Whose Property?

The Soviet Government has a hard row to hoe. The sum total of the Communist Party is only an infinitesimal part of the Russian population, who, may it be said, give the Bolsheviki more trouble than is generally supposed. The Government has another task hardly less difficult: the efficient governing of Russia. This requires money. One way of getting it is by the sequestration of church property.

Thus, the latest horror of the Bolshevik regime is the trial of Archbishop Zepliak and 15 other priests of the Roman Catholic Church. The case for the prosecution is that the priests occasioned the use of violence by resisting Soviet agents in the course of their duty, which was to confiscate church property. The defense is that the church treasures neither belong to the Roman Catholic Church in Russia nor to the Russian people, but to the Church in Rome.

In the course of the trial testimony was given that a priest had protected a cupboard containing valuables with his body, saying: " Only when you have cut your way through this body can you get to the vessels." It also transpired that the Pope had authorized resistance to the Bolshevik regime, stating that the Soviet regulations were unacceptable. Archbishop Zepliak admitted issuing circulars denying that the Government had authority over the Church; but he declared that he did not carry on anti-Soviet propaganda.