The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-08-15

IOullu tuS COul age W uSSAolc eHaI
this principle is no longer valid,
although already beginning with the
second half of the nineteenth CEN
fury the application of the princi-
pie was dependent on various more
or less reactionary clauses. In the
international treaties and in the do
nestle legislation of the bourgeois
states the principle of non-extradi-
ton of political offenders is still
laid down as a matter of course.
But the fear of the growing revo-
lutionary working class movement
ever more frequently compels the
bourgeois governments to infringe
this principle in their practical con-
duct. The history of the postwar
period records numerous fragrant
infringements of the right of asy-
lum but the Paschin case is unpar-
alleled in sheer unabashed and Gym
ical impudence. The Polish as well
as the Latvian authorities were per-
fectly aware that they committed an
illegal act, in arresting Paschin and
that is why they at first attempted
to surround the affair with a wall
of silence. Even the fact that Pasch-
ms arrest had taken place in Lat
Wan territory was denied. When
the working class press was already
sounding the alarm in several coun-
tries on account of this arrest, the
correspondent of the Express Po-
ranny" wired a declaration of the
Polish Embassy in Riga and of the
Latvian police that "the whole
Paschin affair was pure invention"
The Latvian Home Secretary La
minsh, as recently as May 7th, that
is ten days after the extradition
of Paschin, unbIushingly declared
to members of the Latvian parlia-
ment that the arrested man was in
Latvia and that he had the posi-
bility of travelling where he wished.
Such subterfuges only prove that
the Latvian police strongly inclines
towards the hushing up of all traces
of this sinister affair. But in this
it will and must not succeed. The
Latvian government must answer
the questions which were most d.
rectly put. We have small conf
dence in the petition commission of
the Latvian seym which is charged
with the Investigation of the Pasch-
in case. But there are far more
serious forces at work which will
not allow this shameful misdeed to
pass unnoticed.
1t is quite clear that the Paschin
affair is not merely a high-handed
act of despotism on the part of the
Latvian police authorities. The
Paschin affair much rather points
to the possibility that the coopera-
ton of the two police forces is the
outcome of a secret military con-
vention of these governments.
That Poland for the last few
years has spared no effort in or
der to win the Baltic states for a
military alliance again-t the Soviet
Union is no news to anyone. The
coordination of the police activities
between Poland and Latvia permits
US to conjecture the degree of mu-
tual understanding existing between
the two general staffs and the mil
itary authorities of both countries.
This instance clea1l.' shows how the
traditions of international law are
disregarded by the bourgeoisie in
the fight against t. revolutionary
working class. We see the develop
ment of international cooperation
between the fascists of all coun-
tries for the purpose Of robbing
the revolutionary workers and peas
ants of their rights and preparing
a war against the hated Soviet
Union.
The toiling masses must in in
ternational solidarity do their ut
most to tear Paschin from the
clutches of his would be butchers
and to declare war unto death
against international fascism,
against the imperialist war mon
gers and their liegemen. xs.