Storm of Protest

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 401, 9 July 1928, Page 9

Storm of Protest

‘•RUSSIAN BARBARITY” Donetz Death Sentences (United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian Press Association) Times Cable.

Reecl. 12.10 p.m. THE Don Basin sentences ha An influential petition, s dent, Dr. Loebe, and an ex-C sent to the Soviet, pointing the death sentences is eoutrar •• Meanwhile, the executions the hearing of the appeals. Th© Berlin correspondent of “The Times” says the Socialist newspaper “Vorwaerts,” which represents the dominant element in the present Government, expresses horror at the death sentences passed at the Donetz trial in the Don Basin, Kussia. It compares the Soviet’s barbarity with the merciful instincts of German Socialism which, it says, hopes soon completely to abolish the death penalty. The general view in Berlin is that the relations between Germany and Russia have suffered severely, and will not be immediately healed by the release of the accused German engineers. The lesson drawn is that the negotiations for a revision of the trade treaty, which were suspended by the arrests of the three Germans, must in future be directed chiefly to obtaining'

BERLIN. Sunday, ve aroused a storm of protest, igned by the Reichstag Prcsi’haneellor. Dr. Wirth, is being out that the carrying out of •y to the dictates of humanity, s have been postponed, pending adequate guarantee for German industry. A situation in which German engineers can be imprisoned for months on trumpery charges and extravagant accusations can be made against German firms is regarded as an impossible one. Unless satisfactory assurances are given it is felt that industrial cooperation between the two countries must inevitably suffer. A cablegram from Moscow published on Saturday, stated: —The Court at Donetz. in the coal-mining region of the Don Basin, has sentenced 11 of the men charged with sabotage and anti-Soviet activities to death, and 34 others to terms of imprisonment, ranging from 10 years to one year. The German engineers, Otto and Meyer, were acquitted, and the other German, Bradstieber, was sentenced to one year’s imprisonment.