REDS ROB AND INTERN PRIMATE OF CZECHOSLOVAKIA

Grey River Argus, 19 August 1949, Page 3

REDS ROB AND INTERN PRIMATE OF CZECHOSLOVAKIA

Dr Beran Exposes His Persecution LONDON, Aug, 17 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 Beranals o 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 Berards protests were contained in a letter to the State prosecutor. In this way he was able to beat the ban on his issuing statements or communicating with his fellow 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 Archbishop'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 ofefnders were apprehended or charged .despite the large numbers of police around the cathedral. He asked whether the law forbidding disturbances aj religious services was still valid. CHURCH TAKING INITIATIVE LONDON, Aug. 18 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 dead-locked 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. REDS ATTEMPT TO RULE CHURCH Th e 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 session of Parli am en t.