Church of Englander on Reds

To what extent the Soviet Government is guilty of "religious persecution" strikingly appeared last week when England's famed Manchester Guardian secured and printed the substance of the secret report lately made to Prime Minister James Ramsay MacDonald by His Majesty's Ambassador in Moscow, Sir Esmond Ovey.

A God-fearing Church of Englander, schooled at aristocratic Eton, Sir Esmond does not lie under slightest suspicion of partiality for the Reds. He and the First Secretary of his Embassy prepared the report after "very wide inquiries in religious quarters." At the British Foreign Office officials expressed well-bred annoyance that this secret state paper had fallen into even the trustworthy Guardian's hands but made no suggestion that it was not genuine.

Guilty. Sir Esmond has discovered nothing new, but his official confirmation is of historical value. Soviet law from the first has disenfranchised the previously privileged and exalted classes in Russia: the nobility, the priesthood, members of the former fighting and civil services. Excerpt from the Ovey report:

"Priests are automatically deprived of all civil rights--that is to say, they are not allowed to possess ration cards nor are they allotted to any housing space. They have to shift for themselves or--as usually happens--they are fed and housed by their congregations. It has to be said that the majority of priests are well cared for. At the slightest sign of counter-revolutionary activity they are at once shot, imprisoned or banished to Siberia.

"They are not allowed to leave Russia. They are not allowed to be offered employment of any kind, nor are their children permitted to be educated. These disabilities are shared with the former nobility and former members of the naval, military or civil service unless the latter are now in the service of the Soviet Government."

Not Guilty. On the general question of religious liberty the Ovey report states:

"Public or organized religious instruction to persons under 18 is forbidden. On the other hand, any one over 18 may receive religious instruction anywhere in Russia if he or she so desires. . . . The people are free to worship and be baptized, married and buried in Christian fashion, and there is similar liberty for Jews and Mohammedans.

"Churches have been taken over for schools when they were not sufficiently used for worship. Otherwise, the churches are open and the ceremonies are as magnificent as ever. The premises are given for purposes of worship to religious groups if they number more than 20 persons. The number of churches required for religious purposes is, however, steadily diminishing on account of the rapid falling off in the practice of the religions.

"Everywhere, and especially in the towns, the churches are growing emptier and the majority of Christians in Russia today are over 30. The undoubted success of the anti-religious movement is probably in a great measure due to the fact that Communism has become the new religion. . . . If a Communist member of an otherwise Christian family dies, he is not allowed to be given a Christian burial and must have a Communist funeral. As profession of atheistic opinions is one of the necessary qualifications for membership in the Communist party, it is presumed that this is what the dead person himself would have wished."

"No Persecution." Most judges and statesmen do not regard enforcement of any law enacted by the legislature of a sovereign state as "persecution." Sir Esmond Ovey, trained in the British Foreign Office tradition of using words exactly and not loosely (of "saying what one means and meaning what one says"), concludes with the regret of a Churchman forced to give the Devil his due: "There is no religious persecution in Russia in the strict sense of the term 'persecution,' and no case has been discovered of a priest or anyone else being punished for the practice of religion."

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