“Stop Kicking Russia,” Lee Says In “Tomorrow”

Northern Advocate, 26 January 1940, Page 8

“Stop Kicking Russia,” Lee Says In “Tomorrow”

Alarm “at the clamour from certain people for an extension of the war front to incorporate Russia,” is expressed by Mr J. A. Lee, in an article to the Christchurch journal, "Tomorrow.”

It was in this paper that Mr Lee wrote the article that, it is generally believed, led to his losing his job as Under-Secretary to the Minister of Finance. “Who has forgotten,” he asks, “the way in which Russia was plundered during her period of famine and revolution by the Powers which surrounded her?

“Who is there, whose military outlook is not merely confused by hatred of Communism, who was not pleased when, at the collapse of the Polish Army and the Polish Government, Russia took half Poland rather than Gei-man Fascism secure all?” “Leningrad Dominated by Finland.” Dealing with Finland he points out that “it is well to realise that the Russians are a people of close on 200 millions; that their only ice-free port in the north was stripped from them while they were in the throes of revolution and famine; that iheir entrance to Leningrad was dominated until recently by Finnisn guns acknowledged to have the backing of Hitler and Fascism " He points out that “it must be obvious that those who call for war on Russia simultaneously with Hitler are madmen.” Warning. Warning against anti-Soviet elements in the Labour Parties, he says: “Because of their dislike of Communists, Labour Parties must not allow themselves to become the advocates of a war against Russia . . . We should stop kicking Russia merely because some of us want to kick Communists

. . . Let us be realist enough to appreciate that we can't afford a war against Russia even if it was in our interests, which it isn’t.”