MASS DEPORTATION

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 March 1933, Page 9

MASS DEPORTATION

15,000 PROM ONE AREA.

MOSCOW, January 20

The entire, population of three Cossack village settlements in the Kuban rceion of Russia have been exiled to the Par North as “exemplary” punishment. According to the census of 1929 the population of these settlements was 45.000.

This mass deportation is not mentioned in the Moscow newspapers, but is the subject of large headlines in the Rostoff journals. They publish the decrees of the local Communist party whereby all men, women, and children of the three settlements without exception are exiled. Their land, homes, and other possessions are to be given to Red Army men, war veterans and other loyal elements. This extraordinary action is ono of the most extreme of recent years. The newspapers regard it as a salutary example to other recalcitrant villages.

They reproduce atrocity stories twelve years old, declaring that these, settlements maltreated Red Army troops during the civil war. It is understood in Moscow thai the Central Committee of the Communist party may possibly condemn the action of the local authorities as excessive. New inhabitants, however, have already been drafted into th“ three tillages.