SOVIET MASS TRIAL.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20106, 9 December 1930, Page 11

SOVIET MASS TRIAL.

IA POLITICAL DEMONSTRATION. WHAT " THE TIMES " SAYS. (UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION EIA-CTRIC TELEGRATII —CO I' YItIG HT •) (Received December St 1). 5.35 p.m.) LONDON. December 7. i "Tlie Tunes." in a leader cuniinentiiifi on the Moscow trial, says: ''lt was clear from the beginning that the trial was intended to be not a judicial enquiry but a great political demoiistrn tion, in order to divert to foreign Governments the odium lor winch the privations suffered by the Russian people is bringing upon tin; Communist system. The whole of the proceedings have been elaborately stage-managed with a view to producing the greatest effect in Russia and abroad. The chief effect upon foreign opinion has been to strengthen the conviction that an oligarchy which employ*, such methods to maintain itself must be desperately afraid o! the power slipping from its grasp. It may well be that those who arranged the trial wanted to prepare public opinion for a foreign war a« a possible issue out of its difficulties. The Soviet Press has been busier than usual for months past in inciting its readers against foreign Governments and prodieting their collapse.'"— "The Times" Cables. EXECUTIONS TO BE PRIVATE. (Received December 9th, 1.25 a.m.) MOSCOW. December 8. The Court announces that the condemned professors will be executed privately and will be shot within three days, iinle-s thev succeed in an appeal to the Central Executive Committee. SENTENCES PRONOUNCED. DECISIONS GREETED WITH APPLAUSE. MOSCOW, December 7. Sentences have been pronounced in the trial of the eight professors and engineers who were charged with conspiracy against the Soviet.. Ramain. Laricliev, Charnovskv, Kalin; kofi, and Fedotov were sentenced to death, and Kupri.mov, Ochkin, and :sitnin weie sentenced to ten years' penal servitude, in addition to deprivation of property. Xo appeal is permissible in any case.

Groat excitement marked the close of th ■ trial, and the sentences were greeted with continuous applause, the excited Court crowd apparently expecting the prisoners to be shot the same night. Meetings were held in the chief Sovu t centres during the week-end, .it which orators harangued the crowds, promising that the Government would tench foreign Governments tliat it Is futile to plot with the internal enemies ot' the Soviet.