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German Government Refuses Trotsky Visa to Enter Country

February 27, 1929
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The application of Leon Trotsky for permission to enter Germany, following his exile from Soviet Russia, was considered by the cabinet and rejected. Some of the Socialist members of the cabinet agreed with Foreign Minister Stresemann, who opposed granting him asylum.

Leon Trotsky’s own story, describing the march of events which led to his exile from Russia, is being published in a series of four despatches from Constantinople, by the Current News Features, Inc.

The first of the series, written by Leon Trotsky, was published in New York exclusively by the “New York Times” on Tuesday morning. In the despatch Trotsky confirms the fact that he was deported from Russia on the Soviet vessel “Ilyitsch,” which brought him to Constantinople on February 12. He was accompanied by his wife and family.

“Though some newspapers declare the contrary,” Trotsky writes, “I did not come here of my own volition. My friends in Germany and France are right in saying that I came here under compulsion. Nobody was aboard the ship except my family and Ogpu agents, members of the Police Branch of the Soviet, and when I debarked I made the following declaration addressed to Kemal Pasha : ‘Sir, I declare formally that I do not enter your territory freely, but under constraint.’

“I presented that in writing over my signature.”

Taking as his motif the French phrase “C’est la marche des evenements,” Trotsky, before telling the details of the story of his conflict with Stalin, makes the following remarks :

“My expulsion from Russia has cast a shadow much too gigantic. Any policy with high ideals should avoid sensation. My object in writing these despatches is not further to sensationalize my case, but, on the contrary, to stifle sensation by giving the public objective news, so far as objectivity is possible in political affairs.

“In order that the reader may not be deceived, I will state what informed people already know, namely, that my attitude toward the revolution, toward Soviet power, toward Marxism and Bolshevism remains unchanged. Politics is not made of personal quarrels.”

The Most Rev. Fumasoni-Blondi, Apostolic delegate in the United States, sailed Friday night on the Vulcania of the Cosulich Line for a brief vacation in Palestine. He was accompanied by the Rev. John J. Burke, secretary of the National Catholic Welfare Conference, with headquarters in Washington.

Henry Piper was named president of the Elizabeth, N. J. Federation for the Maintenance of Jewish Welfare Work, at the annual election of the board at the Y. M. and Y. W. H. A. He succeeds Dr. Emil Stein. Mr. Piper was president until a few years ago of the United Hebrew Charities, one of the organizations associated with the Federation.

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