WAR ON RELIGION

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 112, 12 May 1923, Page 8

WAR ON RELIGION

EFFORTS TO SAVE AN ARCHBISHOP

DRAMATIC SCENES IN RUSSIAN

COURT

-"INHABITANTS OF HEAVEN

ABOLISHED."

(PROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

LONDON, 29th March

For two years past or longer the Bolsheviks have waged a fierce campaign against the Russian Orthodox clergy, and have done their utmost to undermine the historic foundations of the faith of the Russian people. Twenty-eight bishops and several hundred priests have been shot in the course of this campaign, and the outward forms of Church organisation have been broken up. The Metropolitan Benjamin of Petrogad was tried last year and condemned, and then was spirited away, so that nothing was known of his fate. Little by little the attack has been extended to every form of religious worship. Roman Catholic churches have been looted by representatives of the Cheka. Jewish rabbis have been " prevented from giving children religious instruction, and even Islam, for the professors of which the Bolsheviks so ostentatiously declare their friendship, lias been held up to ridicule in the ribald atheistic pamphlets circulated by the Soviet Government.

"It is not unreasonable to suppose," says "The Times" in a leading article, "that the trial and condemnation of the Roman Catholic clergy have been staged at this particular moment with the object of facilitating the trial of- the Orthodox Partiarch Tikhon. It is a diversion subtly calculated to confuse religious with nationalist issues and to take advantage of the antagonism between the Eastern and the Western Churches. The number of adherents of Roman Catholicism among the Russian people is still comparatively small, though it has increased during these years of shock and change. The Roman Catholics in Russia are, for the most part, Poles and Lithuanians by origin, and the masses of the Russian people are apt to identify Roman Catholicism with Polish tendencies. These circumstances were, no doubt, regarded by the Bolsheviks as providing a favourable opportunity for confusing religious persecution with political propaganda. They have employed a dastardly experiment, and, whatever the effect of the trial may be in Russia-, the real nature of their aims is certainly not concealed from the Western world."

ANGRY SCENE IN THE COMMONS.

There was an angry scene on the Labour benches when the question of the Hussian sentences passed on Archbishop Zepliak and other clerics was raised in the House of. Commons. Mr. Jack Jones, Labour member for Silvertown, leaning over towards Mr. Newbold, the Communist, declared vehemently that if the Bolsheviks put the Archbishop to death he would kill Mr. Newbold. As Mr. Newbold left the House, Mr. Jones got up to follow him, but was restrained by other Labour members. Mr. Newbold returned to the House later in the evening. The trouble arose, when Mr. Ronald M'Neill, Under-Secre-tary for Foreign Affairs, informed Mr. Ammon, the Labour Whip, that a telegram had just been received from Moscow stating that the sentences'.would be carried out within forty-eight hours.

Mr. Newbold shouted

"Rats!"

Mr. Ammon pressed the Government to take further action, but Mr. Newbold, sitting in an inconspicuous corner seat, continually interrupted him, and his general cry was: "Is not this a court order, Ammon?" Mr. Jack Jones was sitting behind Mr. Newbold. He leaned over- towards him and shouted : "What is the. matter with you? Do you believe that the men ought to be shot? You ought to be chucked out of this place." Then Mr. Jack Jones leaped up to demand that Mr. Newbold should be held as a hostage.

Mr. Peto asked whether representations "would be made- to the so-called Soviet trade representatives in this country that they would have to leave in twenty-four hours 'if these executions took place. No answer was given.

CLERICS RECEIVE SENTENCE

UNMOVED.

The special correspondent of the "Daily Express" gives an account of the Court scene when judgment was passed in the early hours of the morning in the historic ballroom of the Hall of Nobles at Moscow. ■ "The Judges retired on the previous afternoon, and deliberated for eight and a half hours. Meanwhile, the public clamoured for admission, but the doors were not opened until 10 p.m. Red soldiers took up positions a few feet from one another and prepared for eventualities.

"Shortly after 12.30 the two prelates and fifteen priests filed in under the usual formidable guard with long bristling bayonets. In painful incongruity with the solemn scene, two young typists sat on the Judges' bench, smoking cigarettes, eating sandwiches., and exchanging flirtatious chatter with a group of gay Lotharios who were there in the capacity of clerks. Suspense continued until nearly 1 o'clock, when the Judges appeared on the platform behind their long, red-draped table. Public and priests stood up as the sentences were slowly read out. Archbishop Zepliak, wearing spectacles and a red cap carelessly tilted to one side, listened to the judgment attentively, but received his own sentence of death unmoved, while M. Budkevitch, Vicar-General of Petrograd, calmly made the sign of the Cross. i

"Women in the audience, some of them Polish relatives of- the convicted Church dignitaries, were overcome. There wrs an emotional outburst of sobbing and one woman fainted. Then the . Red Guards, on a signal from M. Krylenko, the fiery prosecutor, cleared the building. The priests, none showing the slightest trace of emotion, stalked out under guard, later to appear momentarily in the brisk wintry air of the'street .below aB they were herded into a waiting 'Black Maria,' and whisked through the gay crowds emerging from the Ballet Theatre back to their prison cells."

STRANGF. DECISION OF AMERICAN

METHOD fSTS.

.According to the Riga correspondent of "The Times," the American Methodist Episcopal Church hns decided to take part in a Church Convocation at Moscow next month. In this connection the correspondent points out: "It seems ha.rdiy to be realised in the Western world that the Russian 'Supreme Church Administration' and 'Living Church Party' are anti-religious Communist organisations designed .to exterminate religion in all its forms. Archbishop John, head of the Orthodox, Church in the Baltic States, severely condemns the decision of the Mefhodists, which, he insists, is tantamount to assisting, the Soviet Government to destroy religion. The socalled 'Living Church.' which-is arranging for the convocation, is a State Department subsidised by the Soviet." The same writer quote's an article in Pravada on 18th March, it is in referi

ence to anti-religious circles which were organised by the Soviet throughout the country. "The anti-religious circles must not be allowed to continue in this State. If the development proceeds at this slow rate, it will encourage the birth of all kinds of new religious sects, which will also be an obstacle to our campaign against religion. Why are these circles a fiasco ? Certainly not because there is no time, but mainly because we underestimate the importance of anti-religious propaganda. We must carry on our agitation against religion just as systematically as we do in political questions, but with even more determination. It must not- be a recreation but part of our daily duties. Otherwise there is no sense in anti-religious propaganda at all.

HEAVEN BANISHED BY PROLE

TARIAT.

"We must compel suitable comrades to attend these circles and be trained for the campaign. The 'Women's Department' and the Communist 'Union of Young People' must also give us some of their members for this work. The district Commissariat of Podolsk has already consented to compel the attendance of students at the anti-religious circles. Others must' follow suit. This attendance must be a- requiremnt of party discipline. . . .

"Although we have declared war on the denizens of . Heaven, it is by no means easy to sweep them from the households of the workmen. The women, especially, are intractable; they worship before the Holy Ikons and impede the progress of the war on religion. They insist on having their children christened and obstruct the removal of ikons. Our campaign is proceeding nervously. It is necessary to work slowly, word by word, drop by drop, to worm our way and convince the stubborn^ that, by the unwritten decrees of the victorious proletariat, the inhabitants of Heaven and all their attributes have been abolished. With an iron sweeper the workmen must clear their homes of the last vestige of all that is 'holy.' "