FATAL LETTER

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 24 November 1924, Page 5

FATAL LETTER

BRITAIN’S ATTITUDE,

TREATIES TO BE DROPPED

BY CABLE —PRESS ASSOCIATION —COPYRIGHT

. LONDON, Nov. 22. lhe Foreign Office in a note to M. Rakov,sky (the Soviet Ambassador in London) states that after due deliberaGovernment is unable to recommend the treaties signed on August- 8 to the consideration of Parliament, or to submit them to the King for ratification.

A ■separate Note to M. Rakovsky regarding. the -Zinovieff letter states that M. Rakovsky undertook to declare, apparently- upon internal evidence alone and without- allowing time for reference to Moscow, that the Zinofieff letter was a gross forgery, in upport ot which M. Rakovsky alleged that the Communist International was

never' mentioned in its own circulars as tlie Third Communist International; that M. Zinovieff never signs as President of the Presidium Executive Committee of tlie Communist International ; and that the whole contents are a tissue of absurdities.

Mr. Austen Chamberlain (Minister for Foreign Affairs) says His Majesty’s Government cannot accept these assertions, which have been disproved by reference to official publications and the Soviet Press. 'The Note continues : “But it is unnecessary to enter into 'detail because the information in possession of His Majesty’s Government leaves no doubt in their mind of the -authenticity of the Zinovieff letter. Therefore, they are not prepared, to discuss the matter. You misapprehend the character of the representations of my predecessors if you supposed they dealt with the Zinovieff letter only, the -activities of which, His Majesty’s Government complain, have not been confined to a particular letter, but extend to a whole body of revolutionary (propaganda, of which the letter is a fair specimen, which for some time lias been conducted secretly. “Sometimes, as you rightly remark, the. unconcealed pronouncements of M. Zinovieff, which -are broadcasted throughout the world, are m themselves sufficient evidence of propaganda, in which the Third Intematonal, with the knowledge of' the Soviet Government, continually indulges. This system, in the view of His Majesty’s Government, is inconsistent with the solemn undertakings of your Government in the Note of October 24. to the ex-Premier, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald.’' Mr. Chamberlain observes that nobody who understands the constitution -an d relation ships of the Corammi - ist International will doubt its intimate connection and contact with the Soviet Government. He further observes that “no Government can ever tolerate an arrangement with a foreign Government, whereby the, latter s in a formal diplomatic relation of a correct kind with it. whilst at the same tme a propagandist body, organically connected with that foreign Government, encourages and even orders the subjects of /the former plot and plan a revolution for its overthrow. This is true and the Soviet Government will do well to weigh carefully the consequences of ignoring this pronouncement.” •

The Daily Herald (the Labour paper), commenting on the Note to the Soviet, says the Government is anxious to hush up the Zinovieff letter, hut the Labour Party will insist upon the complete clearing up of its mysteries and an exposure of the fraud wh erebv the' el potion was won a t the price of provoking an International crisis.