The Daily News SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1926. ANTI-BRITISH MACHINATIONS.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 December 1926, Page 12

The Daily News SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1926. ANTI-BRITISH MACHINATIONS.

There is not, there never has been, nor can there be, the slightest doubt that the Moscow Communists seized upon the opportunities afforded by the coal strike at Home and the struggle in China to further their systematic propaganda and active operations directed to the attainment of their world-revolutionary ideal, and particularly to inflict as much damage as possible upon Britain. The Leader of the Labour Party in the House of Commons (Mr. Ramsay MacDonald), when moving a vote of censure on the Government the other day, asserted that the coal strike had cost 1 the country five hundred millions sterling. What the cost of the struggle in China will amount to cannot be. forecast, for the end is not in sight. No more striking illustration of the latitude which is allowed to British subjects in having dealings with those engaged in fostering antiBi'W l ea’opaigns can be found spectacle of Mfei-»Bt«JnlCook (secretary to the Miners’ Federation) proceeding $0 Riftst# and addressing the Moscow Communist. International in a four hours’ .speech, rt s the result of which the Reds decided to start preparations for the next British coal strike, also to establish an international fund for

that purpose without delay. It would seem fitting for the Horae Government to consider seriously its course of action with regard to Mr. Cook’s action. There are limits beyond which it is dangerous to go, so that as the miners’ secretary has practically joined hands with the Reds it might be best for the welfare of Britain that he should find his way barred for a return to Britain. This Russian Communist Party is an international revolutionary organisation; it also completely controls the policy of the Soviet Government inside Russia, so that its operations concern most of the nations. It will be remembered that when Lenin grasped supreme power in tho confusion of the later stages of the Great War, he threw down a challenge to all systems of government throughout the world—a challenge that has since been maintained by his followers, whose purpose is to use Russia, and all its resources, aS the centre of a movement for fin-, ally overthrowing the moral, so-' eial and political standards which, guide and hold together the most advanced peoples in the. modern world. The fact that these Russian Reds happen to have arrived at a crisis in their own fortunes, after passing through a severe internal conflict, need not be taken into consideration, as it really amounts to that species of rivalry to which such movements are always liable. It is, however, interesting to observe that the note whereon they are striving to reunite the party is that which reaffirms he world-revolutionary ideal, with particular and boastful reference to the results already attained in the systematic attack made upon the economic power of Britain. It is plainly evident that whatever differences the Bolshevik factions niay have between themselves, they are united in .their determination not to relax a particle of their antiBritish offensive. It is also beyond all question that the Communist extremists hold Russia in their grasp through their political bureau, which is always composed of the dominant members of the party, the bureau continually and absolutely controlling the policy of the Soviet Government inside Russia as well as the Third International, thus so thorrigliiy co-relating home and international policies that the Bolshevists can present a common front. According to a thesis published in the Ozvestia (the official organ of the “Red” Trades Union International), not only is the policy of the Soviet Trades’ Union Council during the general and coal strike in Britain approved, but expression is given to “the certainty that the general and coal strikes have testified to the growing class consciousness of the proletariat and its disappointment with reformist methods of attaining to Socialism, a..d insisting that the immediate task of the Soviet trade union lies in extending, more than ever before, their fraternal aid to foreign workers, widespread co-operation in enlightening them as to the true nature of their leaders and developing their class consciousness.” Stripped of its verbal trimmings, this policy stands revealed as a direct pronouncement ■that class warfare is a necessity; that it is futile to attempt the attainment of Socialism by constitutional means, therefore, resort to revolutionary methods is the only course to take. Obviously, the acceptance of “fraternal aid” by foreign work implies a corresponding C-.-.gution to the Moscow Reds in their revolutionary tactics. What that means to the

British Empire cannot be misunderstood.