The murder of an Archbishop and the torturing of monks were cited by the Vatican Radio, speaking to Germany, as examples of Bolshevik behaviour in Soviet-occupied countries.
The speaker stressed the fact that the godless movement was making up for its losses in Russia proper by turning to newlyoccupied territories in Bessarabia, Poland, Lithuania and the Baltic States.
The religious danger threatening from Russia is one of the principal questions for Western Christianity." the speaker warned his German audience.
The Basler Nachrichtert, the speaker said, has described the Soviet procedure after her conquests. Members of the parties who have up till now been leading in the political or cultural sphere in occupied territories are rounded up. All officials down to the policeman and all important business men are seized, and, if not murdered at once, they are deported to the interior of Russia Of to the mines of the Ural Mountains. The number of people doing forced labour there has increased enormously. Churches are closed and priests of all creeds are persecuted. In newly-gained Bessarabia, for 'instance, the Archbishop of Bender (the Archbishop of Bender would appear to be an Orthodox prelate. There is no Catholic prelate of that name or see.—Editor C.H.), was assassinated and several monks were tor
trued. Inhabitants of the countryside are treated a little .sore gently but no less thoroughly. So-called committees of the village poor work in the first instance against peasants with possessions, the Kulaks. Gradually the transition is made to communal economy.
(Captain McCullagh on Communist Peril, see page 5).