DISCUSSIONS WITH RUSSIA.

Evening Star, Issue 23324, 21 July 1939, Page 10

DISCUSSIONS WITH RUSSIA.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —in your footnote to my letter last night you write; “ We might conclude very naturally that ‘ Popolfski ’ wanted war,” etc. The last tiling on earth that 1 want is war. i detest no-, thing more than the person who will inflict pain and suffering on either man or beast. 1 am all for justice and right, having suffered hunger, cold, and misery for six years under Messrs Forbes, Coates, and Hamilton, and, what was worse, watched hundreds more undergoing the same treatment. No, it is not war I want, but, like Mr Jordan, collective security, a real live League of Nations, not the emasculated gelding left by the sabotage of the Conservative Government at Home. As a French writer puts it, “ Justice without force to back it is impotent; force without justice is tyranny.” Messrs Baldwin, Chamberlain, and the National Government have ruined collective security and gone out of their way to try to form a Four-Power Pact with France and the two aggressor dictators, Mussolini and Hitler, ignoring the Soviet Union, which is a co-partner in the League. It is rather peculiar that Mr Chamberlain could fly to Munich and in two hours give Hitler all he wanted and get,nothing in return, but procrastinates for over three months and gets nothing done to consolidate a mutual assistance pact with the U.S.S.It. Mr Chamberlain, coming back smiling from Munich, said he had “ brought back peace in our time.” Since then Hitler has annexed Memel and all Czecho-Slovakia. Mr Palme Dutt says Mr Chamberlain can only escape the charge of criminal treachery by pleading licensed lunacy. If Mr Chamberlain believed what ho said, why has he instituted conscription in peace time, which, he stated he would not do, and further started his armament race? So far from wanting Avar, 1 will oppose compulsory military training as long as the law allows me. I have a better plan, and that is to deny credits to aggressor nations. Mr Atmore explained last night how. our “ patriotic ” financiers lent Hitler millions to foster his drive to the East—in plain language, an attack on the Ukraine in the U.S.S.E., Avith Avhom we are in friendly relation. We ned no conscription or bloodshed, but just honesty to carry out our solemn obligations to the League of Nations. A united front of Britain, France, and the U.S.S.R., Jetting Hitler and Mussolini knoAV without any equivocation that their policy of elimination and encirclement Avill be stopped, if necessary, by force is all that is required. Mr K. Zilliacus, in ‘ Why We Are Losing the Peace,’ sums up the position, explaining Mr Chamberlain’s attitude. Mr Chamberlain knoAvs that the U.S.S.B. is powerful enough to crush Hitler, and after the defeat this time Germany will not be Social or Democratic, but Communist, and more efficient than oven the .1J.5.5.1t., and Mr Chamber-

lain will not have what has been called the red rat of Bolshevism gnawing the vitals of Capitalism. In a nutshell, that explains Mr Chamberlain’s Fascist proclivities and why he prefers conscription at Home to a treaty with the U.S.S.R. Am I likely to want war? Mr Hamilton said he would not operate social security. Well, I would not fight for less to keep him in a privileged position. I did it once too often. —I am, etc., Popoffski. July 20.