Wednesday 2 October 2013

Back to your homeland

During 1955-1956 numerous articles were writing about Lithuanians in Adelaide and the situation in occupied Lithuania and submitted to Adelaide newspapers, the Advertiser, the News, the Sunday Advertiser by V. Radis.  I haven't found these articles appearing in Trove, so am not sure if they were actually published.

Adelaide Lithuanians feel annoyed by the red General N.F Michailov’s invitations to return to their homeland.  Many received personal invitations others specially printed newspapers for their purpose entailed ‘Back to your home country’.  In both the invitations and the newspaper it is naively attempted to show that the refugees are starving and being exploited.

This red General is the president of a communist organisation in East Berlin named ‘Back to your home country’ which published a newspaper of the same name and for the same purpose.  This newspaper is spread among the refugees in the western countries.

The organisations activities deal with the following three points;-
1. Publishes a newspaper which maligns the west and praises the life in communist occupied countries.
2. Tries to persuade refugees to return to their homelands by extending to them personal invitations 
3. To extort signatures of refugees relatives living behind the Iron Curtain to certain propaganda letters composed by the organisation which in due course are posted to the respective refugees in the west.

The Lithuanians of Adelaide send back the invitations.  Some of the Lithuanian residents in Adelaide who have received invitations to come back to their country have send them back to the senders pointing out that their invitations would be considered only when all Russians who are this moment are crowding all over Lithuania. Would remove themselves, that is get out.  One of the residents has stated in his reply that such invitations are not tolerated by Lithuanians here and that no one has ever the slightest desire to return to Lithuania in its present state of occupation.

Advertiser 7 March 1956

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