The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1919-06-19
OUTRAGES AT ODESSA.
British Chaplain Describes Reign Of
Terror.

The Chronicle publishes an article
by R. Courtier Foster, British
chaplain at Odessa and Russian ports
of the Black sea, describing the re-
ligious persecution practiced by the
Bolsheviki upon their former capture
of Odessa. He says:
COMMITTEES were held On board
the ships of the Black sea fleet,
among the lockers in the port, and in
the towns and villages on every hand.
which passed resolutions reading:
We abolish Cow In Odessa cathed
raj, when the archbishop of Kherson
was celebrating the Holy histories
an uproar occurred with cries Of
Down with the church, At a fete
in the town gardens one saw SOL
dier of the Red army, amid the
outlaws of his fellows, spit on the
Russian holy picture of the face of
Christ, then tear it into fragments
and stamp it into the dust.
"The Bolshevist conception of re-
ligious tolerance is considerably
more elastic and far-reaching than
the ideas of any medieval inquisition.
In this matter the Bolsheviki pride
themselves on being far in advance
of our effete western thought. They
have murdered Valodimir, the Metro
politan of Kiev, 20 bishops, and many
hundreds of priests. Before killing
them they cut off the limbs of their
victims, some of whom they buried
alive in the Kremlin. The cathedrals
in Moscow and those in the towns of
Yaroslav and Simferopol have been
sacked. Many nuns were violated
and the churches defled.
The ancient and historical sacris-
ties and famous libraries of Moscow
and Petrograd were pillaged and
countless sanctuaries profaned. In
Cronstadt cathedral the great figure
of the Crucifed Christ was torn down
and removed, and a monstrous and
appalling pagan form placed in it's
stead, symbolizing Freedom of Mind
tIt is not against any one particu-
lar form of religion that the terrors
of the New Freedom are hurled. Or
thodox Roman Catholics and Luth-
erans alike have been tortured, mu-
tilated, and done to death under the
aegis of the Holy revolution, which
appeals to the proletariat of the
whole world to join. it's forces.
''The revolutionary government is
subjecting the Christian religion to
prosecutions as great and brutal as
anything the world ever saw during
the first three centuries of the Chris
tion era. Moral disintegration and
ruin spread their tentacles on every
side. Any restraint on sinful i'm
pulse or covetous desire is laughed
to scorn. The Bolsheviki publicity
encourage outrage and looting. The
propaganda for freedom of the mind
is essentially nihilistic. 1t is based
on negation and denial of the ex-
istence of God, denial of the author
ity of any moral law, denial Of all
rights of conscience, denial of all
religious liberty, denial of all free
dom of the press, denial of any liber-
ty of speech.
Zone officer remarked despairingly
to me: In Russia now there is no
God, no czar, no law, no property, no
money, no food-only freedom And
in that travesty of liberty which the
whole civilized world may we'll shud-
der at, all mercy, pity, and liberation
are alike scorned. And it is this new
and wonderful equality Of man which
by means of torture, outrage, and as
sassinations proclaims the freedom
of mind and body to the devastated
Russian nation"
acnuainted is thrown aside and