Methodist Bishop Scouts “Confessions” of Bulgarian Clergy Leaders

Grey River Argus, 24 February 1949, Page 5

Methodist Bishop Scouts “Confessions” of Bulgarian Clergy Leaders

LONDON, February 22. The reported “confession” of the Rev. Yanko Ivanov, Methodist Church Superintendent in Sofia, who was one of the fifteen Bulgarian pastors arrested on charges of espionage for Britain and the United States, “could have been secured only under duress and torture”, said Dr Paul Garber, Methodist Bishop for Central and Southern Europe, quoted by the Associated Press Geneva correspondent. Dr Garber said he had reliable information from Sofia that Mr Ivanov, while under arrest, had been questioned for 24 hours at a time without intermission. Mr Ivanov, although lame, had been forced to stand for hours, and was deprived of food and toilet privileges for long periods. He was also forced to do hard manual labour in a concentration camp. Dr Garber said that Mr Ivanov s only “offence” had been to refuse to endorse the Communist regime in Bulgaria. Dr Garber said he had been’ reliably informed that Mr Ivanov had been offered his freedom if he would sign a pledge of loyalty to the present regime and act as a spy for the Government, but he refused. Mr Ivanov’s wife had also __ been mistreated by Bulgarian officials. She had been forced to dig ditches and break stones in a work brigade in the streets of Sofia. Mr Ivanov s two sons had also been arrested. One had been sent to a labour camp, and nothing had been heard from the other since November. Dr Garber said the Bulgarian charge, that a schoolteacher missionary, Miss Melanie Turner, had been an American spy, was preposterous. He recalled that Miss Turner remained with the Bulgarian people during the period of occupation by the Nazis, who had interned her. “The great popularity of this selfsacrificing American Methodist missionary in Bulgaria is the real reason for the Communist attack on her”, he added. . The Bulgarian Foreign Office today notified the British Legation in Sofia that two members of the legation staff could attend the trial of the 15 pastors, which will begin on Friday. Canada’s Wish to Inquire Into Religious Persecution in Europe (Rec 10.5). OTTAWA, February 22. The Canadian Government has instructed its Charge d’Affaires in Prague to apply for visas for officials to visit Hungai-y, and also Rumania, to inquire into the religious persecution in those countries. This announcement was made today' in the Canadian House of Commons by the Prime Minister, Hon. Mr St. Laurent, who said that Canada had been watching, with deepening concern, what has appeared to be the systematic campaign of persecution in all of the satellite States of Eastern Europe.