DRIVE AGAINST CZECH LIBERALS

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31991, 19 May 1969, Page 13

DRIVE AGAINST CZECH LIBERALS

(N.Z.P .A.-Reuter—Copyright) PRAGUE, May 18. Czechoslovakia’s de-liberalisation campaign was in full swing today as Communist leaders prepared for a new round of talks in Moscow.

A final crack-down to silence the reformist press, and open hints of a purge of top Communist liberals preceded the vital set of negotiations. Informed sources believe that the Communist Party leader, Mr GusUv Husak — who returned on Friday night from Budapest where he had talks with the Hungarian Communist leader, Mr Janos Kadar—will fly to Moscow be-

fore the meeting of his party’s Central Committee, on May 29. These sources also believe plans are being made to hold preparatory talks in Prague with the Soviet Deputy Prime

Minister, Mr Nikolai Baibakov.

But there has been no official word of either a Soviet visit to Prague or of a Czechoslovak trip to Moscow. If the two Soviet Ministers come to Prague the talks would probably concentrate on economic credits to help the sagging Czechoslovak economy, and a possible reduction of the Soviet Union’s 80,000 occupation troops in Czechoslovakia. There has been no further word on reports that the Czechoslovak Government Culture Minister, Mr Miroslav Galuska, has offered to resign to connection with the press measures.

A declaration signed by nearly 130 conservative journalists yesterday said the press attacked supporters of close ties with the Soviet Union in the past, only because this had been permitted. The journalists’ declaration called for an end of “policy with two faces.”