Schwartzbard Tells Paris Court He Acted in His Own Behalf

(Continued from page 1)

“Here’s my chance,” I thought. “Are you Petlura?” I asked him. He did not answer, simply lifting his heavy cane. I knew it was he. I shot, once, twice; three! four! five times! He fell. The crowd rushed in on me. My only worry was whether it was really Petlura. I might have killed the wrong man. When a policeman told me it was Petlura I threw my arms about his neck in joy.”

At this point, Schwartzbard, who had been gesticulating and demonstrating his act, threw his arms about the neck of the gendarme sitting beside him.

Schwartzbard denied he had accomplices, saying the ## the result of his ## a was the in? ## thousands ##

Asked concerning the allegation made in the indictment that he was convicted in Austria on a charge of burglary, Schwartzbard declared that the incident was due to a misunderstanding. He was stopping at a hotel and was given the key to the front door. When he returned to the hotel one night and had difficulty in opening the door he was seized on the suspicion that he was a burglar.

Replying to the allegation of the indictment that Vladimir Jabotinsky had expressed his opinion that Petlura was not responsible for the pogroms, M. Torres, Schwartzbard’s counsel, read an article by Jabotinsky published recently in the Jewish Morning Journal of New York where he holds Petlura responsible. The Petlura counsel asserted Jabotinsky contradicted his statements in an earlier article in the same paper.

The Petlura counsel formulated the accusation that Sholom Schwartzbard was active in Communist propaganda while on the steamer on his way to Russia. Schwartzbard protested against this allegation, declaring that he was ill during the entire passage. He never entered he Red Army, he declared.