RED PROPAGANDA

Southland Times, Issue 21000, 5 February 1930, Page 5

RED PROPAGANDA

SPREAD IN ENGLAND DISCUSSED BY HOUSE OF COMMONS FOREIGN SECRETARY QUESTIONED (United Press Assn.— By Telegraph—Copyright.) Rugby, February 3. A number of questions were put to the Hon. A. Henderson (Foreign Secretary) in the House of Comnjons this afternoon about Communist propaganda in this country. Mr Henderson restated the Government’s position. The Government, he said, was firmly determined not to be rushed into any hasty judgment in these matters. Should causes of serious complaint arise, the Government would not hesitate to take the House into its confidence, but it must in the first instance be the judge as to any action which might be expedient or necessary to safeguard the interests of the country. Mr Henderson was asked if he had denied a statement which appeared in Isvestia (the organ of the Soviet Government) that it was futile to expect any change in the Cominetern’s activity as a result of the Anglo-Soviet agreement, and if it was not a fact that from the moment the treaty was signed the terms of it had been flagrantly broken. Mr Henderson said he had denied nothing. Sir Austen Chamberlain (formerly Foreign Secretary) recalled that on a previous occasion Mr Henderson had said that he had made representations to the Soviet Ambassador about propaganda by the Third International, and that Mr Henderson had then stated that he had not asked for an answer. Sir Austen Chamberlain asked whether an answer had now been given by the Soviet Ambassador.

Mr Henderson replied that there were occasions when the public interest demanded silence. —British Official Wireless.