BOLSHEVIKS IN FRANCE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19658, 9 June 1927, Page 11

BOLSHEVIKS IN FRANCE

PARIS ARMY OF 12,300. SUPPORTED BY MOSCOW. BRANCHES IN ' INFANTRY. WARNING BY A DEPUTY. STARTLING REVELATIONS. By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyricht. (Received June 8, 5.5 p.m.) A, and N.Z. PARIS, June 7. Startling revelations relating to the Communists' organisation in France were made in the Chamber of Deputies by M. Soulier. The member asserted that the Red army in Paris alone numbered 12,300 men. Half of them were recently reviewed in companies of 120, with officers. These manoeuvres took place every Sunday. The officers were armed with revolvers. M. Soulier said there were 170 Communist branches in the French infantry alone with 200 regular officers who were members of the Communist Party. The Moscow Government was clearly supporting the movement. France should be warned by the recent events in England. The French Minister of the Interior, M. Sarrault, in a strong speech in the Chamber of Deputies on May 28, charged the French Communist Party with conducting intensive propaganda in the French Army and with penetrating to' every unit and barracks. The Communists said they were opposed to war but they were continually trying to make war. If they aimed at the creation of their universal republic through civil and colonial wars, if their propaganda were accompanied by criminal acts, violence and attempts to break the power of the French Army and Navy, then it was his duty to ensure respect for the law. M. Sarrault read the texts of Communist brochures and newspapers designed to inculcate military slackness, disobedience, defeatism and antinationalism—a process that was slowly poisoning the conscience of French sol- . diers and sailors. Finally the Minister declaimed: "We prosecute vou because you are provokers of war. You talk of nothing but an armed revolution, which would lead to the spilling of torrents of blood. You unceasingly scourge the hopes of peace. You flout the League of Nations. Do you take us for fools ? Moscow wants war in order to establish her own domination."