RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 140, 16 June 1930, Page 6

RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA.

s Once again the subject of "Red" propaganda ' has been raised in the British House of Cpnimons. Sir Austen Chamberlain confuses-4on-estly or otherwise—the Soviet Government with the Communist International. As the" issue is of international importance,' a brief' explanation of the position may he of interest s to your readers. The Soviet Government is i- elected on a mixed basis of industry and e territory (i.e., kind of job and place of.resi- . e dence). All adult' workers and peasants may f rote for or be elected to the local Soviets, . which in turn elect the provincial councils „ from which the All-Russian Congress, and, ultir mately, the Cabinet Ministers, as we would r call them, are elected. This system is a dictay torship of the workers and peasants in so far | as capitalists are disfranchised. It is not, 2 however, a dictatorship of the Communist e party, which, is simply the most. influential 1 and numerically strong, but not the" only , political party in Russia Because the masses have faith in Communists most executive meni--3 bers of the Soviet Government are also menif bers of the party. The Russian party, together .. 3 with the German, French, English and all other j Communist parties, have federated as the Comj munist International, which meets annually j at Moscow. It meets there rather than in . j London or Paris, for the simple reason that the capitalist Governments of France and Britain would not tolerate what they regard , as a threat to the existing economic system. We see, then, that the Russian Communist party is only one of many Communist parties which comprise the body known as the Communist International, and it is this body i and not the Soviet Government that is respon- > sible for any propaganda that really is put , out. When the British Communist daily paper \ recently commenced its existence a congfatu-, , latory message was received "from Mosco'iy." , ' This was represented by Tories as being Soviet. : Government interference. Actually ; it _ was ' sent by the Presidium of the International, , one member of which was an Englishman (an Oxford ,graduate, Page Arnot by name), the second was a German, the third a Frenchman. \ It is as rational to identify the New Zealand ', Government with a particular Church because , certain Cabinet Ministers are members of that : Church as to identify the Russian Government with the world political organisation known- ' as the Communist International. .. S. W. SCOTT. [It is not necessary to waste space hy - - repeating at length the evidence which identifies the Third International—so far_ as its principal activities are concerned —with the Bolshevik dictatorship. When our Foreign Office was negotiating its recent provisional agreement wjth Russia, Mr. Henderson told : the Bolshevik envoys, as he told the House of Commons, that the British Government refused to draw any distinction between the Soviet Government and the Third International in regard to propaganda work in Britain. This, may not satisfy Mr. Scott, but it is quite enough for us, and for most other people.— Ed.] :