Sunday Electioneering.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 279, 24 November 1931, Page 6

Sunday Electioneering.

Late correspondence.

To the Editor. Dear Sir, —Is there a law to prevent telectioneering on Sunday? Surely we get enough of it all the week; and candidates, even if their own views on the Subject are neutral, might at least have some respect for the opinions of others. I write in this strain because yesterday morning, Sunday, November 22, two snen on bicycles went industriously through my neighbourhood—and probably through other districts—dropping over the gate a double circular on behalf of the Labour candidate for Riccarton, Mr G. T. Thurston. Now Mr Thurston may be the last word in incipient political genius, but I see no reason why his ambition should lead him and his friends to litter my front garden on the Sabbath. I put the Thurston tract to one side until this morning and read it coming down to work. Some of the phrases in it seem particularly one-eyed and politically unscrupulous. The first portion of the circular, printed appropriately in pink, begins in this fashion:—“Workers. Under the Coalition Government, at least, 100,000 of you are wholly or partly unemployed.” What justification, if any, has Mr Thurston for this statement? Here is another “pink” one:—"The anti-Labour Governments have cut your wages and salaries. If they are returned more cuts will follow.” Then comes the worst of the lot, and if it does not incite to disorder and disaffection, then I don’t know the meaning of words:— “ The Coalition Government,” says the circular in bold type, “ has forced your sons into ‘ prison camps * to earn •pocket money’ at hard labour.” Now I am a trades unionist, and my wages have beefi cut and I am paying more than I can afford in the way of levy and relief taxes tb help these men in the camps. If Mr Thurston represents their viewpoint, and they regard the community’s effort at assistance in a period of stress merely as the imposition of hard labour in “prison camps” then the sooner the levy is stopped the better. Let the Socialist propaganda and lie-factory committee carry the burden out of their own pockets and earn what gratitude they can. The white circular that is tacked on to the pink sheet is more personal in tone. It putp Mr Thurston’s appeal to the electors in the first person, the only thing remarkable about it being that once the pronoun “I” appears eight times in five lines. In the next paragraph it appears four times in three lines. The whole production is a choice example of bad tactics and blatant assertion. I draw attention to the matter because, to my mind, it represents a determined attempt to introduce Langism into New Zealand.—l am, etc., PLAY THE GAME. Is Russia to be Feared? To the Editor. Dear Sir, —Perhaps thesf few lines may give but a. small indication as to what we have to fear from Russia. From a British weekly journal just to hand may I quote: “ Information is now to hand proving that the new rulers have embarked upon a line of war preparation more gigantic than any in history. In the * Saturday Evening Post’ (September 5, 1931) Whyte Williams writes: ‘At the very hour when Litvinoff, Soviet' Commissar for' Foreigrr Affairs, pleaded at the League of Nations for a complete disarmament both on sea and land, his Government launched its own theory of combat—primarily the establishment of the Communist doctrine, the dictatorship of the proletariat to be secured by a revolution throughout the world, which amounted practically to a declaration of war against every other nation; a logical sequence is the new Russian army.* ” Soviet leaders have adopted a conspiracy of silence regarding the strength of their military forces, but the latest information dated January, 1932, makes the active Soviet army the largest in the world. The total organised land and air force, both officers and men, numbers 859,000. In addition to these are organised reserves numbering 4.528,000, which, added to the regular army, brings the final total to the uniformed ranks up to 5,387,000. This is a force to be taken seriously even by the Great Powers. The military man power within the present age limits is 5.94 per cent of the total population, assessed at 158,000,000. In case of invasion, however, the authorities count on the possibility of adding another 4,000,000 to the reserves of men wjth a certain amount of training and 8,300,000 men with /no training, thus adding 12,300,000 to the previous total, bringing the final man power in extreme emergency up to a total of 21,687,000 or 13.73 per cent of the entire population (these figures include males only). It is estimated that Russia now has 29,000,000 horses, of which 4,000,000 are now available for military purposes. In the event of war it would be the task df this great host to preserve internal order and to protect the vast frontier stretching from Poland and the Baltic States to the borders of India and China. Meanwhile a special armed force will be spared for an offensive incursion into Palestine and India. John Vidor, in his famous book, “ Spying in Russia,” makes the following statement: "The Revolutionary Military Council has come to the conclusion that their plan of campaign in the event of war with Britain will mean an offensive in the Far'East (India), a possible offensive through Palestine and Egypt.” The same author makes it clear that it is not a question of “ if ” there will be a war with Britain, but “ when ” the war will commence. It is part of the Soviet policy to manoeuvre Britain into the position of the aggressor. Soviet troops are thoroughly inculcated with the idea that Britain is only biding her time whilst steadily preparing to attack the Russian people. “We must eliminate England,” Stalin once expressed his conviction in an interview; “we can conquer the world. If we leave England unconquered we have wasted our time and lost the fight. She is the foundation of the modern world and the fight is between us.” This from a nation armed to the hilt to seek to destroy the one nation which has made the greatest move in disarmament.—l •m, etc., A.M. November 20, 1931.