STIRRING UP STRIFE.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 August 1926, Page 10

STIRRING UP STRIFE.

SOVIETISM- IN BRITAIN. TROT-SKY’S RED AGITATION. The pretence that the Soviet Government had no hand in stirring up tho general strike and prolonging the mining stoppage in this country is rendered more than ever ridiculous by the huge article from the pen of Trotsky which appears in the Communist International Press Correspondence, the official orga'n <>f the Third International, published in Vienna.

Trotsky, as the public know, is one of the most prominent officials of the Soviet Government. He is a “member of the Concessions Committee” and ■‘member of the Politbureau.” two Bolshevik departments which are thus described in the hideous jargon of Sovietland.

The article deals entirely with the revolutionising of England by the coiruption of the British Navy, Army and Air Force—a matter to which the Communists here have devoted no little attention. as was proved at the trial of J. 11. Campbell and the recent prosecution of twelve other Communists. AN EYE ON THE SERVICES. Trotsky declares — “A. real transfer of power from the Hands of one class to another depends to an incomparably greater degree on the British Army and Navy than on Parliament. The fight for powei- of the proletariat must therefore be a fight to win over the Navy.” “All difficulties must be surmounted,” he declares, to debauch “the . stokers, electrical engineers, sailors, and other workers,” apparently supposing they are unintelligent as the Russian seamen. “Only by indefatigable, systematic perparatory work can a situation be created in which the bourgeoisie will no -longer be able to rely on the Navy in its struggle. Unless thts condition is fulfilled it is nonsense even to speak of victory.” British pacifists are deriounccd because their attitude “paralyses the will of the workers” to effect a sanguinary revolution. That the revolution which these murderous ruffians are preparing will be sanguinary is one of Trotsky’s "hief contentions. “ARMED CONFLICTS." ' He writes:— “It . would be very naive to imagine that Lansbury’u demand (for soldiers not to fire on rioters) opened the way to a peaceful, bloodless, pacifist solution of tie question of power. On the contrary, if this demand should clear the way for reality, it would inevitably lead to violent armed conflicts. We must not think that all soldiers and all sailors will refuse at the same time to (ire on the workers.” To spAiad a mutinous, bloodthirsty spirit Trotsky urges that ti.-e •‘film, ‘Armoured Cruiser Potemkin,’ which shows in .a very telling manner the mechanism of a revolution among an armed throng” should be introduced into England. (This Red propagandist film was described recently in the : Daily Main in an article by Sir Robert Donald after it had been exhibited in Berlin.) Trotsky continues:— “It would be still more important to show-, this film to the British workers and sailors. We hope that the Labour Party '.rill do so when it comes into power. The bourgeois hypocrites and the civilised cannibals will, of course, speak with great indignation of our efforts to lead and stir up brother against brother, soldiers against officers.” DARING OUTBURST.

England is to be drenched in human blood if Trotsky has his way, and his and “Lenin’s humble disciples” hero are exhorted to be violent:

“Revolutionary policy seems fantastic to the philistines because it sees as far as the day after to-morrow, where as they dafe not even think of to-morrow.” It is certain that never before in time of peace has an official and wire-puller of a foreign Government dared, thus to speak of . England and to preach mutiny, sedition, and murder in the ftrmed forces of the British nation. This article appears in the issue of Julie 3 and is dated May 3, “immediately before the outbreak of the general strike.”