FREEDOM AND INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATION

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21647, 4 December 1935, Page 17

FREEDOM AND INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATION

•SO THE EDITOR OF TH* MISSS. , . Sir,—lt is. with diffidence that we take issue with your correspondent from London, Mr W. Tudor Pole. At the same time we feel more is implied in his letter than is actually stated. Any attempt to break down the all too small amount of international co-op-eration to preserve world peace cannot be too roundly ' condemned, no matter what specious excuse is put forward as a cover. It is true that "freedom" is strangled; that applies to all countries, for general freedom is, ipso facto, incompatible with class society, the existence of classes necessarily meaning the subjection of the underfolk by the dominant class. Only the dominant are free. This is so in the U.S.S.R. But in that country, according tojthe latest figures, approximately 95 per cent, of the population is of the dominant class and the people are. nearer that general freedom than the people of any other country. In capitalist countries the reverse is found, a very small minority of extremely wealthy people are free, but it is at the expense of the freedom of the majority. In regard "to the very vexed question of religion, the State is absolutely secular, all forms of religious ceremonial being abolished in February, 1918. No church is subsidised by the State, no church receives preference, neither is there any theological.chair in any State university whatsoever, but—there is religious freedom. The decree of February, 1918, on the freedom of conscience and rights of worship is as wide as may be found in any country and infinitely wider than under the Tsar. As a matter of fact the Soviet Union gives a recognition of the rights of the religious objector to military service, which many socalled Christian states do not. No one, however, denies that the aim of the leaders of the people of the Soviet Union is anti-religious nor that they are doing all they can to wipe out the religious impulse. They are doing this by means of education of the masses in science and Marxist philosophy and exhibitions of the fraudulent "Incorruptible" saints (of wax) and virgins' tears that had their source in water containers connected to the statues' eyes by rubber tubes. But if religion is true it will easily withstand this, and if it is not, another illusion is gone. Too many visitors from the Soviet Union have told of attendances at the services of the Greek Church for anyone to believe that the churches have been forcibly closed.

It was. the concluding paragraph of your correspondent's letter that made us take up the question even though it is with a London writer. This paragraph is entirely contradicted by facts, for there is. as between Great Britain and the U.S.S.R., a considerable and growing trade, a more favourable displomatic situation than for years past, a very great deal of cultural exchange, and last, but not least, a very considerable amount of international co-operation in the application of sanctions against a war-making power. We are afraid that Mr W. Tudor Pole is as out of date as his middle name suggests; he should not shut his eyes to what is actually occurring, even if it does run counter to deeply rooted prejudices.—Yours, 6tC. f PRESS COMMITTEE. FRIENDS OF THE SOVIET UNION. December 3. 1535.