800.00B Rubens, Adolph A./46: Telegram
The Chargé in the Soviet Union (Grummon) to the Secretary of State
Moscow, June 9,
1939—10 a.m.
[Received June 9—6:21 a.m.]
[Received June 9—6:21 a.m.]
298. My telegram No. 297, June 8, 7 p.m.31 A member of the Commissariat for Foreign Affairs informed the Embassy by telephone last night at midnight that the trial of Mrs. Rubens would take place today and promised to inform the Embassy this morning as to the exact hour and place of the trial. He stated that the trial would be public and [Page 909] that there would be no difficulty about members of Embassy attending.32
Grummon
- Not printed.↩
- The Chargé reported to the Department in telegram No. 305, June 9, 1939, that he and the Chief of Consular Section of the Embassy, A. I. Ward, had attended the trial of Mrs. Rubens that day at the Moscow Municipal Court, which had lasted for three-quarters of an hour before Presiding Judge Vasnev and two assistant judges. Mrs. Rubens was not offered, nor did she request, legal counsel. She was convicted of having entered the Soviet Union illegally with false documents and under an assumed name. The sentence of the court was 18 months’ deprivation of liberty to be counted from the date of arrest on December 10, 1937. The term would therefore expire, and her detention end, on June 10, 1939. The Chargé requested “to be informed by the Commissariat for Foreign Affairs as to the hour and place of Mrs. Rubens’ release in order that a representative of the Embassy may interview her promptly regarding her plans.” (800.00B Rubens, Adolph A./48)↩