The Russian Arrests Any Englishman is assumed to be innocent
till he is proved to be guilty. An Englishman charged with an offence in Russia under the present regime will be assumed innocent by all his countrymen until evidence impregnable against all cross-examination by competent counsel in open court establishes his guilt irresistibly. No one, in fact, believes for a moment that the six Englishmen charged in Moscow with sabotage in connexion with the electrical supply plants where they are working as employees of Metropolitan-Vickers are guilty of any offence whatever, and the British Government will be assured of undivided public support in the urgent representations it is making to ,the Soviet Government. It is never easy to discover where the ultimate seat of authority in such matters lies in Russia. In this case the Ogpu, or political police, have pretty certainly acted independently, and it is a sinister fact that this sinister body has just been given, by special decree, power not merely of arrest but of summary .trial and execution. The Soviet Government itself is no doubt, considerably embarrassed by the episode at a time when trade agree- ments, with this country are .under.. negotiation. The demand for an early and a public. trial, with as full facilities for competent defence as would be available in .a country where the machinery of justice moves normally, must be backed by every means of pressure the British Ambassador in Moscow can command.
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