t a certain act will give rise to different degrees of offense or embarrassment indifferent cultures.[3] Counsel's strategy did not create unfair prejudice to the defendant.
*412 (b) Many of the defendant's grievances concerning the trial judge's rulings are founded on the mistaken impression that we evaluate the judge's decisions only in light of the partisan abridgement of the transcript that the defendant has presented in his brief. A prime example of this misconception is the defendant's assertion that the judge erred in interrupting cross-examination of the victim for two days. However, the complete transcript reveals that the month was January, a snowstorm threatened, and that the victim was partially paralyzed and still in a wheelchair by reason of the stabbing. In the circumstances it was not an abuse of discretion to interrupt the victim's testimony.
The defendant's remaining complaints respecting the judge's rulings focus on the alleged denial of his right to confront witnesses, especially the victim. "Reasonable cross-examination for the purpose of showing falsity of other testimony of the witness or bias or prejudice on his part is a matter of right." Commonwealth v. Russ, 232 Mass. 58, 79 (1919). A denial of this right is the denial of the constitutional right to confront witnesses. See Commonwealth v. Bohannon, 376 Mass. 90, 94 (1978). Defense counsel's cross-examination of the victim was directed at establishing that for three weeks after the stabbing the victim made no complaint of robbery, and did complain only after he learned that some of the cash he thought he had was missing.
To make the robbery charge appear as a recent fabrication, defense counsel introduced the testimony of hospital personnel and police investigators and the reports they wrote between the time of the stabbing and the time the victim made robbery accusations. These reports made no mention of a robbery. All those witnesses testified; their reports were admitted in evidence and were available to the jury during their delibera