Page 1, 24th August 1951
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CONTINUING their unremitting
campaign against the Church, the Chinese Communists have placed the Spanish Dominican Archbishop of Foochow, Mgr. Labrador, under house arrest, and have sentenced Mgr. Martina, Italian Prefect Apostolic of Yihsien, to life imprisonment.
Seven of Archbishop Labrador's priests, six of them Spaniards and the other a German, and four nuns have also been placed under house arrest.
On a charge of spying, Mgr. Martina was sentenced in connection with the trial of an Italian, Antonio Riva, and a Japanese, who were sentenced to death on an accusation that they plotted to assassinate Man Tse Tung, Red Chinese leader, in October last year during the Communist anniversary celebrations in Peking.
People well acquainted with Mgr. Martina and the circumstances of the case declare that he is being made the victim of a trumped-up case because at one time he happened to be living at the former Apostolic Delegation in Peking.
He was there because the Communist "liberators" had driven him from Yihsien.
Manufactured
He merely lived in the large Delegation compound, which also housed a community of Chinese sisters, a Chinese Bishop and a group of seminarians.
Only on very rare occasions was Mgr. Martina seen outside the compound. For months prior to his arrest on May 12 he was confined to the Delegation under house arrest.
From all the circumstances, it be-. comes clear that the Communists manufactured the charges against Mgr. Martina to give some semblance to their charges that the Catholic Church was involved in an alleged plot against Mao Tse Tung.
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