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Copyright © 1956 Lithuanian Students Association, Inc.
 
No.2(7) - June 1956
Editor of this issue: L. Sabaliûnas


LITHUANIAN AFFAIRS IN THE AMERICAN PRESS

Prepared by L. VALIUKAS

Cyprus and Lithuania
We hear "colonialism" denounced by unthinking spokesmen in America of various causes and groups who parrot the Communist line on the same -subject.

Eighteen United States Senators called last week for the liberation of Cyprus from British rule, but the same Senators are not so solicitous about those who once had their independence and now have been deprived of it by the Communists — the people of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria, Rumania, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. 
        —David Lawrence, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, March 23, 1956.

Holy Lithuanian Prelate
Clarendon Hills, 111.—Marian Fathers are praying for the cause of a holy Lithuanian prelate, Archbishop George Matulaitis-Matuleviiius, who revived their community when it had dwindled to a single member because of Russian suppression.

As Bishop of Vilnius, the prelate suffered Communist interference in the days after World War I. He visited the United States twice, the last time in 1926, the year before his death. A number of cures have been attributed to his intercession. His cause was introduced in 1953. A delegate of the General Postulator is the Rev. Casimir A. Matulaitis, M.I.C., Marian Hills Seminary, Clarendon Hills, 111.
        —THE REGISTER, Denver, Colo., Feb. 12, 1956

Did anyone cheer?
When the Russians talk to the peoples of Asia, then they pose as anti-imperialists and anti-coloni-alists.. But they give themselves away sometimes. I saw the other day a quotation from the Moscow radio. It said, "The Soviet Union has always been on the side of peoples fighting for their national independence."

I wonder if anyone was listening to that in Lithuania or Latvia or Estonia. Did it strike an answering chord in Rumania, Bulgaria or Albania? Did anyone cheer in Hungary, Czechoslovakia or Poland?
        —Selwyn Lloyd, British Foreign Secretary, THE TIDINGS, Los Angeles, Calif., February 10, 1956

Lithuanians Rebel in Mines
STOCKHOLM - Revolts have broken out again in Soviet forced-labor camps.

A report compiled by a Latvian, Dr. Adams Slide, involved interviews with hundreds who have been in recent contact with Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians held in the camps.

Inmates, led chiefly by Baits, went on hunger strikes and blocked work in coal mines.
prepared by L. VALIUKAS

The Russians were rorced to improve food rations, permit more religious freedom and let the prisoners receive packages and letters.
        —THE DETROIT FREE PRESS, Feb. 20, 1956

Life under Communists
And there was a Lithuanian, Vaclovas. He returned to his Baltic homeland from Buenos Aires on the strength of Communist returnee propaganda. To Lithuanian refugees still in Argentina ,he wrote:

"Things are marvelous. I have a good job as a chemist. I advise you to come back too. But before you do, be sure to buy the proper type of trunk at Lazaro Costa's store in Buenos Aires."

The "trunks" in which Lazaro Costa deals ar; coffins.
        —NEWSWEEK, March 12, 1956

A Murderer oi Thousands
NEW YORK, March 28 (AP)—Army Gen. Ivan Alexandrovich Serov, who has been called an "odius thug," a "jackal" and a "murderer" by the British press during his visit to Britain, is a veteran Soviet police officer whom Nikita Khrushchev trusts.

Documents captured during the war show it was Serov who signed an order just before the German attack in June 1941 on the procedure for deportation of Anti-Soviet elements from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Under this order thousands of Baltic citizens were exiled to Siberia.
        —Tom Whitney, THE LOS ANGELES HERA! ;> & EXPRESS, March 28, 1956

Refugees "meet" Malenkov
As reported last week, the only public demonstia-tion against Malenkov came from an emigre group of former Red colonials. These refugees staged a dignified protest the way the Poles and Lithuanians did here in Los Angeles last year during the Red commissars' visit.

(The Communist press, you will recall, called tne local demonstrators "drunken hooligans.")
        —Paul Burton, THE TIDJNGS, Los Angeles, Calif., March 30, 1956 .

Freedom ior Baltic States?
Watch for a fullblown campaign by the State Department to exploit the Communist confusion over Stalin. State may soon ask about such Stalin-Inspired actions as the grab of Baltic republics and changes in Polish borders1; may even try to force Russia to admit Stalin ordered" the shocking Katyn massacre in Poland.
        —NEWSWEEK, April 2, 1956