MOSCOW TRIAL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 201, 26 August 1936, Page 7

MOSCOW TRIAL

PRISONERS’ WEAK STATE MOSCOW, Aug. 24. I For what it is worth, there is a suggestion that some of the condemned men may have their sentences commuted in consequence of their having made a full confession. The final scenes were a pathetic revelation of the accused men’s abject weakness. Crowds thronged the streets around the Court, n which at 3 a.m. M. Ulrich almost laconically read the verdict. The prisoners were virtually in a state of collapse. Their eyes were bloodshot and they were scarcely able to stand. Earlier in the session, the prosecutor (M. Vishinsky), in a five hours’ hysterical harangue, described the accused as not tigers and not lions, but merely Fascists’ police dogs. Zinoviev, a cringing plaintive figure and no longer a master of oratory, falteringly pleaded to be shot. He declared himself not worthy to remain alive. He admitted that he had been a bad Bolshevist and that his trial was fair. Kamenev, who is Trotsky’s brother-in-law, had tears streaming down his face as he admitted that the death sentence would be justified. He was not frightened of death, but wanted to warn the country against Trotsky. Terrorism would not be c.estroyed while Trotsky was alive. Kamenev finally pledged his sons to fight and died under Stalin’s banner. “If 1 failed to serve the Fatherland in my lifetime let me serve it in death.” Th? accused were described as babbling unnaturally, as though overeager to expose their crimes. They | almost hypnotically affirmed that they | had no right to defend themselves. ■ Only General Smirnov refused to con- | fess his guilt. He only admitted his moral responsibility. One of the accused, Bermanjurin, declared that his only regret was that Trotsky was not in the dock with them. High quarters interpret Tomsky’s suicide as inspired by his desire to shield highly-placed officials. TROTSKY'S COMMENT. i END OF AN EPOCH. OSLO, Aug. 24. Safe in sanctuary, Trotsky says that Tomsky’s suicide marks the end of one historical epoch and the beginning of a new one. Lenin is dead and five out of the seven remaining of the original Political Bureau have been sentenced to death. Trotsky added that the second Kiroff case had been organised because doubts arose as to the genuineness of the first. He suggests that the Government will not be bound .by the Ogpu’s promises that Zinoviev and Kemenev would save their lives if they confessed. RUSSIAN ALLEGATIONS. GERMAN POLICE REPLY. BERLIN, Aug. 24. German secret police headquarters describe the allegation at the Moscow trial that Gestapo was involved in the conspiracy against Stalin, as too ridiculous to comment upon.