VERBAL TORTURES

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 505, 12 April 1933, Page 5

VERBAL TORTURES

(Press Assn.-

• v"r7 s . BRITISH PRIlSONERS UNDER M ETHIRD DEGREE FOR 20 HOURS ' • SECOND WHITE PAPER

— By Telegraph — Copyright).

Rec. April 11, 5.5 p.m. London, April 10. Another 20 page White Paper has .been issued containing the despatches of Sir Esmond Ovey and ' Mr> W. Strang, . a Counsellor of the Emhassy, to Sir John Simon, from March 19 to April 7. There are astounding revelations of the Ogpu methods of justice under which the various accused men were examined separately daily, sometimes for 20 hours. They were told of alleged confessions of their f riends . and threatened with dire consequences if they did not similarly confess. The White Paper is also important in indicating the. charges upon which the Ogpu is likely to rely at Wednesday's trial. Mr. Monkhouse was shown a written statement in Mr. Thornton's haiidwriting admitting a long list of small presents and monetary payments made over a decade. The. items were trifling, being for clothes, etc., given to Russian engineers and technicians, and the gifts are now being used to bolster up charges of inciting sahotage and espionage. Mr. Monkhouse's impression is that the alleged sabotage occurrences were at Zlatovsk. A feature of . the aecusations against Mr. Nordwall, is that he was spending money for wrecking purposes. He was eonfronted by Lobanoff, a Russian engineer, who was obviously brought from prison. In Mr. Nordwall's presence he confessed he received sums of 2000 to 3000 roubles for wrecking activities, and admitted that he had actually been engaged in wrecking. Mr. Nordwall replied that Lobanoff's statements were fantastic. Lobanoff admitted that he was instructed not to wreck the Metropolitan Viclcers plant, but to devote his attention to' other companies in Ivanova district. Mr. Nordwall denied this. Ogpu Methods As an example of the Ogpu methods Sir Esmond Ovey quoted a story of a Russian woman who was instruct7 ed to persuade Mr. Monkhouse to undertake secret work, but the woman refused. Another example of the Ogpu methods was that Mr. Cushny in October last, was approached and asked to undertake a secret work unknown to his firm in connection with the supply of an electrical plant for a Soviet power station, being offered 250 dollars a month. Mr. Cushny refused. The strangest revelation referred to Mr. Thornton, who was born in Russia, and who is generous by nature, but may have possibly been indiscreet in helping Russians. Mr. Strang describes Mr. Thornton as worn out, having been in-

terrogated d'aily since his arrest. On one occasion, after being questioned for 20 hours, without a break he was eonfronted by Mr. MacDonald a fellow prisoner, who accused Mr. Thornton of engaging. military and economic spies. Mr. Thornton said that when his amazement began to embarrass Mr. MacDonald, his examiners made Thornton sit down with his back to MacDoriald', who "looked awful." Gustav, a friend of MacDonald made a similar statement when eonfronted with Thornton, saying the latter was being paid 10,000 roubles for espionage purposes. Until Mr. Thornton's release, the Ambassador, Mr. Strang and Mr. Monkhouse believed he had written an extraordinary lengthy statement covering practically every activity of the Victers Company during a decade. They presume the severe gruelling redueed Mr. Thornton to mental apathy. False Confession Mr. Strang suggested to Sir John Simon that Mr. Thornton broke down and made a false confession under the well known forms of Ogpu pressure, particularly the threat to expose his alleged relations with Madame Kutosova, the secretary to the company. Mr. Strang's last cable, after he had seen Mr. Thornton, revealed a different state of affairs. For two days Mr. Thornton's examiners tried to make him admit he received money from the British Consulate. He was then told that Madame. Kutosova had testified to this effect. She eonfronted him, evidently in a pitiable state of terror, and reeled off aecusations against Mr. Thornton, in a manner suggesting she was acting und-er compulsion, having been broken by the usual threats regarding relatives.