“GENOCIDAL TERROR”

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25936, 17 October 1949, Page 7

“GENOCIDAL TERROR”

BRITISH ALLEGATION AGAINST RUSSIA CONDUCT IN ESTONIA. LATVIA, LITHUANIA (Rec. 10 p.m.) NEW YORK. Oct. 15. Britain to-day accused Russia of creating a “genocidal terror” in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The allegation was made by a British delegate to the United Nations. Mrs Barbara Castle, who also accused Russia of forcing the migration of 1.500.000 inhabitants of several small Soviet republics. Genocide is the crime of mass destruction for racial, religious or political reasons. Mrs Castle made her charge before the General Assembly’s Social Committee, which was debating the issue of forced labour. A convention on the crime and punishment, of genocide is before the member Governments of the United Nations for ratification. Mrs Castle alleged that Russia had broken up and dispersed communities in tbe northern Caucasus and Crimea numbering 1.500,000 people. “While these old Mohammedan nations have been subjected to forced labour and inhuman treatment, a genocidal terror has also been launched against the ancient European peoples of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania,” said Mrs Castle. “Few people have grasped the extent of the mass migration from the Baltic States for the forced labour colonies of the Soviet Union.”