BOLSHEVIK PROPAGANDA

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue LXXIV, 27 August 1919, Page 7

BOLSHEVIK PROPAGANDA

A WARNING

In connection with the telegram wh,ich appears on page 4, the following extract from an article, in the N.Z. National Review appears to explain matters :

We have to call the attention of the Government of this country, and the Attorney-General in particular, to the following f;icts, and demand that urgent action be taken in view of the serious menace threatening the country, which it is imperative in our national interests -should be nipped in the bud and checked without delay. Shortly after' we had gone to press with this issue (July) there came into our possession a 48-page pamphlet entitled "Seventy-six Questions and Answers on Bolshevism and Soviets," by Albert Rhys Williams. It is reprinted from the Vancouver Trades and Labor Council hy the Auckland Free Press Prdntery, 335 Queen street, Auckland and dated 1919. It is being actively but secretively circulated among the workers in Aiiekland, and no doubt this is a preliminary move towards flooding the Dominion with propaganda literature extolling the merits of Bolshevism, and paving the way for a revolution to overthrow- the existing system, of society. !\

In our last issue we quoted from the evidence of Mr Albert Rhys Williams before the Judiciary Committee of the United States Senate, and it was. shown that he was a member of the Bolshevik Propaganda Bureau in Petrograd in the early days of the Bolshevik Terror and that this bureau has "appropriated" £250,000 for International propaganda work. M r Williams, who was iormerly a Congregational Minister in England, America, and Germany, is now in America as a foreign agent for Bolshevik missionary work. He is 'evidently a mercenary of the worst type, and, m tve have frequently warned* the people here, it is evident that New Zealand is -also to become a dumping ground for the lying products of this proselytising work in the interests of anarchy and mob rule.

. The hideous danger1 threatened hy the circulation of this type of literature is minutely worse than the menace of Prussuwnsm or 1.W.W.-ism, and it is the plain duty of the Government to take immediate and drastic action to suppress any publications of this sort in the .interest of the public safety, and deport thot« responsible for its production and circulation to Russia, where they oan enjoy tihe full benefits of 80lS wi? m and Sm' ieb on si?bt. Who issued these pamphlets? Who paid for them? Who are circulating tnemy Wny is so much secrecy and mysWy surrounding them ? These are questions which call for a speedy reply