The Moscow Trial In Moscow eight professors and engineers are
on trial for treasonable activities against the Government. The trial is being conducted with the customary and very unjudicial Accompaniment of spotlights and cinema cameras. On the opening day there was a demonstration by about a million persons (official estimate) carrying posters with such inscriptions as "Down with the accom- plices of intervention" and "We demand a firm attitude from the proletarian Court." This pressure upon the judges, if not organized by the Soviet authorities, is at least sanctioned by them. In any case it is the detestable fruit of years of mass-suggestion by the rulers. It may even be that young Russians believe that they are now looking upon "justice." Some of the prisoners have read to the Court their "confessions." They state that they helped eminent persons in Great Britain and France to plot a war against Russia. Various names of plotters are mentioned—Mr. Churchill, Colonel Lawrence, direc- tors of Messrs. Vickers, M. I3riand, M. Poineare. There is only one explanation of these absurd " confessions " ; they have been extracted by threats or torture. The bare accounts in the newspapers are sickening to read. We trust that Mr. Henderson will promptly do what he can—by simple denial of fabrications—to aid the miser- able victims of the Soviet's need for scapegoats.
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