LARGE-SCALE PURGES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27276, 30 December 1949, Page 5

LARGE-SCALE PURGES

Bulgarian And Rumanian Communist Parties Leading Ministers Involved NZPA—Reuter—Copyright Rec. 9 p.m. LONDON, Dec. 29. Reports reaching Vienna from Sofia say that a fresh large-scale purge of Bulgarian civil servants and Communist Party officials is in progress, says the Daily Telegraph. In the last fortnight, the rate of arrests and dismissals is said to have been higher than at any time since the Communist regime seized power. The Ministries of Trade, Industry, Finance, Defence and Foreign Affairs are reported to be particularly affected. Some reports say that the Bulgarian Prime Minister, Mr Vassili Kolarov, is himself involved, and that the Soviet Ambassador in Sofia has been recalled to Moscow to report on Mr Kolarov’s alleged anti-Russian attitude.

The diplomatic correspondent of the Daily Herald says a new high level purge also appears to be imminent in the Rumanian Communist Party. There are persistent reports that opponents of the Foreign Minister, Madame Anna Pauker, are trying to implicate heir in the coming trial of Lucrevic Patrashkanu, Communist former Minister of Justice, who was dismissed and arrested in 1948. Mr Patrashkanu was the first high-rank-ing Communist in a satellite country to be disgraced for opposing Soviet domination, and at the time of his arrest it was reported that Madame Pauker was with him in the party opposition. Madame Pauker’s opponents within the party are said to be determined to secure her dismissal. Her chief rival for the Foreign Ministry is said to be another woman, Madame Liuba Chishinevshi, wife of the head of the Bulgarian secret police, and Madame Pauker’s successor as president of the so-called Women’s Democratic Union.