Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1935. RED ARMY V. WHITE FLAG

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 31, 6 February 1935, Page 10

Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1935. RED ARMY V. WHITE FLAG

What is claimed to be the ' first New Zealand Congress Against War and Fascism was opened on Saturday by an Australian chairman, and if in these, days of depression other gatherings of the same kind could be relied'upon to provide equally cheerful, reading one might hope that it will not prove to have been the ,last. There were "55 delegates present, but after the repudiation published by the New Zealand Returned Soldiers' Association yester-1 1 day their claim to represent a total i I membership of 20,142' must-be re-1 ! duced by a good deal more than 10' per cent. The perfect harmony that I appears; to have prevailed throughout the proceedings'had fortunately | no set-off in any external discord, i One of the resolutions'passed by the! Congress protested against the "persecution" of Messrs. E. Kisch and G. Griffen, delegates to the AntiWar Congress that was recently held in Australia, but happily there were no casualties of its own to be included in the protest. To the eye of reason the capacity to understand Gaelic seems an inadequate test of the fitness of an anti-war delegate for admission to the country, since it would have ruled out Sir Maurice Hankey. and the Poet Laureate "and at least 9?) per cent, of the other Imperial guests at the Melbourne Centenary. Our own Government may be presumed to have taken this view-when they allowed Mr. Nugent; the Australian anti-war organiser, i and Senator Ray to pass the Customs j without proof that, they could speak' Gaelic or even Maori. The' harmony and the dullness of the meetings that they had come to attend were therefore not marred .by the excitements of persecution and martyrdom, - The' generous hospitality of the". New Zealand Government * J was " .also prudent.

The,severest critic of the anti-war movement cannot complain that the constitution adopted has not opened the door wide enough. Membership is open to all sincerely opposed to war and Fascism irrespective of class, political affiliation, nationality, or religious belief. If this were the sole test there is nobody in this country who is not qualified for membership. We are all opposed to war, and we are all opposed, to Fascism. But, so far as war is concerned,.the opposition of course takes' different, forms. There are some, among whom the supporters of this anti-war movement, or most of them, are' presumably included, who are for taking it lying down, which.might be considered a form of acceptance rather than opposition. As to Fascism, however, it may be said that we are all opposed to it, and that there is as yet.no, difference of opinion about the methods. The reason is that Fascism is not a practical issue in this country, and that practical people, among whom we do not include the members of the anti-war movement, have therefore paid no heed to it except in its relation to Italian, German, and British politics. . © ' " The prominence assigned to Fascism in the propaganda of the anti-war movement in New Zealand is indeed the best possible .proof of its", foreign origin. '"War and Fascism" are associated in the programme adopted by the Anti-War Congress in a fashion which, has no foundation in' the political tendencies of the Dominion or in its public opinion and sentiment, but might well seem quite appropriate to a draftsman in Moscow. At the first, glance the, association of war and Fascism as the joint objects of attack looks as though it might be inspired by a desire to show that the movement is impartially opposed io violence of any kind, whether external or internal. But the actual effect is exactly the opposite. The. selection of one form" of domestic violence for attack, while no hostile reference is made to another form of it which has' attracted, far greater attention and is of far more serious importance, indicates not an impartial but a 'biased mind and an approval or condonation of the type of violence which it "has refrained from attacking. There is, we believe, no Fascist organisation in this country, and there have been no Fascist candidates. But there are Communist organisations which have from time to time caused the constitutional Labour Parly a good deal of trouble arid have occasionally troubled the police. In the name of peace the Anti-War Congress declares war upon the non-existent Fascism, but of the Communists

whose reality is beyond a doubt it has not a word to s.ay. But the partiality of the anti-war agitators for Communism takes a more positive form than a convenient blindness to its activities in New Zealand. One of the ten points in the programme adopted by the congress reads as follows:

5. To support the peace policy of the Soviet Union for total and. universal disarmament, which today with the support of the masses in all countries constitutes'the clearest and most effective opposition to war throughout the world; to oppose • all attempts to weaken the Soviet Union, 'whether these take the form of misrepresentation and false propaganda, diplomatic manoeuvring, or intervention by Imperialist Governments.

It is worth a passing note that 'the idolatry here expressed of the greatest Communist Power, in the world is so blind that the possibility of any criticism of it that does not ' take the form of misrepresentation and false propaganda" 'is beyond contemplation! Regarding the value of the Soviet Union's peace policy since .under M. Litvinoff's guidance it abandoned its former isolation, made non-aggression pacts with all or nearly all its neighbours, and entered the League of Nations, we have no hostile or disparaging word to say. • But ,it is a sufficient answer to the .argument for unilateral disarmament which our pacifists base upon, this example to -point that an ■ essential part' of the Soviet's peace policy is the rapid increase of what is already one of the most powerful armies in- the world.

At the Soviet Congress in the Kremlin on Thursday, the 2000 delegates are said to have "thundered their applause for 15 minutes" when the Vice-Commissar of Defence announced that the Red Army had almost doubled in fighting and defence power in the last four years, and at the close of his speech they sang the. "Internationale."

M. Tuchachevsky said that the Red Army had increased from under 600,000 men to 940,000, the air fleet had been more than tripled, the number of tanks increased 700 per cent, submarines 435 per cent., light torpedo craft 370 per cent., machine-guns 700 per cent., and heavy artillery 210 per cent. Coastal fortifications, especially in the Far East, had also been greatly strengthened.' ' ■'

The report of the "Manchester Guardian's" Moscow correspondent, from which this quotation is taken, was happily timed to reach Wellington" on Friday—the day before the opening of the Anti-War Congress. But, in its blind admiration of ,the Soviets peace policy the congress, overlooked the fact that a Red Army of nearly a million men is considered necessary to support it.