Chronicle: Seminary, arrests, trials and rumours of eviction

• The general meeting of the Belarusian School Society, as already announced in the previous issue, will take place on 24 May at 4 p.m. at the Society's premises, 12 Vilenskaya Street, apt. 6.

• The Skaryna Commission. In connection with the 400th anniversary of Belarusian printing in Vilnia, which falls in 1925, the Belarusian Scientific Society has taken upon itself the organisation of the celebration of this great Belarusian cultural festival. In accordance with a resolution of the Society's general meeting, a special "Skaryna Commission" has been created, consisting of the following persons: chairman, R. Astrouski, director of the Vilnia Belarusian Gymnasium; vice-chairman, Senator V. Bahdanovich; treasurers, Members of the Sejm B. Tarashkevich and Fr. A. Stankevich; secretary, Member of the Sejm S. Rak-Mikhailouski; members, the lawyer Kazlouski and the co-operator E. Budzka.

The Commission has already held several meetings, at which it began to work out a plan of activity. The plan will soon be finished, and then we shall publish it in the newspaper.

• Concerning the fate of the Vilnia Orthodox Seminary, we learn from an entirely reliable source that the question of its passing into the hands of the state has already been finally decided. From this autumn instruction in the first two classes of the seminary will be in Polish, extending each year by one further class.

But what is especially characteristic in this matter is that the secular authority is appointing as rector of the state seminary the old rector, Fr. Pilip, known for his hostile attitude to Belarusians, whom the ecclesiastical authority, in the person of the Synod, dismissed from that post! Inspector Dzichkouski also remains in his place, as a state employee. So far, of the old teachers, besides these two, two more have been placed on the staff; the rest are to be dismissed from the autumn, and their places will be taken by teachers who will already teach in Polish.

As we are informed, the seminary administration is trying to conceal this from the public, so that no protests are raised at the diocesan congress planned for the summer.

Thus the people who fought against the idea of Belarusianising the seminary have achieved their aim: instead of a Belarusian seminary it will be a Polish one.

• Echoes of the May Day festival. Interesting details are coming to light in the matter of the attack by a band of endek students and gymnasium pupils on the peaceful workers' march of 1 May.

The bands of attackers gathered in Charity Lane. The police saw them but did not hinder them, nor drive them away when they threw themselves at the demonstrators.

On Vilenskaya Street, near the City Pharmacy, the "przodowniks" calmed the public, saying that the bands of attackers "idą bić żydów" [are going to beat Jews].

The police took several red flags from the demonstrators, among them, on Velikaya Street, the flag of the trade union of building workers with the inscription: "Niech żyje rewolucja socyalna!" [Long live the social revolution!] It is interesting that this very flag was carried at last year's celebration of the workers' festival as well, but then nobody touched it. Now, evidently, a new wind has begun to blow….

• The release of citizen Kepel. On Friday, 16 May, citizen Mitrafan Kepel, chairman of the Parents' Committee at the Vilnia Belarusian Gymnasium, who had been arrested in the night of 30 April to 1 May of this year, was released from the Lukishki prison. The Belarusian public of Vilnia is convinced that citizen Kepel was arrested thanks to the close connections with the Vilnia defensywa of a certain Vilnia little gentleman, whose nickname has even, by the way, been uncovered: "Jacek". The denunciation of Kepel was made out of revenge, because Kepel, as chairman of the Audit Commission, had at the meeting of 3 February 1924 exposed the self-serving [lucrative] activity of the "Chairman of Chairmen" of the so-called Belarusian Civic Assembly in Vilnia, Mr. Stanislau Valeysha.

• A repeated arrest. In the night of 14 to 15 May of this year, for the second time, after a detailed search of his apartment in Antokal, Kanchewski, a member of the Central Belarusian School Council in Vilnia, was arrested and put in the Vilnia prison at Lukishki. The reasons for the arrest are unknown.

• Mr. Wladyslaw Lapurka is being dragged to court. It is already three weeks since the lawyer T. Wróblewski filed in court, on behalf of Members of the Sejm Piotra Miatla and Symon Rak-Mikhailouski, the director of the Vilnia Belarusian Gymnasium R. Astrouski and 15 other persons, a complaint for slander against one of the "grono of the glorious" [circle of the glorious], a representative of the "Polish party", as he calls himself, in the so-called Belarusian Civic Assembly, Wladyslaw Lapurka.

• Death of the Lithuanian public figure J. Kimont. On 18 May the old and deserving Lithuanian public figure Jan Kimont died, having lived 70 years.

The deceased put much work into the Lithuanian cause in Vilnia, having held his position through all the occupations. When the Lithuanians held Vilnia, Mr. Kimont was president of the city.

The deceased was on very close terms with the Belarusian public, for his wife, the late Maryia Kimontova (née Yachynouskaya), was a Belarusian and is known as a composer who wrote the music to V. Dunin-Marcinkievič's operetta "Zaloty".

Jan Kimont was buried on 20 May.

May his native soil lie lightly on him!

• A search in the Lithuanian hostel. In the night of 11 May, as "Lietuv. Rytas" reports, the police carried out a search in the Lithuanian hostel on Panamarskaya Street. Evidently they were looking for someone and did not find him.

It is interesting that on that same night, as we have already written, they were looking for someone among the Belarusians too.

• Trial of a Lithuanian editor. On 13 May the Vilnia District Court sentenced citizen Jan Kuklis, editor of the Lithuanian newspaper "Vilniaus Kelias", to 5 months in prison for printing the article "On the Celebration of the 600th Anniversary of the Founding of Vilnia". The case was heard behind closed doors. The defendant was defended by the well-known lawyer T. Wróblewski.

• Processions from Lithuania to Kalvaryia. A Catholic procession with a cross and banners, singing Polish church hymns, tried to cross the border from Lithuania, heading for Kalvaryia near Vilnia. The border guard did not let them through. The procession then sang a devotional hymn and quietly turned back.

The Vilnia endeks write, in all seriousness, as if the procession had the aim of… taking Vilnia away from Poland! For this reason "Dzien. Wil." prints a vile and stupid denunciation of the Vilnia Lithuanians, who are planning to hold a "Song Festival" in Vilnia at Pentecost.

It is interesting to recall that when in 1911 the Belarusians in Vilnia were organising a Kupalle festival on the Viliya, the Muscovite Black Hundreds printed similar denunciations, saying that "the Belarusians want to conquer Vilnia".

Can the cause of Vilnia really stand so badly for Poland that even a Lithuanian song can threaten it?!…

• An attack by Polish students on a Jewish editorial office. Some days ago three Polish students burst into the editorial office of the Jewish newspaper "Di Tsayt" and demanded to be told who had written an article which those students disliked very much. They were refused. Then one of them struck the deputy editor. The editorial staff and typesetters who ran in wanted to detain the attackers and take them to the police. The students tried to break free by force and flee, and began to beat people with sticks. But they themselves suffered badly from this, and, beaten, they were nevertheless taken to the police and a report was drawn up.

Representatives of the editorial office went in this matter to the rector of the university, who declared that the students would be handed over to a disciplinary court.

"Dziennik Wileński", defending "its own", accuses not the "warlike" students of attacking the editorial office but… the editorial office of attacking the students! Evidently the editors of the endek newspaper regard fistfights as permissible even with regard to themselves!

• Groundless rumours. Rumours, originating from government sources, are again spreading about a planned eviction of all Belarusian institutions from house No. 9 on Vostrabramskaya Street. The Russian newspaper "Vilenskoye Utro", which recently printed a note on the "eviction from the state house", even gives a date for this eviction: the first days of July of this year.

We assert that the rumours of an "eviction" cannot have any basis. The Belarusian institutions and establishments are housed in the said buildings under a contract with the owner of the buildings, the Orthodox diocesan authority. This contract is valid until the end of 1926. This is guaranteed by the laws now in force.

It is true that the government lays claim to the said buildings, but the question of the lawful ownership of these buildings has not yet been decided by a court. In any case, if the government should in the end succeed in taking these buildings from the Orthodox clergy through the courts, the new owner has no right to ignore the contract for the lease of the buildings to Belarusian cultural and charitable institutions.

• In the Vilnia Court of Appeal, the case of Dvaretski, Shloyd, Shatsior and other Belarusian young men from the surrounding villages near Aliakhnovichy station is due to be heard on 22 May 1924. The Vilnia District Court had in its time sentenced these lads to terms of 6 to 8 years each "for participation in a conspiracy which had as its aim the severing of Belarusian lands from Poland, and for robbery attacks", as it says in the District Court's verdict.

The Vilnia lawyer T. Wróblewski appears as defence counsel.