COMMUNISM

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 37, 8 April 1942, Page 2

COMMUNISM

TRUE DEMOCRACY NOT AFRAID IF CAN SAVE WORLD The day of the Soviet National Festival is an opportunity for the Czechoslovaks lo prove the traditional friendship which they hold for Soviet Russia and to pay homage to the Soviet Army and the Soviet people in its present heroic struggle which will become one of the most glorious of the history of the Russian nation and of the other nations of the Soviet Union, says the "United Front." We firmly believed that Soviet Russia was sufficiently strong to hold out until the time when the enemy would exhaust his forces and when- the Soviet Army would pass from her inevitable defensives to offensive operations. We said this openly at the very beginning of the German-Soviet war. It is certain that the final victory will be won by the common war effort of all the Allies. We did not doubt that the alliance which was founded before the war between the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia would again be restored . This alliance represented a great political idea of general international significance; the sole manner to assure peaceful security in Europe as a close collaboration between West and East —and if the nations of the Central and South-Eastern region will be the bridge of this collaboration. Any other combinations lead to nothing else but the possibility of a hegemony of Germany, whatever her political regime, over Europe and thus over the world. Czechoslovak policy to which Masnryk and Benes intentionally gave a world orientation in the sense of our national tradition was aware that in an alliance with Russia it would contribute not only to strengthening the security of its own State but also of the security of the whole of Europe. At the same time it was certain that even the most intensive relations with the Soviet Union could not affect the firm foundations of Czechoslovak popular democracy based on the tradition of centuries. And it was clearly just because this genuinely popular democracy believed in itself, unafraid of competition with other regimes, that it had a sympathetic understanding for the great revolutionary transformation of Russia, which at the price of terrible sacrifices lias led its nations to the point where they have become creative participants in the world-historical transformation of modern mankind inaugurated by the English, American and French revolutions and heralded long before by the Czech Hussite revolution. We were convinced that the Russian Revolution would in the end lead to a rapproachment and an easier and more effective collaboration with the rest of the world insofar as it professed allegiance to the ideas of Western civilisation.

And in this conviction of ours we have been still more confirmed by (.he development of this war which naturally causes great political and social changes in the whole world, not excluding any state. In this Avar a! artificially constru.-tcd constellations of international policy have already disappeared or arc disappearing—a fateful necessity is bringing about the co-operation of the nations of the West, of Central and South-Eastern Europe and of the East. And this co-operation consecrated by terrible sacrifices and proclaimed under the standard of the same ideals will certainly have far-reach-ing consequences for the construction of the new pest-war world. By their heroic struggle the nations of the Soviet Union are already ensuring for themselves an honourable and deservedly important place in it.—Dr H. Ripka. Czechoslovak Minister of Slate..