ENGLISHMEN IN RUSSIA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 83, 8 April 1933, Page 13 (Supplement)

ENGLISHMEN IN RUSSIA

The decision of the Soviet to proceed with the trials of English engineers al leged to have been guilty of sabotage raises at once the question of the safety of foreigners who accept employment in Russia. The Soviet Ministers assert that they have sufficient evidence against the Englishmen warrant their trial, and if the British authorities were satisfied that the trial I would be a fair one its result would be awaited with confidence. Unfortu.i ately the efforts of the Russian secret police in manufacturing evidence in (quasipolitical charges have been proved beyond question, and the refusal to allow the Englishmen now accused legal assistance by one, of their own countrymen docs not add to British confidence in Russian justice. If the truth is being told of failure of the much talked of “Five Year Plan’’ in Russia, of quarrels between the leaders of the Soviet, of difficulties with the peasants, who are finding there is not much actual difference in working for a private land-owner than as producers for “community-owned land,’’ and of a shortage of food materials there if every reason why the Russian Government should stage a defiance of a “capitalistic country” like Great Britain. To create the belief that national rights arc being attacked by other nations is a well-known device for detracting attention from domestic problems and misrule. Jt has already been tried with some success in Russia, though the attitude towards British workmen there should cause some perturbation to those who believed that in the atmosphere of Communism, and in Communism alone, can the true brotherI hood of mankind develop.—Taranaki Daily News.