COMMUNISM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21647, 18 May 1932, Page 7

COMMUNISM

TO THE EDITOIf Silt,- —The New Zealand Welfare League has written another lengthy letter on socalled Communism. I once met, and talked with, a Russian Communist, who discussed with me the recent imprisonment of a young man after some riots which had occurred. in a certain city He said, “ That young man is the only genuine Communist of them all. He is surrounded by a lazy and unintelligent rabble who work on his sympathies to do their dirty work and leave him to pay the penalty when they get out of hand and behave in a disgraceful manner. What happened the other day isn’t Communism; it’s hooliganism. Can no one take him away from them? The whole lot are not worth his little finger! ” Perhaps this young man,

being a British Communist, had different views about the unfortunate men whose cause he espoused. He saw them hungry and hopeless, and tried to help them. That they deserted him was only to be expected. Not everyone who lives in the British Empire is a hide-bound Imperialist. They may believe that the British Empire is the finest in the wond, and still recognise there are other nations as well. Internationalism should thrive best with British peoples, because of their superior sense of justice.—l am, etc., Britisher.