EASTERN EUROPE (RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION) (Hansard, 17 March 1949)

§ Mr. Eric Fletcher (Islington, East)

When I balloted for this subject on the Adjournment some 10 days ago, I was not aware of the very important and serious statement which the Minister of State was to make to the House at the end of Question time yesterday. But notwithstanding that statement, I do not think it any less necessary, indeed it is more topical, that I should pursue the subject, if only for a few minutes, tonight.

Much of the indictment contained in the statement of the Minister of State about Bulgaria, Hungary and Roumania was already known to hon. Members of this House in broad outline, but I think all hon. Members who heard it were deeply impressed and pained by the long catalogue of utter violations by each of these three ex-enemy countries, as well as by the Minister's categorical assertions that they had all been made possible by the open connivance and assistance of Soviet Russia. I do not propose tonight to say anything at all about the violations either of the military or the economic clauses in the Treaties, although it is clear that this country has very great cause to complain of those breaches. But serious as they are, I think that public opinion in this country at the present time is most deeply incensed and indignant—and I think rightly so—at the gross violation of tile clauses that were made for protecting human rights, and perhaps, in particular, at the increasing restrictions that are placed on religious freedom in all of those three countries.

The House will recall that each of the Treaties guarantees all persons without discrimination as to race, sex, language or religion, the enjoyment of human rights, the fundamental freedoms including freedom of expression, of Press and publication, of religious worship, of political opinion and of political meeting. Moreover, Article 4 of the Treaty with Bulgaria recites that Bulgaria has taken measures for dissolving all organisations of a Fascist type on Bulgarian territory as well as other organisations conducting propaganda hostile to the United Nations, 2434 and shall not permit in future the existence and activities of organisations of that nature which have as their aim the denial to the people of their democratic rights.

It is a very sad reflection that during the short space of 18 months since that Treaty was signed there has been such a complete and total disregard of those basic provisions. In the short discussion which took place yesterday afternoon the hon. Gentleman the Member for Brighton (Mr. Teeling) asked for further evidence to be given of religious persecution, and some of the evidence is in accordance with the undertaking of the Minister of State printed in yesterday's OFFICIAL REPORT at col. 2127.

I should like, if the House will allow me, to give quite shortly some further evidence showing that the calculated diminution"— I am using the words of the Minister of State— of the influence of the Christian Churches is an integral part of the totalitarian plan for establishing a Communist monopoly of thought."—[OFFICIAL REPORT, 16th March, 1949; Vol. 462, c. 2121.] It means that there can be no doubt that there is complete suppression of religious liberty.

I am not dealing tonight with the persecution of political minorities—that is bad enough—but I am dealing with the persecution of religious minorities as such. These ex-enemy Communist countries are, as has been said, engaging in a deliberate and avowed campaign aimed at stamping out all religious freedom. It is clear that this is a calculated part of Communist policy from the documents which are published, for example, by the Bulgarian authorities themselves. Secret orders aimed at the persecution of Evangelicals in Bulgaria were issued by the Communist Central Headquarters in Sofia as long ago as January, 1948.

The Bulgarian Press Service in London has denied the existence of these secret orders and challenged proof. A friend of mine has actually seen the document itself in the original Bulgarian text as brought out of Bulgaria. Obviously I cannot give any further details since one of the objects of the Bulgarian challenge is to try and get evidence to incriminate the person who brought it out, or his relatives.

2435 These secret orders were followed in June, 1948, by a circular letter to all Church leaders ordering them, among other things to preach that the State stands above the Church, to refrain from criticisms of the Government to support all Government measures, to require all pastors and priests to join the Fatherland Front, and counteract from the pulpit all anti-Communist propaganda. Following this directive squads from the Communist Party visited the pastors in their homes and insisted, under pressure of threats, that they should join the party. Some 30 or 40 were imprisoned after their answers. Families had been visited and questioned with a view to obtaining accusations and statements.

The trial of the 15 Protestant pastors, all of whom had been imprisoned for over six months, has already been widely reported, but I doubt if its significance is fully appreciated. Bulgaria is predominantly Catholic. Of its population of 7 million, 6 million belong to the Orthodox Church. The rest are mostly Moslems, and there are about 50,000 Roman Catholics and 16,000 Protestants. It is this relatively small number of Protestants who have been singled out for this savage persecution. There were, according to a Bulgarian Press statement, 138 Protestant pastors in Bulgaria altogether administering to the spiritual needs of these 16,000 Protestants.

They could have no possible political significance. Their only offence in the eyes of the Communist leaders was that as Protestants they had in the past had associations and links with persons outside Bulgaria holding similar religious views. These 15 leaders who have now been sentenced to terms of imprisonment were drawn from a variety of denominations, including Congregationalists, Methodists, Baptists, Adventists, and so forth. Their conviction was only made possible in any sense by their so-called confessions. In case there should yet be anyone who has any doubt about the manner in which these so-called confessions were obtained it will be sufficient to quote one authentic account at least that happens to be available about the methods in Communist torture chambers.

I refer to the book written by Michael Padev, "Dimitrov Wastes No Bullets," 2436 who has described in brilliant but restrained language the events in Bulgaria during 1946 and 1947 leading up to the trial and judicial murder of Petkov, that brave Bulgarian patriot who for so long resisted the Fascist terror. His friend, Peter Koev, is one of the few who, having suffered in a Communist torture chamber, was subsequently released, and before being arrested a second time had the opportunity of placing on record, in his own words, in public, as a member of the Bulgarian Assembly, in that Assembly, the experience which he underwent. If anyone is in doubt as to the method by which the confessions of the 15 Bulgarian Protestant pastors were extorted, they have only to read Peter Koev's account of it. I will quote only a few paragraphs— I shall first describe to you how the interrogation in the Militia prison was carried out, so that you may have an idea of how confessions are produced and how Communist charges are built up. You reach a state of utter physical and moral collapse. You become completely indifferent towards your own life and fate, and you long only for an end, any end, which will bring a reprieve from suffering. But the complete collapse comes only at the moment when you realise that you are defenceless, that there is no law and no authority to protect you, and that you are in the hands of your interrogators for ever. This is actually what they try to make you believe right from the very beginning. But let me tell you exactly what happened to me. For two days after my arrest I was confined to a small dark cell and given no food whatever. They told me what the charges were against me. They read confessions written by several officers giving the details of their own guilt as well as my own alleged participation in the conspiracy. Immediately after that I was sent back to my cell and I was not bothered with any interrogations for 21 days. I was left to 'ripen.' The first method used to achieve this was hunger—I was given only a little bread and water every day. On the twenty-second day, a Saturday, I was taken up to the fourth floor for a second interrogation. It lasted without a break until eleven o'clock of the following Thursday morning. The interrogation went on. day and night, for 24 hours round the clock, without a stop, the interrogators themselves being changed every three hours. During all this time I was left, standing, without any sleep. without any bread and, what is worse, without any water. I was handcuffed and not allowed to lean either on the wall or on the table. Every three hours the new interrogator asked the same identical questions, so that in the end I knew every question by heart … On the fifth day I collapsed and was taken back to my cell. … The following day the inspector who was in charge of my interrogation said my obstinacy had obliged him to 2437 change his methods to something really tough. I was put on the floor. My hands were tied behind my back, and I was gagged. Then, for about two hours, I was beaten on the feet with a thick rubber whip. And more of these sickening details.

It was by means such as these that the confessions of the Bulgarian pastors were extorted. I ask the House to imagine the plight of these 15,000 Bulgarian Protestants, scattered among the various villages of Bulgaria, tormented by the imprisonment of their trusted leaders, harassed and pilloried by Communists wherever they may be, and for one reason alone—for their religious faith. The same thing is occurring in Roumania. The Student Christian Movement has been prevented from fulfilling its functions and virtually suppressed—a sinister reminder of the suppression of the Student Christian Movement in Germany by Hitler.

I have here a letter from a Roumanian priest who has recently left Roumania. He describes how many of his religious students were hunted like dogs and had no shelter, no money, nothing at all, and, of course, no opportunity to escape. The survival of the Orthodox Church is made possible only by the simple expedient of securing the election to all key positions of persons who will follow with abject servility the policy of the State. The technique being practised is to destroy the Church as a centre of spiritual resistance and then use a puppet church as a means of controlling the minds and sympathies of the people. Irony is added to this technique by the recent publication in Bulgaria of a new Communist law cynically called "The Freedom of Religion."I have a copy here. A similar law has recently been passed in Hungary. It is sufficient to read one or two typical articles. Article 19. The State administration, or any organ of the State, cannot be mentioned in any religious service or address except in phrases and sentences authorised by the Minister. That means the Minister of the Crown. Again: No religious denomination or church authority can maintain hospitals, welfare centres, kindergartens or other similar institutions. Again: No religious denomination or church organisation which has its centre outside Bulgaria can maintain any religious missions, churches, welfare organisations, etc., in Bulgaria. 2438 I think I have quoted enough to show that the whole Western world is united in its condemnation and abhorence of the crude and cruel methods being used to intimidate spiritual leaders in Eastern Europe and to reduce Church authorities into submission. Hon. Members may well ask what are we going to do about it?

I want to make four suggestions, not necessarily putting them in any order of importance. With regard to trading with these countries I say nothing. I hope that we shall continue to trade with them. I appreciate that that is not a matter for my hon. Friend, but a matter for the President of the Board of Trade. But I hope that we shall not by any action, or in our economic, commercial or industrial contacts, do or say anything which implies any condonation of these actions which we condemn so much. I welcome the paragraph in the Minister of State's reply to my Question yesterday, from which I gather that His Majesty's Government will continue to draw public attention to violations of the Peace Treaties as they occur. In this connection I hope they will do nothing to weaken the force of any such protests or manifestations by the kind of incident referred to in another place in a Debate opened by Lord Vansittart the other day.

It is unfortunately the case that if distinguished Ministers of the Crown attend functions given at the Bulgarian Embassy or Legation, or the Roumanian Embassy, in London at a time when we are protesting against things of this kind, the mere attendance of these leading Cabinet Ministers is used for propaganda purposes in broadcasts to those countries, and internally. By some mischance I was invited to attend the Hungarian national day celebration at the Hungarian Embassy only this week. I presented my compliments to the Minister and said that, in view of the attitude of the Hungarian Government to Cardinal Mindszenty I would not think of accepting the hospitality of the Hungarian Government in this country. I would ask whether it is the intention of His Majesty's Government to implement Article 36 of the Peace Treaty with Bulgaria and the corresponding Articles in the other peace treaties?

Finally, I would like to make this point. At the time of the Treaties, as 2439 at the time of the Charter, it was assumed that the recognition of human rights and the preservation of human freedoms was intimately linked with the preservation of world peace. It was felt that the denial of freedom and the persecution of large minorities by Hitler had itself led to the war. It was, therefore, a major objective in preserving the peace of the world to ensure the recognition of human rights. Now that Fascism is revived, cloaked in the name of Communism, I would hope that the Minister will consider the possibility of bringing these flagrant violations of the Peace Treaties to the attention of the Security Council of the United Nations as a threat to peace.

§ The Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs(Mr. Mayhew)

The hon. Member has set me a formidable task in leaving me to reply to his speech in the very short period of some six or seven minutes. But I think the House must be grateful to him for raising this problem. I felt, when he was speaking about the so-called trial of the Bulgarian pastors, that he was presenting, however unofficially, the true feelings of millions of Nonconformists in this country; not that Nonconformists only among British citizens were shocked by the trial. I think it would be a pity if, when Catholics or Protestants were tried, it was supposed that only their fellow Catholics or Protestants were concerned or had the duty and right to protest. Persecution anywhere, of anyone, whether Catholic, Protestant, Conservative or Socialist, is held by all British citizens to be a crime, whatever their own religious or political convictions. It is the persecution itself which we hate, although the evil sometimes appears more evil when the victim shares our own political or religious convictions.

I cannot, Mr. Speaker, in the short time which is available to me, tell the whole tale of religious persecution in Eastern Europe. Religious persecution, suppression of political parties, the wiping out of the free Press, and the suppression of free intellectual activity of all kinds is part of the life of Eastern Europe today. There is a calculated standard of ruthless oppression of all opposition, real or imaginary, in the Soviet orbit today.

My hon. Friend concentrated on religious persecution, and very rightly stated 2440 that these trials of Cardinal Mindszenty and the Bulgarian pastors and others, were not isolated incidents. They were part of a general offensive against freedom of religion in Eastern Europe. That is true, and it is clear that in the theory and practice of Communism in the Soviet Union and Communist dominated countries, there is a declared enmity to religion. I have not the time to go into the theoretical aspects of this. Hon. Members will be aware of the writings of Marx, Lenin, and Engelss; writings which express hostility towards religion in a peculiar, old-fashioned, pre-Freudian way. More recently I can quote a typical expression of Communist reaction to religion by quoting an official publication in Communist Lithuania on 26th June last year: Religion in a Socialist State is one of the survivals of the capitalist principle in the worker's conscience. Religious prejudices are still maintained because of obscurity, lack of culture, and the strength of custom. 'All religion is opposed to science,' says Comrade Stalin. It is true that the methods used by Communist parties to destroy religious beliefs have been modified since early days. Bitter experience has finally taught the Kremlin that the direct persecution of religion is impracticable and they refrain now from open persecution of religions as such. They try instead to bring religious institutions under their control. They spare no effort to turn the mind of the young from all religious thought and knowledge. It excludes the propagation of religion while expressly authorising anti-religious propaganda. But since they cannot eradicate all religious belief, they maintain controlled religious organisations instead. In the satellite States the churches and synagogues have not been reduced to the same regimented obedience as in the Soviet. The seizure of the Protestant Church pastors in Bulgaria in one fell swoop is the latest example. We in England are familiar with the work of the Protestant leaders.

Who can seriously believe that by some extraordinary coincidence, the head of the Methodist Church, the head of the Baptist Church, the head of the Uniate Church in a country, together with their assistants, were all of them, spies and black marketeers in disguise? But the world is asked to believe an even more astonishing coincidence. It seems 2441 that Cardinal Mindszenty, the Prince Primate of Hungary, was guilty of the same offences, and so also, surprisingly enough, was Archbishop Stepinac, the head of the Catholic Church in Croatia, Bishop Ordasz, the head of the Lutheran Church in Hungary, was recently also sentenced to two years in gaol for the same offences. Every week we see clergymen of one denomination or another arrested in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Roumania, etc., for similar offences, Jesuit houses in Poland have been closed, and last December several Catholic youth organisations in the provinces were forcibly dissolved.

In Roumania the Uniate Church has been suppressed as a separate entity. On 5th December, 1948, the official gazette published a decree extinguishing it, and ordering the confiscation of its property by the State. The Chief Rabbi was forced to flee early in 1948, and has now reached Switzerland. In Yugoslavia, again just a year ago, the orthodox Bishop of Sarajevo was condemned to seven years' hard labour. This is part of a concerted attack on religion which is just part of a similar attack on freedom of all kinds in Communist Europe today. I am asked four questions by the hon. Member whether the fact that we trade with Eastern Europe, and the fact that Ministers attend 2442 receptions given by these countries, indicate in any way, any kind of condonation of these persecutions. Of course it does not in any way indicate that. The question of trade has been discussed often in the House and the hon. Member will not expect me to go into it now.

I was asked whether we would be invoking Article 36 of the Treaty. I can only refer to the statement made by my right hon. Friend the Minister of State yesterday and to state that we are certainly considering the action which is now open to us after the 18 months expiry referred to in Article 35 of the Treaty. Finally, I was asked about the United Nations. The House will appreciate the difficulties here. Certain countries concerned are not members of the United Nations to begin with. Then there is the question of the applicability of the Charter; but I can say that these things are being considered and I would refer the hon. Member to my right hon. Friend's statement yesterday.