HELD IN ‘INTERNMENT” IN PRAGUE— Czech Primate Protests At Treatment By Reds

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 August 1949, Page 5

HELD IN ‘INTERNMENT” IN PRAGUE — Czech Primate Protests At Treatment By Reds

LONDON, August 17 (Rec. 1 p.m.).—The Archbishop of Czechoslovakia Dr Josef Beran, has broken his two-months silence to protest against his “internment” in his Prague residence by the Czech Communist Government, says Reuter’s Prague correspondent. Archbishop Beran also protested against the presence of a Government agent in his offices and against the seizure of the Archbishopric’s funds and estates without consultation.

Archbishop Beran’s protests were contained in a letter to the State pro - secutor. In this way he was able to beat the ban on his issuing statements or communicating with his febow clergy without permission from the Communist authorities. The text of his letter became available from church sources. Archbishop Beran said that earlier letters of protest to the Czech Government had not been answered. “I have been interned in the Archbishop’s Palace since June 19,” he said. “Visitors are not admitted. They are told that the Archbishop has forbidden visitors.

Deprived Of Liberty “I have been deprived of all personal liberty and all rights as Archbishop, all this without any kind of investigation and without any court or other official decision.” The Archbishpp’s estates were nationalised without his even being informed, said Archbishop Beran. The Czech Government also blocked the Central Bank account of the Prague Bishopric and made it impossible to continue salary payments to the employees of the Archbishop’s Palace. Archbishop Beran accused* the Communists of organising the demonstrations which interrupted a service in St Vitus Cathedral when the Archbishop himself was present on June 19.

Archbishop Beran complained that no offenders were apprehended or charged, despite the large numbers of police around the cathedral. He asked whether the law forbidding disturbances at religious services was still valid. Blunt Charges ■The Associated Press-Prague correspondent says that Archbishop Beran’s blunt charges, and his question to the State Prosecutor, indicated that the Church hierarchy might be seeking to force a break in the deadlocked State-Church issue. A decision to give the Archbishop’s letter publicity through the Western press and through Western broadcasts, . which are pumped into Czechoslovakia, emphasised this view. It was the second time this week that the Church had taken the initiative. On Sunday last two bishops were consecrated at Trnava in Slovakia in defiance of State decrees that all big Church meetings' must have advance Government approval. More Active Campaign Expected

The State has been moving somewhat slower against the Church in recent weeks but it is generally believed that the campaign will be stepped up in the autumn. ' A bill giving the State control of all Church appointments, administration and finance is ready for the autumn session of Parliament,