RECOIL FROM COMMUNISM

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11686, 26 November 1923, Page 8

RECOIL FROM COMMUNISM

BOLSHEVISTS BEWARE! WRECKERS SMASHED IN SPAIN AND ITALY. (By lan Colvin, in the “Sunday Chronicle." Spain has followed the example of Italy. Under the leadership of a strong man the whole system of government has been changed by force, but bloodlessly, and even joyfully. There are some points of difference, and some points of resemblance, between the two movements. Italy was led by a civilian, man of the people; Spain by a chief of the army and the nobility. Mn&> solini organised the forces which he used to establish his Government; the Marquis do Estella found his "forces ready made m the national army of Spain. Mussolini 6truck a weak Liberal Government which had allowed its power to fall from its nerveless hands into the frip of Communists and Anarchists. The talians rejoioed to find power in the hands uf good citizenship, for they had been the helpless prey of the enemies of mankind, of Italy. TO SAVE SPAIN. Spain had not fallen quite so far into the abyss. The chiefe of the army had to deal with a Government which was preparing the wav for revolution by its incompetence ana weakness. The Government which has been overthrown in Spain was composed of Liberal groups which had combined, not to save their country, but to save * hemselves. They feared both the army on the one side, and the Communists on the other; they dared not trust the army to conduct the war in Morocco, which moved from one disaster to another. Politicians interfered with generals, and the money which should have gone to the soldiers went into the pockets of place men. The Alhucemas Cabinet was helpless either to win the war or to withdraw ■ from North Africa. In these circumstances, discontent increased apace, and both workmen and soldiers were listening to the desperate counsels of the Communists. Thus it was to save Spain that generals took command of the situation. KING AT THE HEAD. As in Italy, they placed the King at the head of the movement, and this preserved the comer-stono of the Constitution. As in Italy, they struck at the corruption and waste of the Government officers. The holders of political sincures used even to draw their salaries by deputy, and one of tlho first rules of the new Administration mode every official turn up ;vb 9 o’clock in the morning on pain of dismissal. The Cortest has been suspended by the King: presumably it will not meet again until the Administration bas completed its work of reorganising tho Government. What the foreign policy of Spain will be under tho new Government remains to lie Eocn. The King, certainly, is a firm friendl of England, and tho new Dictator has long enjoyed his confidence. It is worth remembering that the Marquis De Estella was dismissed by the Spanish Government during the Great War from his post of Governor of Cadiz, because he advised that Spain should join the Allies and come to an understanding with Great Britain over Gibraltar. PART OF THE MOVEMENT. In the meantime, we may take a broader view of the situation, nnd consider it as part of a great European movement. When Russia was Hetrayed by the weak democracy of Kerensky into

the hands of the Terrorists, Enrope felt itself helpless to meet the now menace. The gloomy and terrible sect of the Communists, which had long existed as a subterranean force, were c-noonraged by the_ exhaustion of civilisation, and by their success in Russia to oome out into the open and attempt a conquest of tho world.

They were _ like mutineers, in a waterlogged slip, who should urge the sailors, weary from long working at the pumps, to cut tho throats of officers and passengers, and broach the brandy in the cargo. They appealed to hate, envy, weariness, and misery; they sot one class against another, and were experts in their own form of propaganda. For the moment society had no answer to this new attack. Democracy had been discredited by reason of its inefficiency in the conduct of the Great War, and the political leaders everywhere, instead of facing the terrorists, ran away from them.

ON THE BRINK. The revolutionaries had gone so far in Italy as to paralyse industry and bring the life of the country almost to a stand. No man’s life or property was safe; bombs were exploded in the streets and theatres of the great cities; mansions were marked down for loot and destruction ; the whole population was being uorked up to a state of frenzy, and Italy 6eemed ready to follow Russia down into the abyss. Then came Mussolini, and demonstrated to Europe that society could defend itself. He appealed to all that was sane, joyful, and patriotic in the 'ltalian temperament. Under - his leadership ' the dark and bloody forces of Communism were scattered with almost contemptuous ease. It was shown that in the vital quality of courage the Communists were lacking. After Mussolini, Europe breathed again. More recently we have had the coup d’etat in Bulgaria, where again the Government was defeated which protected the Communists, although it was not Communist itself. And again, at the critical moment, the Communists displayed the cowardice which they had shown in Italy. In Germany, too, the threat cf the Communists had been met by the rise of a German Fascist!. INSTINCT OF ORDER.

And now, as the last case, in Spain, this rising of the national army, under its leaders scotches the Communists' conspiracy which had its chief centre in Barcelona, and had been making very rapid progress under the late Government. The leaders of all these movements have appealed to instincts of patriotism and good citizenship, and they have found that appeal sncessfnl. The instinct of order in civilised man is stronger than the instinct of anarchy; the type which desires to preserve and maintain society is braver and more intelligent than the type which desires to destroy it. It is amusing to read the Communist Press in these times of (what they cull) ‘reaction.” They note the rise of "Fascism’’ in Europe with fury and dismay. They even denounce the movement as “lawless" and "unconstitutional," not pausing to reflect that violence provokes violence, and that "action and reaction are equal and opposite.” In this country the Communists are making desperate efforts to establish preliminaries to a reign of terror. Already in some of our great cities—or in some parts of them—they have made it impossible to hold free’political meetings. They have organised hooliganism nnd the most mean and petty persecution of individuals.

Let them beware of arousing the freedom-loving spirit of Englishmen, who certainly will not be behind the Latin countries of Europe in defending civilisation against the wreck"*