Vast plan to sabotage Czechoslovak
economy revealed at treason trials

Details of a vast plan to sabotage the whole of Czechoslovakia’s economy from top to bottom and
socialism were given at the espionage and sabotage trials here. The trials concluded on Thursday last week

sentence on I1 of those charged, including Vladimir Clementis, for rt for
eral of the Communist Party of Cezchoslovak ia, and sentences of life imprisonment on th
Information, down to the last detail, on the sabotage plot was

former foreign

minister,
ree others.

omic section of the Czechoslovak government, and Josef Frank, form

D. N. PRITT; QC
He will defend Kenyatta

Settlers on
polo ponies
In manhunt

NAIROBI

European settlers on polo ponies,
Carrying polo sticks, or armed with;
long staves, shotguns and _ pistols,
Joined in the manhunt against the
People of Kenya last week.

They accompanied British troops:

of the Lancashire Fusiliers, Masai
tribesmen in full warpaint, police,
Planes and tracker dogs in a raid
©n one of the settlements of the
Kikuyu people.

(In London, Lord Stansgate threw
the House of Lords into an uproar
When he charged that the govern-

_™ent was using dogs to hunt down
Africans in Kenya—‘“including wo-
™en and little children.) :

The operation, named ‘‘Polo Tour-
nament,” took place 9,000 ft. above
Sea level, west of Naivasha, in the
wering Rift Valley.

At the far side of the Kituyu
Settlement, fierce Masai warriors in

Taditional warpaint stood guard
‘With spears, bows and arrows,
blocking the escape routes down a

000 ft, precipice. i

; About 100 men and women were
_ Seized and brought down from the
Mountain for “sereening and ques-
Whine But the ‘result! of the

“Sweep was described as “disap-
Wointing

LONDON
DN, Pritt, QC, internationally
known British lawyer, is leaving for
Nairobi, Kenya, to lead the defense
f Jomo Kenyatta and other lead-
StS of the Kenya African Union. He
Ml be joined by two Nigerian
wyers, Kola Balogun, national
Sstretary of the National Council
of Nigeria and the Cameroons, and

Anti-Semitism charge false

By DEREK KARTUN

LONDON
An old political trick, that of rep-
resenting opposition to Zionism,

which is a political movement, as
anti-Semitism, is being used by the
daily press of this and other West-
ern countries to distort the treason
trials just concluded in Czechoslo-
vakia. :

The trick is accomplished by tak-
ing the words “Jewish bitsinessman”
or “Jewish bourgeois nationalist”
from the context in which they were
mentioned at the trials. And to
make it appear more convincing
much is made of the fact that 11
of the 14 accused happened to be
Jewish. ;

‘What precisely has the trial re-
vealed?

First. that prominent individuals
in the world Zionist movement
have been used by U.S. and other
intelligence services as agents whose
task it was to work against the
state in Czechoslovakia.

Secondly, that Israeli diplomats
in Prague have also been used in
this connection.

Thirdly. that several of the de-
fendants. who were masquerading
for many years as Communists, had
been in the Zionist organization in
their early days and still maintain-
ed concealed sympathies ‘for Zion-
ism. :

» Fourthly, and arising out of the
above, that the conspirators allow-
ed wealthy Czech capitalists to re-
move an important part of their
wealth from Czechoslovakia to Is-
rael. They could only do this be-
cause they were Jewish capitalists
whom the Israeli government was

Czech trials bare
Zionist intrigues

and then of the Five-Year-Plan.

}declared that as a result
million Czech crowns in

struction and direction of Rudolf
To carry out their plans the

Commission”

made against the accused is not
that they are Jewish, but (among
other things) that they formed
part of a conspiracy in which the
Zionist movement and Israeli gov-
ernment played a key role.

The actual phrase “Jewish busi-
nessman” figured from time to time
in the trials for the sufficient reason
that once Zionist and Israeli parti-
cipation in the plot had been estab-
lished, the fact that a particular
accused was helping a Jewish busi-
nessman in his financial transactions
became patently relevant.

‘As for the phrase ‘Jewish
bourgeois nationalist,’ this is a
political characterization of the

term Zionist, and has no anti-Sem-
itic connotation whatever.

It is an old trick to pretend to
mistake opposition to Zionism, .
which is a political movement, for
anti-Semitism.

But it is an unconvincing trick.
For the socialist countries which
oppose Zionism and_ believe. that
the problems of the Jewish people
can only be solved in the fight for
socialism, are the only , countries,
where anti-Semitism is a criminal
offence and is punished .as such.
The trial has demonstrated anew
that the state of Israel and the
dominant sections of the Zionist
movement are sustained by U.S.
money. :

Like other trials of a similar kind
since the war, \it has’ also, shown
that purely nationalist ideas, wheth-
er held by Jews, Yugoslavs, Sloy-
aks, or any other peoples, lead to

willing to help.

betrayal of the socialist movement.

Terror intensified in Kenya

Hezekiah Davies.

The British colonial government of Kenya last week areal
to itself sweeping powers to evict Africans from their pones* lose
» stores, seize cattle and vehicles at the discretion of its district a icers.
The orders were issued as thousands of Africans were rounc led up
(see picture above) and police added to the terror by firing into an
unarmed crowd at Kirawa, killing 20 Africans, including five women.

‘hus the charge that has been,

| avoided and prevented_the exploit-

headed by Freyka and later by
Since the group began work in

1945 this commission placed in lead-
ing positions in Czechoslovak econ-
omy a whole number of former cap-
italists and businessmen whose
names and positions were given to
the court. :

Freyka declared that intention-
ally he did not include in the Two-

Year Plan any preparations for de-
velopment of heavy industry, and
the Five-Year Plan aimed at slow-
ing down the development of heavy
industry, while light industry was
given a disproportionate share of
the nation’s resources.
As an example of the “planning”
of the commission, Freyka instanc-
ed the instructions given for de-
molition of three blast furnaces in
Trinec, although they were still in
full production. :

Three new furnaces were built
and when they were completed
their capacity was hardly more
than the original ones.

The prosecutor here quoted from
‘an expert’s report according to
which the damage done to Czecho-
slovak economy by this one piece
of “planning” was estimated at
2,500 million Czech trowns and
Freyka agreed this was so.
Another such example was given
by Frank, who told how he and his
planners had ordered the building
of a new factory in Ostrava.

This plant ‘was built on land be-
neath which was important coal
deposits vitally necessary for
Czechoslovakia’s industry, and the
whole plant is now threatened with
subsidence and js completely use-
less.

Freyka and Frank both gave de-
tails of the way in which the “Eeo-
nomic .Commission” deliberately

ation of Czechoslovakia’s resources
of iron ore and non-ferrous metals.
The purpose of this, they said,
was at one and the same time to
weaken development of heavy in-
dustry and to force importation
of these metals from the West,
thus making Czechoslovakia econ-
omically dependent on the. West-
ern powers.
Freyka also gave examples of the
way in which foreign trade rela-
tions were used for the same ob-
jective.
He told how, for example, in 1947
het and Slansky agreed to place
orders for machinery in the United
States; although they. knew it was
necessary to pay in advance and
that the United States would not
be obliged to deliver such mach-
inery or to allow its export. ‘
Specifically, he told how orders
were placed in the United States
for equipment for a steel-rolling
plant, for which 1,000 million
Czech crowns ($18 million) was
paid. The equipment was never
delivered.
iFreyka told how on his advice a

and Rudolf Slansky,

PRAGUE
ilding of
passing of the death
former secretary gen-

to prevent the bu
With

given to the court by Ludvik Freyka, former chief of the econ-
er assistant general secretary of the
of whom were sentenced to death.

“It is hard to estimate the damage we caused to Czechoslovakia’s
economy,” said Freyka, who in his

preparation and implementation first of the country’s Two-Year-Plan

Communist party, both

position played a leading part in

This sabotage included the field of foreign trade, and Freyka
of his activities Czechoslovakia lost 8,000
her foreign trade for 1951 alone.

This eonomic sabotage was carried out under ‘the personal in-

Slansky.
conspirators created an “Economic

of the Communist party’s central committee, first
Frank. :

brought to Czechoslovakia to
“plan” the country’s auto industry,
and was paid $2,000 a month.

He was allowed to inspect the
whole of Czechoslovak industry,
and when he left he took with
him many secret plans and docu-
ments. Taub was arrested by the
police, but, through Freyka’s in-
tervention, was released. The
secret documents were actually
handed back to him.

This action swas facilitated by
the fact that one of the accused,
Karel Svab, was at- that time
deputy minister of national security.

Freyka admitted that when he
returned to Czechoslovakia from
Britain in 1945 he was an agent
of the British Intelligence Serv-
ice, and told how he had been
recruited for this work>

to Britain as a refugee in 1938
through two organizations, called
the British Committee and the
Trust Fund, in which a U.S. ‘agent
Herman Field, and certain British |

Intelligence agents, played a lead-
ing part. :

was arrested and interned by the
British authorities, but in Septem-
ber 1941 he was told he
released.

He was called to the office of
the commander of the internment
camp and there a captain of Brit-
ish Military Intelligence proposed
‘that he sign a document pledging

authorities during and after the
war, and he agreed.

Earlier the court examined an-
other of those on whom it passed
sentence of death,-a former editor
of the Communist party paper Rude

name is Otto Katz.

His part in the conspiracy was to —
convey secret ‘information of
Czechoslovakia’s diplomatic — nego-
tiations to the U.S., British and
French intelligence services, infor-
mation which he obtained from
Slansky and Clementis.

Simone told how he contacted in
Paris a certain Paul Willert, said
to be a former head of the British
Foreign Office Press Services.

Willert instructed Simone to con-
tact Noel Coward, who was said to
be working for British Intelligence
in Paris at-that time, and Noel
Coward signed him on as a British
agent. :
Simone told how on Slansky’s
instructions he had given infor-
mation to Alexander Werth, Sulz-
berger, of the New York Times,
the former New York Times cor-

U.S. expert called Taub was

respondent in Prague, Dana
Adam Schmidt, and to Maurice
Hindus. !

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — DECEMBER 5, 1952 — PAGE 3 ;
@e 7

.

He had originally been brought

During the war, said Frayka, he —

would be —

himself {to work for the British —

Pravo, Andre Simone, whose real

x