Patea & Waverley Press FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1923. A BLASPHEMOUS PARTY

Patea Mail, Volume XLVI, 7 September 1923, Page 2

Patea & Waverley Press FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1923. A BLASPHEMOUS PARTY

WE have again and again called attention in these columns to the danger that threatens the people of this country of the extreme Labour Party obtaining the reins of power. That the danger is a real and not an imaginary one is shpwn by the increased Labour vote at each general election, the increase being due to the fact that many of the electors who support the Labour candidates do not realise the danger that awaits them should the extremists rule. It is high time the people woke up to the fact that extreme Labour rule means the rule similar to that existing in Russia to-day, where Christianity is being trampled in the mire. History has taught us that the worst form of government that can exist is government by the mob, with the laws of God set at naught. The

streets of Paris ran with blood a little over a century ago when the .Revolutionaries held sway. Russia is, if anything, in a worse condition at the present time. What the people of this country can expect under Bolshevik rule may be gathered from the report of the doings of the Extremists in Petrograd during the last Christmas and Easter celebrations. In that city the League of Communist youth organised great processions calculated to ridicule the Christian religion. In one of the principal thoroughfares a scaffold was erected, and on this effigies made to represent the Son of Man and the Virgin Mary were publicly beheaded, amid cheers and ribald laughter. Similar scenes were enacted at Moscow, where speeches were made at street corners proclaiming war against the “autocracy of Cod,” and declaring all Heavenly crowns as having lost their power. This violent campaign is conducted under the official patronage of the Russian Communist Party. A special paper is printed called “The Atheist,” in which prominent Bolsheviks indulge in most disgraceful blasphemies. As an indication of the kind of matter published, the following paraphrase on the Lord’s Prayer is cited:— “Our Father, Capital, Thou who art on earth. Thou Almighty who changes the course of rivers and tunnels through mountains, who divides continents and unites nations; creator of merchandise and source of profit, who commands; to kings and subjects to masters and workers. Let thy kingdom come on earth. Give us many buyers for our products, good and bad. Give' us miserable workmen who consent submissively to do all work at a low price. Give us fools to believe in our advertisements. Let our debtors pay in full and find us banks to discount our bills. Preserve us from prison and bankruptcy.” This campaign has been described as the greatest anti-religious crusade since the French Revolution. It is significant that all denominations arc affected. For instance, during the Jewish Passover, mock ceremonies were held, and pseudo rabbis, swathed in mock holy garments, chanted Hebrew melodies with sacrilegious words, and carried imitation gold scrolls on which atheistic epigrams were printed. The Melbourne “Argus” commented as follows upon the anti-religious onslaught made by the Russian Sovietists: —“This dreadful persecution in Russia has aroused in Britain a Avave of indignation and hatred. What the protest puts into calm language the common people Avill put into a more forcible speech. ‘Savages, brutes, devils,” will be the ideas of Bolsheviks in the mouth of the English public: Yet this cruelty in Russia is not merely another outburst of that savagery Avhich sometimes is seen in the excitement of the Russian populace. This thing is calculated. It is the result of a system. It is not a mere Avar lust, or blood lust, but a deliberate method of utter abomination Avhich can never be Aviped out. The Soviet hates religion; especially does it hate the Christian religion, Avith a cold and deadly persistence. But Avhy this consuming passion of hatred, Avhy this deliberate persecution in order ‘to. root religion out of the land’? There are many reasohs. Religion stands for the family; it stands for liberty; it stands for the home and its life and its little bit. of property; it stands for mercy and kindliness and neighbourliness; above all, it stands for God. What does the Soviet stand for? For tyranny, for the destruction of the home and the ties of home life, for rationalism and the cutting of all ties betAveen man and God. Bolsheviks say they are against superstition, but- they are really against all social life, and against that religions foundation on Avhich our social life rests. Our civilisation may have many faults, but, on the Avhole, it rests on the brotherhood of man and the sonship of man to God.” It is time the electors of this country took a stand and saAv to it that no candidate for Parliament Avas returned who had in the slightest degree any leanings tenvards Communism. The man avlio Avould destroy the British Constitution and set up in its place the blasphemous doctrine of Bolshevism is a menace to the community, and should be treated as such Avithout any scruple.