RUSSIAN BARBARITY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17180, 10 February 1930, Page 5

RUSSIAN BARBARITY

WHOLE NATION COWED EX-PREMIER'S DENUNCIATIONS LONDON, Feb. 7. "Foreigners are often amazed at the passivity with which Russians bear the Soviet's outrageous insults on religion. but, to judge fairly, one must remember the constant requisitions, espionage and terrorism, including the execution on the average of five persons daily. Ii which they are subjected," said ex Prune Minister Kerensky in a speech at Oxford. '"Everyone." he added, "is solely de pendent on the Government, which is ilie only employer. Any expressions of re ligious convictions means unemployment. withdrawal of the ration card and speedy death from starvation. The Kei! Army's officers and soldiers are in an even more unenviable position. In pur suance of the policy of making the army the nursery of atheism the men are subjected continually to spying, openly and secretly. These persecutions are tendinc io unite the population in a common hatred of the dictatorship. RELIGIOUS PERSECUTIONS POPE'S SPIRITUAL PROTEST ROME, Feb. 8. The Pope, in a letter to Cardinal Ompili, condemns the sacrilegious wickedness perpetrate 1 in Rufsia against God. and against the souls of men. and invites Ihe bishops and Catholics throughout the world lo pray for tic cessation of the moral and material destruction of religions constituting onesixth of those in the globe. He an nounces that he will celebrate a mass ol atonement, propitiation and repavatior in St. Peter's on March 19. He deplore? the Soviet perverting youth, contaminating souls with all sort's of vices, and destroying the intelligence of human nature. His Holiness adds that had the nations assembled at th? Genoa conference in 1922 acceded to his request to agree to insist on religious freedom in Russia, it would have spared many evils. The material interest.-; which prevented such a response would have been better served if the governments had respected the interims of God.