RUSSIA SAID TO BE FORCING JEWS INTO LABOUR IN SIBERIA

Wanganui Chronicle, 26 July 1949, Page 5

RUSSIA SAID TO BE FORCING JEWS INTO LABOUR IN SIBERIA

NEW YORK, July 24 (Recd. 6 pm —The American Jewish League Against Communism charged today that 400,000 Jews are being deported from the Ukraine and e ßyelorussia int > reed labour to Siberia. organisation announced it had sen; letter to Mr Trygve Lie, Secre tary -General to the United Organisa tion, seeking the use of United Nations facilities “in the name of humanity to enj brutal and sudden deporta tions,” of Jews. The letter said: “The Russian countryside is filled with long northbound deportation trains. Each car is crowded with Ukranian and White Russian families, all Jewish. They tell of how the dread N.K.V.D. comes suddenly with patrol wagons, and, in a few hours, the Jews arcprisoners on trains bound for forced labour in frozen wastes.” The letter said there were two Reasons for the Russian action. (1) White Russia and Ukraine are at the borders of the Soviet and Stalin does not trust the Jews’ adherence to his regime when war threatens; (2) the Communist Government is appeasing antiSemites, who, the letter adds, always had been strong in these areas.