VITRIOLIC ATTACK

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 456, 14 June 1937, Page 5

VITRIOLIC ATTACK

DENUNCIATION OF TRAITORS ATTEMPT TO DESTROY SOVIET REGIME 4 Restoration Of Capitalists And Landlords Press Association —Copyright. (Received 11.30 a.m.) Moscow, June 13. The blunt charge thajt the executed generals h'ad attempted to murder leaders of the Communist Party and the Government was made by General Voroshilov in a message to the Red Army. He added that .the ultimate goal of the accused w<as to destroy the Soviet regime and restore that of the landlords and .capitalists. “They stopped at nothing to achieve this treasonable object, and tried /to undermine the might of the Red l Army,” he asserted. “In .preparation of its defeat in the forthcoming war they were awaiting the help of military circles of a foreign Power, and in exchange were ready to cede Ukraine and dismember our country.” Voroshilov said he hlad reported to the War Council between June Isit

and' 4th that the Secret Police had discovered a treasonable counterrevolutionary military Fascist organisation which for a long 'time h’ad carried out wrecking activities and espionage in the Re>d Army. The list of conspirators. was not exhausted when the Zinoviev-Kamenev

group was shot. “The former Vice Commissar, Gamiarnik, was a traitor and a coward. Fearing to appear before the Court he committed suicide. Others, when faced with in,controvertible proof, confessed all.”

Alleging that those executed had direct connection with General Staffs of foreign countries, Voroshilov concludes: “This is not the first time that the Court has scourged those carrying on treasonable work under the command of that bestial Fascist traitor Trotsky.

GENERALS SHOT . SOVIET DRAMA ENDS . Mongols Summoned To Protect Stalin Press Association —Copyright. Berlin, June 12. Sentence of death by shooting has already been carried out on the eight Russian military chiefs, Marshal Tukhachevsky and Generals Kork, Yakir, Üborevich, Putna, Gideman, Feldman and Primakov, following their trial on charges of treason and espionage on behalf of a foreign Powers, reports the Moscow correspondent of the Allgemeine Zeitung. An official communique at Moscow has also announced the executions of the generals. No details are given, but it is believed that they were shot by an executioner and not by a firing squad. The bodies were cremated. The newspaper Pravda has lifted the veil, disclosing that Germany 'is the power for which the accused operated. It states “The wiles of Fascist intelligence services will not avail them. Any attempt to attack the Red Army would be the beginning of the end of the rule of Dr. Goebbels and his like.” “After the indictment was read all eight accused answered Judge Ulrich’s question ‘Are you guilty?’ by declaring ‘Yes, fully guilty,’ ” says an official communique. “The accused have been degraded from military rank and sentenced to the highest measure of social defence —shooting,”

it continues. ‘Under Soviet law the sentence must be carried out within 24 hours.” The grim trial of the eight military, chiefs, who were charged with espionage and wrecking, was held in complete secrecy. There was neither State prosecutor nor defence. The court consisted of Judge M. Ulrich and eight army leaders, who sentenced to death their eight equally or more famous comrades in arms. Strangely enough nothing was heard about the rewards these famous Red Army chiefs allegedly received for thus attempting to destroy the great armed force, which they for so long were crediting with creating. No motive other than overpowering hate of of the Soviet system is indicated either in official communiques or in leading articles in the official Press. The Daily Telegraph’s Moscow correspondent says that these generals all had in Russia great power, wealth, magnificent palaces, summer resorts and splendid cars which they acquired for services to the revolution. Class hostility cannot explain the strange

mad hate now attributed to them. Marshal Tukhachevsky served during the war in the Imperial Guard, but Generals Üborevich and Yakir are respectively the sons of a poor peasant and a poor Jewish craftsman. It cannot be too strongly emphasised that these eight officers until recently held all the key commands in European Russia. S-talin, in fear of his life, has brought to Moscow his most faithful regiments of Cossacks and Mongols to protect him, says the Moscow correspondent of the Daily Mail. Tukhachevsky was allegedly betrayed by one of his numerous girl friends, who was a secret agent of a foreign power and was caught by the O.G.P.U. Although the proceedings were secret, it is believed that the wives of Tukhachevsky and Putna were brought to the court room to testify against their husbands. The Times Riga correspondent says that it is an important consideration that most of the prisoners had the reputation of being bitter haters of Germany. Several fought against Germany for some years. The Times Vienna correspondent says Professor Bppinger was summoned to Moscow to treat Stalin for heart trouble last week.