Evening star., 1951-02-27
'Czechs Jail Clements
And 4 Others in Plot
To Murder GottwaId
BY the Assoeiaied Press

PRAGUE, CZechoslovakia. Feb.
27.-Former Foreign Minister
Vlado Clements and four other
top Communist leaders are under
arrest today in an alleged plot to
assassinate Czechoslovakia's Com
munist President and turn the
country to the West like Yugo-
slavia."
This disclosure today by the
Czechoslovak Communist Central
Committee conceded with its an
nouncement that since Septem-
ber it has thrown almost 10000
members out of the party in the
biggest housekeeping since the
Communists took power three
years ago. The housekeeping Is
continuing.
I'VE shall prove" said one of
the reports to the committee on
the arrests, "that there is place
in the party only for those who
in the most holy manner love the
Soviet Union. the Communist
Party of Bolsheviks and Comrade
Stalin."
4 Others Reported Jailed.
Five lesser alleged conspirators
also are reported in prison. The
former leaders now facing trial
haeide~ rleyoeptis ore.
Dr.. Gustav Husak, former
chairman of the corps of COM
missioners (cabine0 of Slovakia.
Laco Novomesky. former Slovak
commissioner of education.
Mrs. Marie Svermova. widow of
the Communist resistance hero.
Jan Sverma. and former party
deputy secretary general.
Otto Sling, former party po-
litical secretary for the Brno re-
gion. Sling and Mrs. Svermova
are accused Of being illicit lovers.
These persons are accused of
plotting to assassinate President
Klement Gottwald, to replace
Party Secretary General Rudolf
Slansky and Prime Minister An
tonin zapotocky. and to seize
both the party and the govern
ment. All five have been ousted
from the party Central Commit
tee and from Parliament. Gle
mentis, who vanished January 27.
has been a Communist Party
member since 1921.
The arrests were disclosed In
publication today of reports to
the Central Committee last We'd
nesday at its four-day meeting
here.
Stefan Bastovansky, secretary
general of the Communist Party
of Slovakia, gave the report on
Clements. Husak and Novomesky,
whom he called bourgeois ma
tionalists" and "Slovak separat-
lists"
Charges Are Outlined.
Bastovansky outlined these
charges against Clements:
He aimed TO divert CZechoslo-
vakia from the way Of socialism.
to cut it OF. from the Soviet Union
and to incorporate 1t into the
camp of imperialism and the war
mongers with the help OF the Mar
shall Plan"
He had been giving spy reports
to representatives Of imperialist
states" regularly on important
government and party decisions.
He committed sabotage against
the party and the government on
orders from diplomatic missions
of capitalist countries. He con-
fessed he did this Ito help the ef-
fort of the class enemy to over
throw the peoples democratic re-
gime and restore capitalism.
Work for French Charged.
He signed an agreement with
the French secret police In
1889 to supply Intelligence and
carry on subversive activities.
He was 'informer agent and
helper IN reactlonary plots to the
late President Eduard Benes. and
Benes helped him become deputy
foreign minister in 1945 and for
eign minister in 1948.
He took an anti-Soviet stand"
on the 1889 German-Soviet pact,
the Finnish Soviet war and the
Soviet liberation Of the Ukraine.
He was a servant Of the Czech
oslovak bourgeois emigre group IN
London"
S.4 Per Cent Of Party Ousted.
Members dropped by the Com
munist Party since September to-
tailed 8.4 per cent of the total.
the Central Committee disclosed.
Published in the press is a re-
port presented to the Central
Committee Thursday by Secretary
General Josef Frank. 1t dealt
with the examination of all party
and candidate members begun
September /, when the party had
2.025,318 members and "candi-
dates" or aspirants to full men,
bership. The purge is still going
on.
Frank noted that the 8.4 per
cent of the party list eliminated
this time compares with 4.3
dropped In the last purge, in
1948.
OF those dropped in the new
purification process, 1884 were
expelled and 143.590 were crossed
off the lists, which does not carry
as much of a stigma as expulsion.
AS a result of the re-examina-
ton, Frank told the committee,
-