New-York tribune., 1919-07-10
Smith to Call
Special Court
To Try Reds
Extraordinary Grand Jury
to Investigate Activities
of Russian Soviet Bureau
and Its Officials Here
Swami To Be Prosecutor
Socialists and Rand School
to Come Under Inquiry;
Consul Embry Testiies

Governor Smith has consented to cal
special term of the Supreme Court
and to the empannelling of an extrordi.
nary grand jury to act on the evidence
gathered by the Lusk legislative com
mittee against radicals who plan and
advocate the overthrow of the govern
ment by force. The jury will not con-
vene before August IL. 1t is believed
Judge from upstate will preside.
The activities of the Russian Soviet
Bureau, in which l.. a. c. X. Martens
and Santori Nuorteva were the leading
spirits, will. be the subject of a special
grand jury Investigation. Martens, who
came to this country as "ambassador"
for the Russian Soviet government, has
not been recognized by Washington
and has no claim to exemption from ar
rest as a diplomat. If evidence against
any officers of this bureau warrants the
finding of an indictment they will be
prosecuted as criminal aliens under the
state penal law, it is said.
In addition to the evidence against
the Russian Soviet Bureau, the grand
jury will hear testimony on the actvi-
ties of the Right and cleft" wings
of the American Socialist party, the /.
W. W., the Rand School of Social
Science and groups of anarchists who
have been operating in New York
Prosecutions Up to Swami
Attorney General Newton declined to
comment on pending prosecutions, ex-
cept to say that a special investigation
of the Soviet Bureau is contemplated
and that the matter of prosecutions is
in the hands of District Attorney
Swami.
Alfred Talley, chief Assistant Dis
trict Attorney, yesterday conferred
with members of the Lusk committee
concerning presentation of cases
against the radicals to the grand jury
Assistant District Attorney Alexander
l. Rorke has been assigned to the COM
mittee by Mr.. Swami.
Attorney General Newton will go be-
fore Justice McAvoy in the Supreme
Court to-day and ask for the appoint
ment of a receiver for the Rand School
and the Rand Book Store. Also he
will ask Justice McAvoy to grant an in
junction restraining officers, rllafnbers
and agents of these institutions from
continuing in their activities This ac-
tion will start at 10:3O a. m. /.
Samuel Untermyer, in a letter to
Senator Lusk. yesterday, bitterly de-
nounced the work of the committee in
regard to the Rand School, and brand
ed the action designed to annul its
charter and have receiver appointed
for it as "grotesque."
Untermyer to Be Counsel
Mr.. Untermyer demanded that the
committee hold public hearings and
allow Scott Nearing and Algernon Lee
to be heard. He said that "acting in
the public interest" he would appear
as one of the counsel for the school
at to-daY's argument.
John "A. Embry, who, as United
States Consul in Omsk, had opportu-
nifty to observe the government of the
Bolsheviki, was the principal witness
before the committee yesterday. He
told how Russia suffered under the
rule of Trotzky and Lenine, and said
the Socialists of Russia would well
come change. He described the Boil
shevlk army as being made up of riff
raft and criminals of Russia, Chinese
and men from wild tribes of the north.
Mr.. Embry said that after the over
throw of the Kerensky government,
criminals just released from the
jails were appointed to judgeships
and other high positions by the Boil
General Newton the witness told OF
the operations of the Bolshevik Ex-
traordinary Investigating Committee
which put to death so many persons
at Bellebei He said there were many
different committees in this section,
each battling for power in the Rol-
shevik organization.
"No Honor Among Thieves"
The strongest of the judges, he ex-
planned, would have the others put to
death. Continuing, he said:
"In other words, there was no honor
among thieves and they fought for the
spoils just in the way that pack of
wolves fight for a corpse"
Mr.. Embry then showed the commit
tee two pictures he had taken in Belle
bel which he said the newspapers
here would not publish because they
were so horrible. He said:
II would like to say, or attempt to
describe, how the people in Bellebei,
where l took these photographs, and
In that district which | visited how
they regarded the Siberian govern
ment and the Kolchak armies Every
conversed spoke of the Siberian gov
eminent with almost fearful affection,
and the name of Admiral Kolchak to
these unhappy people who had just
been liberated from this kind of thing
was like the name or our Saviour.
koichak Good Ruler
~ think it is important to make a
statement about this here. because the
Socialists in America, and even such
formerly reputable magazines as The
New Republic and The Nation are de-
nouncing the present government in
SIBERIA, In the worst terms possible.
and because their denuncations are
so false and so harmful at the present
time to the Russian people feel it my
duty TO say-and I take solemn
oath to it-that the Siberian govern
= ment as | knew it at Omsk the past
six months. is real government
struggling TO restore law and order
and to secure to the Russian people
their rights, which have been com
pieteiy swept away under BoIshevism.