BAPTIST CHURCH IN RUMANIA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19784, 7 March 1927, Page 11

BAPTIST CHURCH IN RUMANIA

PERSECUTION TO STOP? MINISTER’S INVITATION TO DR. RUSHBROOKE. j “Some things are happening to our i people in Rumania that scarcely Jjear I public description,” said Dr. V. J. H. i Rushbrooke, president of the Baptist • Union and secretary of the Baptist : World Alliance, who was the chief guest at the dinner of the' Baptist Laymen’s Missionary Movement (London Federation) in London last month. “ I do not say that for the worst of its evils the central Government of Rumania is responsible, but I do say that a central Government that makes it clear that they desire the local police in to use their zeal and energy in repressing u denomination is opening very wide the door to abuses of every sort, and tho central Government is finally responsible for the condition of its police force.’’ “It was some seven years ago,” Dr. Rushbrooke continued, “that I first came into contact in Rumania itself with this policy of repression and persecution, and I am weary of protesting to the Rumanian Government. The Baptist World Alliance is convinced that the time' for action has come, and a few weeks ago its Executive Committee resolved to promote a world- j ■ wide prote'st against the ill-treatment i ! of Baptists and others. They are ready [ I to go on with this, and expect to secure { millions of signatories in all lands. * They htave also resolved to investigate ' the methods of an official approach to ' the League of Nations, and are pre- ; pared to. go through with this it . necessary. But I am glad to say there is just a little hope that extreme i action may be avoided. I visited the ' Foreign Minister lat Bucharest, and he has invited me to come back in three weeks to confer with him, the Minister of Religion, and the Minister of the Interior on the whole subject. I have I been so often disappointed that I cannot express confidence in tho result of the conference, but I have accepted the Minister’s invitation and asked tho I President of the Baptist World Alli- i ance to defer public action until the | result of this conference is known. '