SOVIET METHODS.

Wairarapa Age, 7 April 1933, Page 5

SOVIET METHODS.

Persecution of British Experts. OUTRAGEOUS THIRD DEGREE EXAMINATION. DEBATE ON EMBARGO BILL IN COMMONS. SIR J. SIMON’S STATEMENT. RUGBY, April 5. Extra time has been allotted for the debate in the House of Commons on the Bill giving the Government power to prohibit the importation of Soviet goods, but the Bill will be disposed of to-morrow night. Sir John Simon (Foreign Secretary), moving the second reading, said that notice to terminate the Anglo-Soviet Trade Agreement expired on April 17. The Government, he continued, desired to negotiate a new trading agreement, and the negotiations were proceeding when a very disturbing event occurred which was the subject of a White Paper. Russia had bought power plant from the Metropolitan Vickers Company extensively for the last ten years. It had received the highest praise from Soviet engineers, and under arrangements for technical assistance, of which the current one had five years to run, the company supplied some of their best and most skilful men for the purpose of installing, starting and running the plant. It had some bearing on the matter that the company’s experts might therefore expect to remain in Russia for another five years. No complaint was alleged as to. the operation of the agreement, and six months ago the Soviet placed au order for turbo-generator equipment to work at the highest combined temperature and pressure yet attempted in the world.

On the night of March 11 the Ogpu police searched the house where some of the engineers were living and arrested Messrs. Monkhouse and Thornton, who were removed at two o’clock in the morning to prison. Next morning Messrs. Cushny and MacDonald were similarly taken off to gaol. RUSSIANS SHOT WITHOUT TRIAL Nobody disputed the sovereign authority of any foreign government, but he was entitled to call attention to the circumstances immediately accompanying the arrests. At the same time the Ogpu police in the same prison not merely sentenced 35 Russians to death, but carried out the sentence there and then without, so far as was known, any trial, and certainly without putting into motion any ordinary judicial proceedings. “When the Foreign Office received a telegram that a certain number of British engineerswere in the hands of the Ogpu and another telegram came stating that the Ogpu had shot 35 people without trial, I thought I was entitled to. . .” The end of the sentence was lost in cheers. “Three or four days before the shooting of 35 Russians, the Soviet Press stated that 45 Russians had been arrested for the crime of agricultural sabotage.” Sir John added, amid laughter, that the deliberate propagation of weeds in the fields and the lowering of crop yields was one of the charges. Continuing, he said:—“The British Ambassador immediately inquired as to- the charge on which the British arrests were made, where the arrested persons were located, and whether they could be visited.’’ As it .was rest day, the answer was delayed till the following day. At the risk of incurring the accusation of prejudging an issue on which legal remedy had not been exhausted, the Ambassador told the Soviet Minister that if his Government wished to continue friendly relations they must refrain from being drawn by the police into trumpedup and fantastic accusations against a friendly, reputable British company. SOVIET STATEMENT. “The Soviet answer stated that the investigations made by the internal authorities regarding a series of unexpected breakdowns in the electrical station at- Moscow had established that the breakdowns were the result of tho wrecking activities of criminal elements whose object was to destroy electrical stations and put out of operation factories dependent upon them. It was added that the investigations showed the active participation by certain employees of Metropolitan Vickers.

NINETEEN HOURS’ QUESTIONING Mr. Monkhouse, with no charge made against him, was submitted to a first examination of nineteen hours by three teams of examiners in an effort to get him to commit himself to something. Although not informed of the charge, he was called upon to make a complete confession. He admitted visiting London two or three times yearly to keep his company informed of the state of business and the general situation in the Union, and the prospects- of further business. In Russia that was espionage. After referring to- a second examination lasting seventeen hours, Sir John Simon said that during his professional life he had studied many systems of law. No one could dispute that any testimony obtained by these means was rubbish. The House would be impressed -by Sir Esmond Ovey’s telegram, in which, after seeing these men, he said that, while they seemed in good health, their drawn expressions gave a definite impression of their having -been put through it. NO BASIS FOR FRIENDSHIP. The Government had not the slightest desire to sever friendly relations with. Russia, but let there be no mistake; there was no proper basis for really friendly relations if the story presented in the White Paper represented. the way in which men who went to- that country were treated. Ho knew of no way in which he could secure for these men a fair trial, but one thing they could do was to convince the authorities of the anxiety ielt here. He desired a trade agreement on proper terms, but -the real difficulty was that owing to the constiSoviet Russia and the fact that the Government was the sole producer and sole buyer, any applications ot any trade agreement under the most-favoured-nation treatment clause was distorted and ridiculous. At any moment the Soviet had power to stop goods coming f rom this country to

them without a breach of the most-favoured-nation clause. In the interests of these men and in order to> bring home - to the Soviet State the real gravity of the situation, the Government asked in this Bill for the power which the Soviet Government already had. The Government had not the slightest intention of making rfny statement as to the use of that power which could not possibly be used before April 18. If there was nothing else the House could do to help British subjects in peril, it at least could give to the Government of the country to which these men belonged the authority sought for in the Bill, and the House could ask the Government to fix it in their interest at their discretion. —(British Official Wireless.)