THE MOSCOW MOCK TRIALS.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 13, 30 January 1937, Page 4

THE MOSCOW MOCK TRIALS.

To-day we have from Mosoow a brief reference to the State Prosecutor's address in the treason trials that have beefi going on there during tliK last week or more. The edrlief rdpdrts we have had of.the pfoceedings leave flo fdom Idf douht as tb what the verdict will be in this as in previbus trials of a like nature. In face of the fact that the acctised men have a/1 coiifessed to their gui'lt without any attempt to pailiaie it, one may only woixder why the pfosecutOr shduld glve five hours of his tiioie to a SaVage deiluriciatioii of them. HoWever, that seettis to he thfe Sovlet way, desigiied, bf coufSe, for the purpose of lliflaming popular resentment and of justifying equally savage sentencesFrom the heginnlng the trial, like those that haVe gone before it, has heeii sOmething of a tragic faree.. The result was always a foregone conblusion, whatever the evideiice might he. What, however, provideS the pUzBle for OtitSiders is as to what motives or influehces have actuated the accused men in their ready admissions of guilt that would seem to make aSsurance of their fate doubly stire. In this case the character of the confessions „took on a somewhat new notfei They appeaf to have been inade in a Spirit of exalted selfcdndeinhation Stich aS would warrant the most condign punishmentf Even skilled psychologists seem at a loss to accotint foi? this, ahd seientific suggestions of hypnotism and of subtle poiSdiiS afe bing advanced. The stfangest aspedt of the confeSsioiis is that all, without ekception, would seem to have been affected in the same wa.yk They have not been content with merely admiting theif crime but have also, with one 1 VOiOe, themselves teStified to its enormity. It is indeed diffiOiilt to knoW VSrhftt to make of this and it has led to the suggestion that these trials are really soinething more of a farce and less of a tragedy than appears on the face of them. This siiggestion is that, after all the great display has been made, the sentences imposed afe in reality never dafried out. It is", hdwever, by no means easy to accept this explanation, for with men so well known it wOuld be aliiiOSt itiipossible to spirit them away unlesS to a seclusion such as would for them mean a punishment even worse than death itseif. Whether tliis riddle will evef be fiatisfactoriiy solvfed for a curidliS publie it is hard to sUy, but fot the present at any tate it mtist bd left unartsweted. Meaiiwhile, hoWever, we may thank our lucky stars that We live under a regime where the eoufse ef justiee runs elear and undefiled befofe the publie eye. ^ Whdt inay, hOwOver, ,be noted is that the whole of the present trouhle centres round the perfednality of one who was Lenin's chief lieutneant in carryiiig thratigli the ^evolution' It is* Eeoii TfOtsky, Hickily for hifii not befote the Couft at all, who is the real villain of the pieee, whethef it be regafded a§ faree o£ tragedy, Having been foreed away from Sweden, whete his presence was felt to be a publie dangef, he has foiiiid asylum in fepublican MexicO; Thete he iS fbr the time being in feiative but by no means absolute safety. Ftom that haven of j?efuge Tretsky on his paft is bittefiy accusing Stalifi, Lenin's suecesSOr, 0 f haviiig betfayed all that Lenin and Trotsky himself had stood fof.- In his eyes the present Russian dictator is nothing less than. a renegade who has deserted the colours under whieh he gained his piade attd has forSwofn the principles and the doetrines whieh they . symbdiisea.' Pof this he may be said to have some faif gfOUiids when Skalin^s poiicy of economic eo-operation With "eapitalistic" Cduntries is Oontrasted with Leniii's long fight agaiiist thetii: Howevefj we ate in the foftunate position of being mere oniookefs upon the tfagic eomedy and may ieave 'the principal aetors to play it out to SUeh end as Pate may Shape for them*