SOVIET ACTIVITIES.

Waikato Times, Volume 100, Issue 16780, 23 April 1926, Page 4

SOVIET ACTIVITIES.

Recent cablegrams Indicate the existence of considerable perturbation in Europe concerning the activities of the Russian Soviets. A- treaty has been concluded' with Germany, with the terms of which Sir Austen Chamberlain has expressed himself as satisfied, but other countries immediately concerned confess uneasiness, as it is known that Russia is antagonistic to the League of Nations, and it is feared it will be found that the ItussoGerman Treaty is a blow aimed at the League. Russia lias also made overtures to other countries for treaties and security pacts, including the Baltic States, with the object, it is averred, of weaning them from the League. Russia is easily the most mistrusted nation in Europe. She possesses the confidence of none, and experience has shown that treaties entered into with her arc but lightly regarded. It is known that the absorbing desire of the Soviet leaders is lo damage Britain. Tchitchcrin, the Commissar for Foreign Affairs, is active in his anti-British campaign, and his organ the I’ravda recently declared, “Sir Austen Chamberlain is convinced that he has encircled us in Locarno; but wc arc encircling him in Great Britain itself with the labouring masses, who will fight against all attempts to carry out ttie Locarno plans.” In this connection the London Times recently wrote: —“Everyone knows perfectly well that the Communist Party which now controls Russia if} not a national Government as others are, that it is specially engaged in promoting, not international war—from which may Locarno preserve us—but the even more dangerous disturbances of civil war, and that for years past it has been carrying on a campaign in the Middle East and in China for the express purpose _of arousing Asia against us, destroying our world-wide trade, and thus producing acut'c discontent in England, and perhaps, in the end, ruining the British, Empire. It would ho ridiculous lo assume that wc are not aware of these facts, particularly since, while M. Tchitchcrin talks deprecating]}’ of the League, Trotsky and Zinovicff declare bluntly and contemptuously in Russia that the British Empire is the greatly desired prey of the worldrevolulion they direct. That ihc Soviet Government exercises in Russia itself an unheard-of tyranny, that it raids the unsuspecting, systematically murders the innocent, tramples down religion, and corrupts the youth, of Russia, ’ may still bo regarded as a domestic concern even though it maj lead to grave international dangers. What docs most directly concern us is the systematic effort, through paid agents and through partially successful attempts lo bemuse our trade unions, to tamper with our own institutions. As lo debts and credits, the position is very clear. It should hardly ho necessary to repeat, after the experience of last year, that an explicit repudiation of the decree cancelling foreign debts is a condition precedent to ihc renewal of any practical negotiations for ihc settlement, of claims as between Soviet Russia and this country. The principle that a debt is a debt must be frankly admitted. So far ihc Soviet Government lias not even recognised, apart from one or two exceptional instances, the strong claims of a number of British nationals for compensation for personal injury, not to speak of the wholesale robbery of British properly in Russia. In the circumstances the cry for industrial or commercial credits for the Soviet Government is, io say the very least, premature, since credit is simply not given to a defaultin''- debtor. It may lie that the Soviet Government, through its insane economic policy, now finds itself in difficulties. These may explain the attempts of M. Tchitchcrin to confuse the real issue with the pretext that the soviet Government is in some way aggrieved by British aloofness. They provide no excuse whatever tor Ihe relaxation of the stringent conditions that must he imposed upon a Government that deliberately and defiantly defaults'and is, moreover, devoting its chief international effort to (lie dcslruclion of Ihc British Empire from without and from within.”