The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. FIDAY, AUGUST 8, 1919. THE PERIL FROM ABROAD.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 187, 8 August 1919, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

FIDAY, AUGUST 8, 1919. THE PERIL FROM ABROAD.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance. For the future in the distance, And the good' that ice can. do.

To those who nave studied the aims of Continental Bolshevism it will be no surprise to learn that the British Government is convinced that foreign money is being used to promote a revolution in England through It is definitely stated that the authorities know that Bela Kun, the just dethroned Bolshevik leader in Hungary, sent a sum of money to an. English Labour leader with extreme views, and according to the "Daily Mail" Russian Bolsheviks are also implicated in the plot. This is in keeping with avowed Bolshevik doctrine. For the true Bolshevik there is no country; all international barriers must be broken down and the flame of revolution spread through the world. Lenin and Trotsky regard the subjugation of Russia to their vieAve as only one step in a gigantic task. The whole of Europe, and eventually all the world, is to pass through revolution of violence into the control of the proletariat. Lenin's one aim, says an English writer on the subject, is the establishment of Communism throughout Europe by means of the international Bolshevik revolution. It is necessary to lay stress on the "throughout Europe," because Lenin himself has admitted that a communist Russia cannot exist alongside a capitalist Europe. As late as December 10, 1918, Lenin said in a speech to the Congress of Poverty Committees, "Our chief hope, our chief support, is in the proletariat of Western Europe, in the proletariat of the more advanced countries." Last year another leading Russian Bolshevik defined the programme of Bolshevism as the liberation of the proletariat of all countries, the establishment of the international dictatorship of the working-class by armed revolt. It is mo6t important that this larger programme of Bolshevism should be understood. Bolshevism is not merely a hideous disease afflicting Russia; it may be likened to a leper malignantly striving to infect a community, which community is the civilised world. It follows from this programme that the Russian Bolsheviks will do their utmost to stir up trouble in other countries, and from what is known of their methods that they will be quite unscrupulous in what they do. To the Bolshevik the end justifies the means. He is determined to smash the social order, and he does not care what fails or who perishes in the ruins. One of the most illuminating remarks attributed to any Bolshevik is Lenin's comment on the destruction of Rheims Cathedral. The cathedral, he said, " was but a monument of the times when the poor were oppressed by the rich, and when we look upon it from that point of view the Germans were quite right to shell and destroy it." So the Bolshevik

leaders send their emisearies to stir up revolution and dlomote iconoclasm abroad. They succeeded for some time in Hungary; Bela Kun was a pupil of Lenin's. They were crushed in Germany. Taught from experience, they are probably more careful in France and England, trying to cover revolutionary pie- , ' parations with a screen of strikes. The material is there to be worked upon by these glib agents, fanatics pouring out torrents of abuse of the social and economic system, or subtly planting a. poisonous word here and there. Britain is in a ferment of new ideas and aspirations. The working classes are keenly conscious of their wrongs and determined to right them. * The strain of the war persists. Large masses of the people are ignorant of fundamental economic laws. The Bolshevik emissary is determined to exploit this promising situation. Here and there he meets a firebrand like himself; but the mass of the workers, ihowever much they wish to assert their rights, are not Bolshevik in aims and methods. These can be exploited by indirect means. Some extremists in the unions help the propagandist no doubt without knowing who he i?. It is significant that Mr. Stanton, M.P., a Welsh Labour leader of well-proved loyalty and energy in patriotism, ihas started a movement for the elimination of Socialist extremists from the miners' organisations. It was stated on good authority during the war that German agents had a footing in these bodies, and it is quite likely that Russian agents are there to-day. * • Russian Bolshevism awakes no sympathy in the average Briton, who is accustomed to make his social, political, and economic progress by entirely different methods. A revo'ution of violence in England is only conceivable as the -esult of bad and etupid government. The danger is rather that this Bolshevik propaganda will have disastrous economic effects. The industrial situation shows no improvement since Mr. J. H. Thomas, M.P., and the Minister of Labour spoke their grave warnings the other day. And the Bolsheviks are not the only people who are interested in English unrest. It is probable that German agents are also active in troubling the industrial and political waters of England. Having used Bolshevism once with tremendous effect, Germany is not likely to put the weapon down. The military arm has failed against England; there remain methods of "peaceful" intrigue, which are more difficult to meet. Everyday therefore emphasises the need for cane and loyal leadership of Labour at 'Home, and for making the mass of the workers understand the basic facts of the industrial situation. Influences iike the "Daiiy Herflld," the Labour newspaper published., in.iondon, a-e playing with fire. It professes-lo aim at a peaceful revolution, and the true Bolshevik would scorn tV call it brother, Tiut the Government has been compelled to prohibit its circulation among the army of occupation in Germany. But there is a corresponding obligation on the part of the employing class to treat Labour fairly. The Minister of Labour has indicted all classes for selfishness, and if England is to win to industrial and political safety, and present a front of granite to the foreign intriguer, all classes must work together for the common good.