CATHEDRAL CONDEMNED

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4587, 18 July 1923, Page 4

CATHEDRAL CONDEMNED

ACTION OF POLISH GOVERNMENT. By a freak of irony the Polish Government has decided to make an exhibition of folly by demolishing a famous piece of Russian ecclesiastical architecture, namely, the Orthodox Cathedral at Warsaw. For Poles In one breath to protest against the Russian prosecution of the Roman Catholic Church and to emulate the same spirit themselves against the Orthfcodox Church makes cne despair of reason in the hysterical parts of Europe, says the “Observer.” The matter i, s shown in another light by the “Scotsman,” which says: "The Cathedral of St. Alexander Nevski is a modern garish structure of Bybantin style, with gilded domes and ornate towers, and is completely out of harmony with the surrounding buildings. Ijt occupies the principal square of the capital of Poland, and was, erected by the Russian Government for the deliberate purpose of serving as a daily reminder to the Poles that they lived under a foreign domination. Worshippers it had none, except when used as a chapel for the Russian garrison, and on their departure it was a white elephant. It is not surprising that one of the first decisions of the Government, only now about to be carried out, t should have been to remove a building which was an irritating reminder of the presence of an alien race and religion, and which, moreover, occupied a site with historical associations for the Poles. Recent events have merely strengthened the resolve to demolish the building, which was completed only 18 months before the war.