The Ogpu Again "the more information which comes. from Rusele, concerning. the doings of the infamous Sapu'the more light is tirewn upon the var Sue stale Crinls which have interested and per~ Dlexed the world at large. The Tatest case con-Eerns four oMlals of that body who have been tried on a charge of arresting children aged 10) and 12° years for alleged political crime. The 'oMlcinls Were sentenced to terms of imprison ment ranging from five to ten years. The trial, Which was stated.to be the third of its kind this year, was the result of a nationwide cam~ pal to check the abuse of authority by ofciaidom. The reports to hand do not state what happened to the young children charged with political offence. it is possible that even in Russia the judges would have spen the ridiculeusness of proceeding against such tender youth on so grave a charge, and the description Of their arrest as illegal probably is the best Indication of the fate which was meted out to them, But what of officials who by the misuse of their power frighten small children, incapable at that age of holding any really serious opinion about anything, let alone politics? Surely they are guilty of betraying a degree of asininity which Is wholly incomprehensible'to Deople who are accustomed to. being able to perceive gleams of intelligence in the mind of Even the most subordinate official. The Ogpu Which. has "now become the Commissariat for Internal Affairs has not at times been" remark~ able for the intelligence with which it has conducted its business, as witness the failure to convince the world of the genuineness of the trials of some of those of riper years whose cases have received such wide publicity, but the picture of grown men charging mere school-children. with political offences depicts a state affairs in the former Ogpy which might count for quite a lot of the strange features ut that' department's vagaries.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.