SOVIET HATRED.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 14 September 1927, Page 8

SOVIET HATRED.

DIRECTED AGAINST .BRITAIN. BLOOD-CURDLING THREATS. RIGA, Aug. 25. Diplomats and others who have recently been, travelling in Soviet Russia give picturesque accounts of some of the after effects in that country of the diplomatic rupture with Great Britain. All foreigners are now more or less under suspicion, and it lias become i lift reatsingiy difficult for them to secure the necessary visa when they desire to leave the country. The* exit visa is, in fact, generally obtainable, but only through a* class of semi-official: tout, whose “influence” in the matter witli Bolshevik officialdom has* frequently to be* bought at heavy rates. The hatred of Great Britain among me ‘‘Red” officials and politicians is almost incredible on its violence. The previous grievances against Poland and Rumania are as a rule forgotten or overlooked.

“What about your claim, to* Bessarabia ? ’’ inquired one visitor of a Soviet leader. “Be*ssarab*ia? Oh, that is a very small issue, laifter all. Bessarabia can wait. There is only one enemy who* counts, and against whom we must concentrate all our forces. That enemy is Great Britain. ”■ WAR) PREPARATIONS. _ Side by side with, rhetorical effusions about Moscow’s alleged yearning for peace*, there laire now appearing in the utterances o*f “Red” politicians and publicists the most blood-curdling threats. Only the other day, in one of the semi-official journals, M. UnscMicht was revelling in the description of the terrible weapons* which the “Red” Army and munition factories had in course* of preparation for the next war. Europe, he suggested, would he staggered by the death-dealing gases which would* kill in a few minutes the whole population of a great city, and by tbe swarms of equally murderous aerolplaiies. Tt is as well that these far-from-pacific statements' by Soviet leaders should be brought out.

RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT IN HKRAINE. In the Ukraine, where there is growing peasant revolt against Moscow, an Interesting religious movement is in progress. It may be remembered that the so-called Ukrainians or “Little Russians” belong to the same racial and linguistic stock as the Rutheniums of Galicia. But, whereas* the* Ukrainians for iai long time past have been members of the Orthodox Church, the Ruhheninnfi follow the Uniate Church, which, though boasting special rites, is in Communion with Rome. The destruction by Bolshevism /of the genuine Orthodox Church, and its enforced supersession by a bogus or “Red” Church, has so disgusted the Ukrainian, believers that many tend to join the Uniate Church—like their fellowRuthenians—or the Latin Church itself. Tt is* doubtless to, this end that ns fair back ns. 1920 Cardinal Gasparn. the Pan*al of State, encouraged the Ukrainian Autonomists under Pet li lira, since murdered.