CHARGED WITH SPYING

Evening Star, Issue 19658, 10 September 1927, Page 4

CHARGED WITH SPYING

THE SOVIET TRIAL EVIDENCE BY TORTURE. - ; Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright,

LONDON. September 8. The Riga correspondent of tlio ‘ Daily Mail ’ states that, despite careful stage management, the trial of twenty-six alleged British spies is attracting, little attention, according to Leningrad newspapers, which report that the population is more concerned with the recently-instituted ration cards for bread, flour, sugar, petroleum, tea, and other necessities. Most of the evidence is based on defendants’ alleged confessions. Many were imprisoned and tortured for months before they consented to sign statements admitting writing political reports for the British naval officer, Boyce, to whom they were transmitted through the Finnish Consulate. The Cheka's tortures have driven many prisoners insane. _ Others, believing the inquisitor’s promise of leniency, often sign documents which later prove their death warrant.

A Dutchman named Huycr, the Bolshevists’ star witness, is a former Csarist officer, and alleges that Boyce forwarded funds to blow up several destroyers in the Soviet’s Baltic fleet. The tcstimony of other witnesses was equally ridiculous. Persons attending the trial remark on their white faces and cowed demeanor.