Block 94

Church People Defend Custodian, Former Red McALESTER. Okla.—Church peo ple here have taken up the cudgels i n behalf of a church custodian— r former Communist—and his wife who have been ordered deported to their native Belgium by immigra tion authorities. The couple, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Roelants, came to toe United States in 1948 to live with their daughter, Mrs. Harry Lay, the Belgian war bride of a McAlester postal clerk. Roelants, 54, is custodian of the Grand Avenue Methodist church here. Roelants admits he was a mem ber of the Communist party for a short time after World War 11 but said he renounced his membership when he realized what the party stood for. He said his declaration to immigration officials that he be longed to no political party at the time of his arrival in the U.S. was true, since he had quit the Commu nist party more than a scar pre viously. Members of the Grand Avenue Methodist church and of the Church of Christ, where the Roelants are members, have joined in sending a stream of letters to congressmen and other officials in Washington, asking that the deportation order be revoked.