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Murder’ world reaction to execution —
of Rosenbergs in detiance of pleas

One day after their fourteentth wedding anniversary, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed in the electric chair at Sing Sing prison on
a trumped-up “atomic spy’’ charge which would have been thrown out of court in any democratic country in the world except the United States.

In Britain, the London Daily Worker expresséd the reaction of millions of people throughout the world in a single word headline:

“MUR

DER!’ And in the United States, Emanuel H. Bloch, the Rosenbergs’ chief defense counsel who fought to the last minute to save them, exclaimed,

*“America is shamed forever.”

Up to the very moment the Rosenbergs walked the “‘last mile’’-—from their cells to the eeetide chamber—individuals Aa organizations of
Top U.S. atomic scientist
sure Rosenbergs convicted

every political shade in Britain, |

France, Italy, Canada, India and
virtually every. other . country
urged President Eisenhower to
grant executive clemency. Their
pleas went unheeded.

The impressive last minute ap-
peals included these:

FRANCE: In an action without
precedent the head of the French
State, President Vincent Auriol,
appealed for a reprieve of the
Rosenbergs. Other public figures
urging clemency included Edouard.
Herriot, president of the- French.
Chamber of Deputies; Leon Jouh-
aux, leader of the conservative
labor federation; Professor Francis
Perin, a conservative called in to
replace Dr. Frederic Joliot-Curie
as chief of the French atomic re-
search agency.

ITALY: Mayor Salvatore Rebec-
chini of Rome, on behalf of the
entire city council, appealed to
President Eisenhower . for clem-
ency. A commercial press service
reported: “Italian newspapers of
all political affiliations joined
forces to ask President Eisenhower
to grant mercy to the Rosenbergs.”

BRITAIN: The powerful Trans-
port and General Workers, Union
and the National Union“of Rail-
waymen, representing 1,700.000
workers, sent an appeal for clem-
ency. ;

Prior to these eleventh-hour
appeals many world figures had
petitioned Eisenhower to show
mercy, including Pope Pius Xil,
Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, Dr.
Albert Einstein, Dr. Harold C.
Urey, and Hon. Charles Raven,
chaplain to Queen Elizabeth II.

From noon until 7.20 p.m. on
Friday the Rosenbergs were al-
lowed to sit near each other in
the women’s wing of the prison,
and talk. They were separated by
“a wire screen.

Two FBI men stood nearby,
hoping for a last-minute “confes-
sion” from the doomed couple. But
‘Ethel and Julius Rosengerg had
given their firm and clear answer
to the U.S. government’s call for
a “confession” on a previous oc-
easion, when they said:

“We are innocent. This is the
whole truth. To forsake this
truth is to pay too high a price
even for the priceless gift of
life—for life thus purchased we

could not live out in dignity and
self-respect.”

’ At 8.02 p.m. Julius Rosenberg
entered the death chamber, turn-
ed without guidance te the elec-
tric chair, and sat down quietly.

A few minutes later, physicians
examined him, and one said: ‘T
pronounce this man dead.”

_. Ethel Rosenberg entered the
ehamber three minutes later, look-
ing calm and composed. Before
sitting in the- chair, she turned
and embraced Mrs. Helen Evans,
ee matron. The two women

_ At 8.16 p.m. she was pronounced

Golden Gate Cafe

186 E. Hastings St.
“OPEN FOR SERVICH”

JULIUS ROSENBERG

ETHEL ROSENBERG

upon ‘perjured testimony’

The United States’ top atomic scientist, Nobel Prize winner Professor Harold, Urey, asked for 4
special interview with President Eisenhower before the Rosenbergs were executed because he was convinced
the case against the Rosenbergs was based on perjured evidence.

Professor Urey disclosed that he had previously tried to get an interview with U.S. Attorney- -
General Brownell and it was only because he was unable to get it that he tried to see President Hisen-

hower.

He sent the following telegram
from Chicago to Eisenhower. “The
case against the Rosenbergs out-
rages logic and justice. It depends
upon the testimony of Greenglass
and his wife, both confessed spies
and alleged accomplices of the
Rosenbergs.

“Greenglass is supposed to have
revealed to the Russians the sec-
rets of the atom; bomb.

_“Though the information sup-
posed to have been transmitted
could have been important, a
man of Greenglass’ capacity is
wholly incapable of transmitting
the physics, chemistry and ma-
thematics of the atom bomb to
anyone.

“He and his wife were the only
ones to connect the Rosenbergs

with atomic espionage.

‘New evidence makes even
more plain that the prosecution’s
case depends upon the blowing
up of patently perjured testi-
mony.”

PROF. HAROLD UREY
“Patently perjured testimony”

Pickets at U.S.

consulate

in city unfurl black flags
when execution announced

When the sad news, “The Rosenbergs have been executed!” reached the picket line outside the
American consulate on Howe Street last Friday evening, a low moan swept the crowd and eyes were

blinded with tears.

Solemnly, leaders of the Giemengy Vigil unfurled black flags, and the picket line moved east
along Hastings Street to Victory Square and on to Pender Auditorium, where a brief memorial meet-

ing was held.

Profound grief at the death of
the Rosenbergs was united with
a firm resolve to continue the fight
for justice for other U.S. ‘victims
of the cold war, and to continue
the fight to bring the truth of the
frame-up of the Rosenbergs to the
Canadian people.

In a short poem written py
Ethel Rosenberg in Sing Sing
prison earlier this year, entitled
“If We Die” and dedicated to her
two sons, Michael and Robert, she
herself set the tone for the battle
for justice and truth that must go
on:

“Mourn no more, my sons, no
more

why the lies and smears were
framed,

the tears we shed, the hurt we
“bore

to all shall be proclaimed.”

Feeling of thousands of Cana-
dian citizens was summed up
concisely by a writer in The Fish-

erman this week, when he said:
d

“Execution of the Rosenbergs is
cold-blooded murder. and_ history

will so record it. Eisenhower will
be remembered as the president
who allowed two innocent people
to go to their death in order to
instil fear into Americans, and so
have them accept passively the
dictates and policies of the coun-
try’s rulers.

“This is no more than the act
of a desperate government, a gov-
ernment whose cabinet is of mil-

lionaires (only one exception) and
which is heading down the road
to fascism.

“But this single act has lost the
United States much of its dimin-
ishing prestige in other parts of
the world—the price of murder
is high.”

™

S. H. BROWN
PLUMBING & HEATING

371 Johnson Road
R.R.1 White Rock - Phone 5661

US embassy

document

challenged

LONDON

One of Britain’s leading law
ers, D. N. Pritt, QC, whose critic
ism of the Rosenberg trial has

been widely reprinted, last week

challenged the document on the
Rosenberg case sent out by the
U.S. embassy in London in an

‘|effort to offset the tremendous

protest movement in Britain.

“No responsible body, in such
an important case as this, should
put out such an out-of-date letter,”
he stated.

Pritt referred to David and
Ruth Greenglass, brother and
sister-inlaw of Ethel Rosenbers,

}on whose evidence most of the

case against the Rosenbergs rested.
The U.S. embassy document
claimed that David Greenglass’
evidence had been corroborated
by a number of other witnesses.
“That is not true,” Pritt declar-
ed. “Such evidence as they gave
had nothing to do with the charges
against Julius Rosenberg.”

Pritt quoted a document, 4
photographic copy of which had

been received by the U.S. National

Committee to Secure Justice in the —

Rosenberg Case.

It purported to be a typewrit-
ten memorandum from the files of
Greenglass’ lawyer, O. John Rogg®:
of an interview with Ruth Green

glass, in which she described her —

husband — on whose truthfulness
the U.S. government’s case de
pended — as follows:

“She had known him since he
was ten years old. She said that

he would say things were S° ©

even if they were not.”

PENDER

AUDITORIUM

(Marine Workers)
338 West Pender
LARGE & SMALL HALLS
FOR RENTALS
Phone PA. 9481

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nett
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guest
; STANTON, MUNRO & DEAN
: Barristers - Solicitors - Notaries
= SUITE 515 FORD BUILDING 193 E. HASTINGS
g (Corner Main & Hastings Sts.)
= MARINE 5746

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JUNE 26, 1953 — PAGE 19

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NEW YORK

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