Editorial Note

In a statement issued to the press on June 23, Secretary of State Acheson took note of the current attack by Czechoslovak authorities on the position of Archbishop Josef Beran and called attention to the fact that it represented a critical point in the calculated campaign of a totalitarian dictatorship to make impossible the preservation of the freedom and rights of religious organizations in Czechoslovakia. The Secretary further observed that the effort to subvert religious organizations in Czechoslovakia followed the pattern of repression previously established in Hungary, Bulgaria, and other countries of Eastern Europe under authoritarian Communist regimes. For the text of the Secretary’s statement, see Department of State Bulletin, July 11, 1949, page 30. In a statement issued to the press on July 20, the Secretary of State took note of the further measures by the Czechoslovak Government to suppress freedom of religion in defiance of Czechoslovakia’s commitments under the United Nations to preserve human rights. The Secretary stated that the Government and the people of the United States deplored the actions of the Czechoslovak regime. For the text of this statement by the Secretary, see ibid., August 1, 1949, page 148.

The Embassy in Praha reported regularly and in detail on the Czechoslovak Government’s campaign of repression against religious organizations. Materials on this topic are included in Department of State file 860F.404.