Evening star., 1939-03-08
By JOSEPH M. ESCJJDER

ny JoSEfn M. ESCODEh.
NEW YORK, March 8 (N.A.N.A)
The prosecutor for the specia
high treason tribunal of Barcelona
turned to the court and said: 81
wish to withdraw all charges against
Senor Escuder, on the grounds tina,
I have no evidence, and I hereby
request the tribunal to set him free
at once"
These dramatic words fell on my
ears in October, 1898, after II
months of imprisonment. During
that time, had been prepared fol
almost any fate. Now I was or
trial along with nine other men, all
accused like myself of being spies
saboteurs, counter-revolution
bandits and all the other crimes in
the now well-known list made in
Moscow to fit Stalin's political op-
ponents.
For Is months, his henchmen in
Republican Spain had labored hard
to produce duplicate of the Mos
cow trials, with ourselves as the star
performers. But by this time nobody
was willing to play their game
Moreover, there had been consider
able pressure on the government
from Republican sympathizers all
over the world.
Planned Trial a la Moscow.
We, who had been arrested along
with hundreds of other sincere anti
Fascists who the Communists felt
were obstacles to their domination
were now being tried by a court
that was obviously in no mood to
be a docile instrument of the prose-
cutor. Instead, the tribunal had
insisted on laying down rules of
strict judicial procedure, which
meant that, unless he could produce
the kind of proof accepted by an
ordinary court of law, his accusa-
tions could not stand. All his prep
arations had been made to try us
"a la Moscow" for our political be-
lefs, supporting his ostensible
charges of treason with the film
siest kind of hearsay and manu-
factured evidence. Against me,
however, he didn't have even that
much, and hence the speech that
now made me free man.
On that day was 40 pounds lighter
and considerably wiser than I had
been on that afternoon of June 16,
1887, when I had insisted on going
back to my Office as managing editor
of La Batalla, left laror daily as
unfriendly to Stains politics as to
Hitler's and Mussolini's. knew
that there had been some arrests
among friends of mine, but I looked
upon them as temporary political
incidents. 1t seemed incredible to
me that any Spaniards of known
integrity could be in any real danger
Just three days before, the minister
of the interior had said so. The
Communists would not dare. Be-
sides, I wasn't a political leader; I
was just a newspaperman.
About 7 o'clock that evening, sew
eral men burst into my Office with
pistols drawn. Three of them were
in plain clothes and were evidently
new to the city: the others were
regular Catalan police who seemed
to be acting merely as guides. I
spent the night incommunicado at
police headquarters in Barcelona.
The next morning, with cordons
OF police and as many other precau-
tions as if I had been billion dollars
in bullion being moved from the
treasury, I was put in big black
automobile which headed at once for
valencia. I was manacled. In the
car with me were four Catalan secret
service men. Behind us came an
other big black car in which rode
several large, blond men, armed with
machine guns. Whenever we stopped
Tor any reason, the other car imme-
dlately drew up closer and the
strangers trained their guns on me.
certainly felt important; evidently
the blonds thought they had some
KIND OF big fish on their hook. The
Joke was on them.
Captors Sympathetic.
This is rotten, filthy business ~
one OF the Catalan detectives NUT
tered. When we were back in the
car he unlocked my handouts and
offered me a cigarette, and added:
I'VE have to do what we are told.
but we don't like it a bit. This
Is the kind of thing that's going
to lose us the war. For Gods
sake. don't let those fellows in the
car behind us notice anything"
In Valencia, was held in police
headquarters for about a week, still
incommunicado. Nobody asked me
any questions or told me what I
was charged with. One day was
suddenly bundled into a black maria
with 80 or 40 others and dropped
at the model prison in Valencia,
where I was held, still without any
explanation, for "a hours. And then
I was released. The prison officials
elaborately recorded my departure,
congratulated me effusively and es-
corted me to the door.
I started for the gates, but I
never got there. Another squad
of plainclothesmen seized me and
showed me into another one of
those big black cars. In utter silence
and with guns again much in evi-
dence, we started for some unknown
destination. Officially, I was free.
No one on earth could now trace nv
whereabouts; I was completely at
the mercy of my kidnapers.
We arrived in Madrid about 2
o'clock in the morning. We Stopped
In front of former palace that
still seemed to be a private estab-
GShment. When the men started
with me down a shaky, wooden
stairway that seemed to spiral to
the bowels of the earth was sure
I was done for. 1t was dark and
wet and cold down there. There
were three others in the same wine
cellar, men whom I knew and who
LOST s.! :, Your !e!v!,!!R p PEP :!