1928 interviewed Vickers’ engineers, who gave an assurance that Britain would co-oper ate with France in supplying money for munitions, and that they would gladly send a fleet to the Black Sea, for which Britain would be given a foothold in the Caucasus. Vickers' say that they never came in contact with either of the professors. In a letter to Soviet newspapers, a youth named Sitnin demands the execution of his father. Professor Sitnin, one of the accused, because “ My father is a class enemy, and stands in the ranks of the enemies and incehdiaries fomenting an anti-Soviet war.” On November 11 it was stated that a cause celebre was pending in Moscow, where eight professors attached to technical and military schools were charged with planning a war to overturn the Soviet and wreck the system. It is alleged that both M. Poincare and M. Briand participated in the preliminary conversations, the sequel to which was the organisation of an International Commission, including Britain and Poland, to carry out intervention. The -indictment against the professors mentions the names of Vickers, Ltd, Sir Henry Deterding and Mr Leslie Urquhart. ~