Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Over 50 Years.] FRIDAY, 13th MAY, 1932. COMMUNISM.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 13 May 1932, Page 4

Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Over 50 Years.] FRIDAY, 13th MAY, 1932. COMMUNISM.

An official investigation lias proved that during the past six years the British Communist party has shrunk in ‘membership from 20,000 -to probably less than 1000, and that Moscow is so dissatisfied with its efficiency as an organisation that it has decided, for the time being, to withdraw all financial assistance. There is nothing concerning Communist activity in Great Britain that the Government does not know. Scotland Yard has special officers whose whole-time • job it is to keep a watchful eye on the party and to see that its “plans,” its propaganda, and its aspirations do not become dangerous. They keep emissaries to and from Russia under judicious surveillance, and have agents even in the innermost circles of the party. More than once, the Communist movement could have been definitely crushed under the weight of damaging evidence, but the authorities wisely resolved to let the party end itself by internal dissension and sheer bad management. Now that Comintern headquarters have, given the order that no further support shall be accorded from Russia, the expected coup de grace has fallen. The annual subsidy from Moscow, the existence of which was never denied even by the party itself, had always been the mainstay of Communist agitation in England. It compensated for the characteristic indifference of British adherents; it guaranteed the continuance of a Communist daily newspaper, and it

provided the necessary funds for the maintenance of propaganda and the payment of professional agitators. It constituted, in short, the life-blood of the Communist body. Unfortunately for Moscow, but happily for England, the comrades of both sexes who styled themselves the Communist party of Great Britain not only failed to 1 ‘deliver the goods,” but could not agree among themselves. In truth, their dissensions were so uncomradely that membership rapidly declined to a level at which the supreme executive began to consider whether the organisation was really worth while. The “peak year” of the party was in 1926, when, in consequence of the prevailing dissatisfaction with the T.U.C., some 20,000 supporters of the Labour Party decided to throw in their lot with the Communists. These new members soon lost their enthusiasm, however, and quickly drifted back to their old allegiance, without having paid more than their preliminary subscription of one shilling, The present position in England is that while there may be no lack of extremists to advocate the overthrow of the capitalist system, these agitators are so much ill need of money, and are so deficient in organisation, that their influence for evil is negligible. Which is another way of saving that until Moscow relents and once more pours out the gold which engenders enthusiasm, Communism will give no trouble, for it has too many troubles of its own.