The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1937-08-30
SOUTHERN ASSOCIATION
FEARFULNESS OF RED
PURGE GRAVE INDEX
OF NEW SOVIET CRISIS
Continued from page onel


" his cat failed him at last.
There were six bolShevlES at
the dinner table that evening IN
February. Four have disappeared
in the last two months and are
believed under Arrest or IN exile
One was transferred out OF the
country. One, Neymann, in the
department of the foreign office
which deals with American and
western European affairs. a man
well known in Washington where
he was previously attached to the
embassy, disappeared in the midst
of negotiating the Sovlet-ameri.
can trade treaty, an assignment
on which he was working wniie
was in Moscow.
Another official we'll known to
many Americans, Jacob DoletsKy,
director of Tass, the official news
agency, also is missing. All that
his friends can learn is that there
are rumors that he was arrested
and tried to commit suicide. But
the rumors are without conflrma-
ton.
Casualties in the present purge
have been especially heavy among
officials who deal with foreign
ers and officials who had been
long abroad.
Periodical "cleansings" of the
Communist party by Stains steel
broom are nothing new. Often IN
the past they have resulted IN the
expulsion of hundreds of thou.
sands of members. But instead
of mere expulsions, there are now
widespread executions, arrests,
exiles and dismissals. The extent
of the purge provides clear evil
dence that Stain regards TINS
crisis as far more critical than
the tussle with Trotsky in which
only a few thousand were expell-
ed or recanted their opposition.
This purge strikes deeper and
wider than any previous party
clean-out. II ranges from the IN
ner circles of the government
the central committee OF the
Communist party, which emf
braces the real rulers OF the coun,
trythrough the navy, the req
army. through every department
of the government, to schools.
universities, the Communist youth
organization and directors Of
theaters. n
Reliable information about the
extent of any reasons for this
purge, always hard to obtain, is
now more than ordinarily diff
cult to get. Officials are fright
sned half out of their wits. The
man in the street knows no more
than is told in the heavily Gen.
sored press, which carries little
hut vague generalities and more
often nothing at all. Thousands
have disappeared from the posts
without explanation and without
mention in the newspapers.
Broadsides in the press about the
danger of spies have caused all
foreigners to be regarded as un-
touchables. Thus, the ordinarily
meager Soviet sources of infor-
nation have dried up.
From compilations of items
published in the Soviet press it is
known. however, that at least 500
persons have been executed by
firing squads.
Often news of the shooting OF
scores in groups is printed only
in a single obscure provincial
newspaper and never is mention
ed in the metropolitan press.
Since there are more than 10000
newspapers in the Soviet Union
and no foreign correspondent or
foreign diplomatic mission can
possibly read regsularly more than
a few dozen of the more impor-
tant provincial editions, it is high
/ ly likely that many reports OF
executions have been missed.
J For the same reason, the total
number of arrests, exiles and
dismisSals is purely a matter for
conjecture. Many of the impris.
oned probably will be released
later. The charges against then
cover wide range--that the!
were enemies of the people. dead
~ enemies of the people, Fascis
spies. Observation-Disclosures, de
generates, saboteurs, bandits
Observation-Disclosures, wreckers
rightists and diversionists.
II is known that in the pas
year no fewer than % commits
sionars and assistant commissars
: and probably many more, II
every principal department. o
: the government have been arrest
, ed, removed or shot. Hundreds o
, members of the commissariat o
internal affairs formerly tn
r Gpu), are now in prison. Most o
{ the commanders Of the IL, grea
military districts have been shift