INSULL TRAPPED

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 152, 29 June 1934, Page 3

INSULL TRAPPED

TRICKED BY THE TURKS HOW AMERICA RECLAIMED HIM. AN ACT OUTSIDE LAW, The circumstances which ha\e led to the extradition of Air. Samuel Insull, the accused American financier, from Turkey are, to say the least, peculiar, says the Constantinople correspondent I of the Alanchester Guardian. The advocates whom the Chicago magnate engaged immediately after being trapped in Turkey, a Turk, Essad Bey, and a British bamster-at-law with a Turkish barrister’s diploma, Mr. Alexander Alaugo, say that there is practically no point in the proceedings which does not show one or more legal Haws. They hold that both international Jaw and the Turkish penal code nave been violated. The Turkish authorities retort that nothing at all has been violated as the whole action has been taken executively and not judicially. The Angora Cabinet decided io put Mr. Samuel Insull outside the country, in deference to the American demand, I and to hand him to the American Department of Justice as a favour. They uid it, and nothing will persuade them that all the measures, strange as they were, which they took were “illegal.” .Mr. Samuel Insull was practically handed over by decree, and to Angora a decree ranks above le;<al codes. What Air. Samuel Insull expected when his chartered ship's captain put. I ho helm towards Istanbul and Turkish waters is unknown. Perhaps he expected that Turkish laws would be even more complicated in their application .han the Greek laws which had enabled him to avoid extradition for two years. If so, he reckoned without the Republic. Republican Turkey does not let herself be trammelled by the imbroglios of the law. Her leaders find a way of doing what they decided to do. It was an absolutely record speed extradition action, that was taken, an absolutely express, get-out-quick decree that was applied. Air. Samuel Insull was simply .lazed by the thunderbolt measures which whirled him into the Stamboul detention-house from the Greek ship Alaiotis on which he had innocently arrived. A Fatal Error. It will probably never be quite cleared up why the Alaiotis stopped in the Bosphorus and thus gave opportunity for the Turks to act against her passenger. There seems to be little doubt that obstacles were piled up with subtle manoeuvre so that she simply could not get away in time. She had announced at Ghanak, the issue of the Dardanelles, that she was going through the Bosphorus in transit to a Rumanian port with her famous hunted passenger. In accordance with transit rights she stopped in the Bosphorus to take on water and food. It was a fatal error. She stopped; but she found she could not get away again. She provisioned and put up her flags signify mg departure. But she did not depart. There were many goings to and fro of the Turkish authorities. They asserted the quarantine rights which they have over the Bosphorus under the international status of that strait. It was alleged that the passenger of the Alaiotis was not well enough to proceed. The ship would not go without him. Thus a masterful use of pretext and delay lost the Alaiotis her transit status, and sho became definitely established in Turkish territorial waters. Action against her passenger in deference to the American demand was nowmuch easier and less open to question. But. there was no extradition treat} — or, rather, the Angora National Assembly had not ratified it yet. This was allowed to make no difference. The extradition w r as demanded and granted as an act of comity between tne Turkish and /Ymerican Department of Justice and not under a treaty. It was to be an extra-treaty extradition. The Angora Cabinet decreed that it should take place. (The Assembly also hurriedly ratified the treaty as a sort of second-line defence). At this point, however, and as an element in the procedure, the law was brought in. Air. Samuel Insull was already watched in his cabin oy Turk-

:sh detectives and the Afaioris was! circled round by police boats. But' now, after Angora had got all in order j for executive action, Air. Bamucl In ' sull was forcibly disembarked and 1 taken before a Turkish Criminal Court. ■ There was no special formality. No one knew beforehand that he was to bo disembarked and interrogated.! Only a few nondescript Turks pressed , into the little courtroom, an ex-School | in which Mr. Samuel Insull was seated at a child’s school-desk. There was i no proper interpreter; a change person: from the crowd knowing Turkish and. English was called forward to interpret. The session was simple. After interrogating the Chicago magnate, somewhat ironically, on his “present residence’’ and hearing his protest that hoi had been taken by force from the' Greek ship Alaiotis, the Court pro- ; nounced that he was an American citi- I zen and that he w r as accused in his country of commonlaw offences, and’ added that he was free to gt,. The interpreter translated it that he I was not an American citizen and that; he was free! Air. Samuel Insull was im- i mensely pleased. He thanked the Court. They invited him to rest a little till the crowd dispersed. They ' said that he w r a.s free to go back to his ship or anywhere. He looked round) hopefully for the Alaiotis captain. He

; thought he was now able to go on witM ■ his interrupted voyage. i That was not the meaning of the ! Court’s decision. He was indeed free ] to go. But as soon as he did go ho was surrounded once more by tne Turkish detectives and police, and was not taken where he wanted, but to a hotel l in Stamboul. There it was explained ; to him that he was still under deten- • lion—ami this time on Turkish soil. ; The manoeuvres had succeeded. The ■last Greek shipboard “rights” of the '■ fugitive were lost, \ In twenty lour hours the Court’s deI rision had been reported to Ajigora f (where it was foreseen), Angora had I ordered action to be taken on it and the extradition to be proceeded with, I and »Alr. Samuel Insull had been arI rested and put in the Stanboul prison. ; He was absolutely bewildered at the j topsy-turviness of the moves which had I landed him there. His advocates are i perfectly clear that as the Turkish | Court gave a decision, that decision is ! liable to revision, and they have put in their appeals and protests along all the ' legal lines laid open by the strange i happeuings. But the Turkish author!I ties deny that the action has been judiI cial and so repel all talks of appeals. ! Mr. Samuel Insull has been extradicted I above the law and so that advocates ! can do nothing.