TRIAL OPEN TO FOREIGN OBSERVERS

Grey River Argus, 26 February 1949, Page 5

TRIAL OPEN TO FOREIGN OBSERVERS

SOFIA, Feb. 24 The trial of the fifteen Evangelical pastors who have been arrested in Bulgaria will start to-morrow. All the foreign correspondents and legation press attaches, including those of Britain and the United States, will have entrance tickets for the trial. The Bulgarian Vice-Premier and Minister of Church Affairs, Mr Vassil Kolarov speaking in the National Assembly, condemned the use of the church for “furthering, the imperialist tendencies and efforts for world domination." He said: “The people’s democracy would not be a true popular authority, if it did not ensure liberty of conscience and of religious practice, but the use of the church for ends which have nothing to do with the interests of the faithful, must stop.”

He said the State would support all religious denominations, in ■ the country which acted within the framework of the Constitution and democracy.