Evening star., 1940-08-06
Soviet Stamps Out
Lithuania' S Patriots,
Dispatch DiscIoses
Hundreds Are Reported
Slain, jailed or Token to
Russia; Suicides Prevalent
BY BLAIR BOLLES.

Dy AAEsAAt DoA<AASSs
In protest against the decision of
Lithuanian to join the Soviet Union,
Col. Pranas Saladzius, the former
chief of the Lith home guard, has
killed himself and his son, and thou
sands of other prominent Lithua-
mans have been murdered, Jailed or
sent to Moscow in custody, according
to a diplomatic dispatch seen here
today after it was sent past the
pro-Russian censorship in Lithu-
ania.
This dispatch, and q memoran-
dunn issued by the defiant Lithua-
nian Minister, Povilas Zadeikis, tell
the story of the strange steps lead
ing up to the death of Lithuania as
sovereign republic, describing the
force brought upon the Lithuanians
by the Russian secret police. Russian
Army and Russian political agents to
come to the decision that now has
made Lithuania Russian province
The terror under way is aimed at
the elimination of the most force
full anti-Russian elements.
Minister Zadeikis has announced
that he considers himself the diplo-
matte representative here of free
and independent Lithuania. The
United States Government supports
him in that view.
Moscow Sent Ultimatum.
Lithuania first felt the fatal Rus
sian pressure May Is, the memo
randum states, when Russian Army
officials advanced charges that Red
soldiers stationed in Lithuania in ac-
cordance with the Mutual Assistance
Pact of october 10, 1899, were being
kidnapped, killed and in other ways
mistreated by Lithuanians. On
June IA Foreign Minister Urbsys of
Lithuania received a three-point
ultimatum from Moscow, with nine
hours granted in which he should
make satisfactory reply. The ulti-
mstum demanded:
l. The prosecution of officials re-
sponsible for the alleged provocative
acts against the Red Army garri-
sons.
2. The formation of a pro-Soviet
government.
8. The admission into Lithuania
of an unlimited number of Soviet
troops.
The government was innocent of
any provocative acts against the
Russian garrisons, the memorandum
insists. Nevertheless, pro-Soviet
government headed by Justas
Paleckis as Prime Minister was
formed and on June Is numerous
Russian Army divisions crossed
Lithuania's border at several points.
The Paleckis government took COM
mand June IT, Two days earlier
President H. E. Antanas' Smetona
departed from Lithuania without
rendering his resignation and a
special commissar from Moscow ar
rived by plane in Kaunas to super
wise the formation of the new gov
ernment.
Pro-Soviet Parliament Elected.
The next step was the election Of
pro-Soviet Seimas (parhament).
The memorandum says on this
point: 7
"The parliamentary elections of
July IA and Is were guarded by
devastating numbers of foreign
troops, supervised by a. special
emissary from a foreign capital and
managed exclusively by one party
(the Communist party with single
list of candidates, while other po-
litical parties that stand for the
countrys independence were barred
from the polls.
Elections were compulsory; those
not voting were considered saboteurs
and enemies of the people. Such
elections, regardless of the officially
announced high voting rate, were
illegal in all respects as, under the
above described circumstances, they
not only cannot and do not repre-
sent the true will of the free people,
but at the same time they aimed
at the very heart of national ex-
lstence by usurping the sovereignty
rights of the free Lithuanian ma