The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-08-15
The Right Of Asylum"--
Joke to Fascist Nations

BERLIN (By MaiD The record
of INSCRIPTIONS infringements of
the right of asylum has been en-
riched by a fresh instance through
the Paschin case. The Latvian and
Polish police have in cordial CO.
operation perpetrated a crime up to
now unparalleled in character.
The Latvian police arrested Jan
Paschin, a Polish Communist, pass
ing through the country on his way
to the Soviet Union.
After OBTAINING him for several
days the Latvian authorities gave
Paschin up to the Polish authori-
ties without any further procedure,
without an official demand for ex-
tradition having been put forward
by the Polish government, without
any negotiations between the two
governments.
This action of the two police or
CARNATIONS which flies in the face
of all ideas of international law
is an illustration of the cynical dis
regard not only of the right of
asylum but of a whole series of
democratic conceptions of legality
in general.
Jan Paschin never and in no man.
err whatever trasgressed the laws
of the Latvian republic. The objec-
tive of his journey was the Soviet
Union. 1t was not his intention
nor his desire to stay any longer
in Latvia than was necessary to
pass through the country. He could
in no fashion whatever constitute
danger to the order of government
in Latvia.
The fact that Jan Paschin was
wanted by the Polish political po-
lice was sufficient reason for the
Latvian police to arrest him on the
train passing through Riga to the
Soviet Union.
Several persons knowing the Po-
lish language who were by chance
present when Paschin was examined
in Riga Immediately expressed their
conviction that he would be trans
ported to Warsaw in chains. These
fears were not unfounded. Paschin
was in fact taken, without much
ado, to bengal railway station and
there given up to agents of the Po-
fish political police already waiting
for him there.
It is indisputable that the Lat
Wan police in this instance acted
by the direct commission of the Po-
lish political police. By playing the
part Of subordinate organ of the
latter the Latvian police voluntarily
degraded itself. 1t has thus proved
to the whole world and shown up
with all desirable clearness that all
the proud declarations about "de-
mocracy," political independence"
and Sovereignty" are not worth the
paper they are written on. When
the persecution of proletarian revo-
lutionaries is in the balance the
bourgeoisie never hesitates to tram
pie on its own laws. No obstacle
can hold back the bourgeoisie from
giving way to its blind class hate.
In such a case the Warsaw police
men" can consider themselves quite
at home in the territory of the
Independent Latvian republic" and
the entire government machine of
Latvia is at their disposal.
The conduct of the Latvian au-
thorities in the Paschin affair is
pregnant example of the manner in
which the bourgeoisie, if need arises,
tramples underfoot the same liberal
principles it proclaimed in times
past in the sphere of international
law.
Ever since the era of the French
revolution the theory of practise of
international law has made a dis
tinction between political and COM
mon offenses. Somewhere around
the thirties of the past century the
principle that persons prosecuted
for political offenses are not given
up has been universally accepted.
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