THE TROTSKY MYSTERY

Thames Star, Volume LVII, Issue 16425, 24 February 1925, Page 3

THE TROTSKY MYSTERY

i The Bolsheviks, anxious to persuade ! the world that they are a happy and j united family living in an earthly parai dise. have issued a statement about the mystery of Trotsky. According to them ! he is not banished or imprisoned, but is at present enjoying all the comforts of a small house near Moscow. People in this and other countries will not greatly concern themselves over him. and his fate. But the fact is beyond dispute (it is proved by the Bolshevik organs such as the Pravda) that a struggle is proceeding in Moscow between the followers of TrotskyBronstein and those of Zinoviev-Apfei-baum. Two gangs of alien croons are l fighting for the corpse of Russia. Of the two gangs, Trotsky's is thought, by good authorities on Soviet conditions, to be slightly the less noxious. Trotsky has realised that the mad Bolshevik plan of a State monopoly trade in Russia must bring ruin to everyone. the Communists included. This simple and obvious fact has not yet ' dawned on Zinoviev-Apfelbaum. i Trotsky’s position is known to be j precarious. In a preliminary struggle 1 last year he had the worst of matters 1 and was virtually banished to the Cau- • casus, where he was kept under strict 1 supervision. On the present occasion he does not seem able to make headway against his opponents. The Red i Army, on which lie may have relied, is regarded everywhere as a bluff, since > the Esthonians a few weeks ago deI fied it to do its worst. Nor is he credited by those who know him with any excess of courage. All who have recently visited Russia (wiili the exception of our egregious British trade union delegates) report that the Soviet system is in rapid delay (says the Daily Mail.) The money difficulty grows more and more serious: the innocent belief of the Commissars that they could empty the pockets of the British and French has not been fulfilled. The rich Russians

have been murdered: the peasants, who have to pay all the taxes, have now taken to burning alive, chopping int pieces, shooting' and hanging the Communist agents stationed 5 n each village. As, according to 55inov Vs own figures given last January, the Communists had then only 3fC.o<)o members iti all Russia, the supply -f eligible Prisons is not unlimited.