PROFESSORS ON TRIAL.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20099, 1 December 1930, Page 11

PROFESSORS ON TRIAL.

METHODS AT MOSCOW. COMMENT ON THE PROCEEDINGS (CHIED PRESS ASSOCIATION— BT ELECT JUG TELiaBAPH—COPYRIGHT.) (Received December Ist, 12.25 a.m.) LONDON, November 30. Since the Moscow trial began, everybody is speculating why the accused have so fulsomely confessed, and seem almost to glory in their guilt, and asking why the proceedings are so prolonged, since in Western countries * plea of guilty leaves only formalities. The first correspondent to touch on this aspect is the "Observer's 7 ' representative at Moscow, who, in commenting on the conspicuous lack of any attempt by the defendants to prove their innocence, says: "One is sometimes amazed at the composure wherewith they incriminate themselves for capital offences, and when the whole articulate nation is clamouring for execution." The correspondent proceeds: "It is a matter for conjecture whether their attitude originates in fatalism or relief after strain. There is no suggestion of repentance after guilt or hope that a full confession will bring a reprieve." Despite the confession, Krilenko relentlessly proceeds with liis crossexamination. Marcel Cachin, a French Communist Deputy, who is present at the trial, in a message to the Paris "Humanite," of which he is editor, says: "The whole story seems to resolve itself into little more than saying that the Russians and other refugees in Paris were occasionally received by certain French officers and Ministers, and flattered themselves into belioving that they had secured French promises of support for armed intervention against the Soviet." NEGOTIATIONS IN ENGLAND. (Received November 30th, 5.5 p.m.) MOSCOW, November 29. The examination of tha accused professors and engineers has continued. Fedotov declared that he joined a group of textile engineers, but later realised that they were counterrevolutionaries. He did not break his connexion, and 'when the Soviet sent him to England in 1925, he reached an agreement with a group of manufacturers who promised to pay him 200,000 roubles, while emigres promised to pay 50,000 roubles to a group of engineers with which he was associated.