Manawatu Evening Standard. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1926 RUSSIA REHABILITATED (?)

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVII, Issue 11, 10 December 1926, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1926 RUSSIA REHABILITATED (?)

The Russian Communists are past masters in the art of dissimulation. In the kindred fields of repression and propaganda they are without rivals. YVe get the truth concerning them occasionally. In describing her experiences 'when she visited Russia in 1919-20, Mrs Philip Snowden, writing in her book “Through Bolshevik Russia,” said: “As propagandists there is surely no race and no class to surpass the Russian Communists. At such work they are simply superb. I am quite convinced from my own observation that they have won their victories on the battlefield far more through their leaflets than their bullets.” She declared further that “the Communist Government of Russia conducts its operations on an incredible scale. Whole buildings of great size are stuffed from floor to ceiling with pamphlets and leaflets printed in every well-used language in the world to which Bolshevist agents have access.” That was in 1920 when Lenin was the inspiration and brains of the Communist Party and Government, and it was then, as now, part of the policy of the Soviet (as set forth in the Communist propaganda of 1919) to develop the propaganda of Communist ideas on a wide scale, and for that purpose of taking advantage of the State means , apparatus, and further to bring about a ■world revolution on Communist lines. We are being asked to believe that a more sober-minded Government has sprung into existence in Russia since then; that it has abandoned its predatory designs upon the governments of other countries and merely desires to be left alone to work out its own destinies. Great efforts are being made to secure official recognition of the Soviet Government by the United States and suggestive articles appearing in American reviews testify to a revival of propaganda in that direction. The Sherwood Eddy Commisison to Russia urges the recognition of the Russian Soviet Republic by the United States, and, as the result of its investigations, gives it a clean bill of health, comparatively speaking, professing to find a material improvement in the conditions prevailing since its previous visits to Russia. It points out that “the Amercan Government lips not based recognition in the past up/m approval of the practices of other governments. Surely (its report says) we did not approve of all the evils under the autocracy of the Romanoffs, the Hohenzollerns, or the Hapsburgs. We did not condone the atrocities of Abdul Hamid and the Sultans of Turkey, yet we recognised their governments. For nine years the present Government of Russia has not only proved itself stable and enduring, but probably gives greater promise of permanence than any other government in Europe.”

There is a certain amount of special pleading about this which is more than offset by the events that have followed recognition of’ the Soviet by Great Britain and by the offensive actions and utterances of the Soviet leaders and their official representatives abroad. What other country has ever plotted or schemed through its diplomatic agents for the overthrow of the governments to which those agents have been accredited, or engaged in subversive movements and conspiracies against the peace and ■well-being of the countries receiving them ? When the Lloyd George Government gave Russia official recognition the Soviet Government solemnly pledged itself to abandon all propaganda against Britain and the Empire. The pledge was no sooner given than it was broken, and, with a craft and cunning as despicable as it was mean and unworthy, the Soviet leaders sought to excuse themselves by alleging that they were not responsible for the actions of tfle “Third International” (that of Moscow) which has continued its attacks upon, and is responsible for much of the trouble Britain is now meeting in the Ear East. The Third International is actually responsible for the policy of the Soviet, the chief members of which are also the leaders of that Communist organisation.

NOT BOUND BY ANY LAW.

Russia is not bound, or rather does not consider herself bound, by any of the recognised practices which are accepted as international law and as binding upon other nations. She is a law unto herself or, rather, the Soviet Government has made her such. If we needed any proof that the men at the head of her affairs have not undergone a change of heart, it is forthcoming in the latest recorded utterances of M. Tchitcherin, who explains the hostility of the Soviet to Britain “on the principle of the French proverb—‘This animal is dangerous because it defends itself.’ ” Russia, according to Tchitcherin, holds aloof from the League of Nations “because (as he alleges) the League only puts greater power in Britain’s hands,” and he declares that “the Soviet will not enter such a trap.” His further statement that “the Soviet has no intention of interfering in China, where nationalism has sprung from the people and is not inspired by the Soviet,” is so contrary to the accepted facts and so abundantly disproved by the evidence that has been forthcoming of the activities of Soviet propaganda by Russian, or perhaps we should say Soviet agents, that it can only be described in terms which are unparliamentary, air though they would really express the truth. In view of the facts it is amusing to find Tchitcherin talking about the Soviet holding out the hand of friendship to Britain—a pretended friendship to enable the Comunists to obtain a better hold of the Government and people and so land them in destruction. It now makes use of both film and wireless in promulgating its Communist principles. Sir Philip Cunliffe Lister, addressing the Imperial Conference, stressed the importance of the cinema as propaganda from the trade point of viqw. But the London Times points out that the political power of r the cinema, though less obvious, is even more important, and a correspondent from Malaya, writing to that paper, attributes the change that has taken place of recent years in the relations between Europeans and the natives of India to the type of films shown tq these semicivilised peoples, and to their minds having been made receptive for the seeds of "Communist doctrine by Chinese agents from Canton and trained agitators from the Communist schools in Russia, whence messages are broadcast from Moscow, both in Russian and English, speaking of the benefits of Communism and “the coming overthrow of the bourgeoisie,” messages of that character being actually picked up on wireless sets in England.