SOVIET HATRED

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 28, 26 November 1943, Page 4

SOVIET HATRED

Sir, —In your editorial of November 16 entitled "Soviet Hatred" there are sevcr.il points that nee<l clearing up. You say, "When the. war passions have become so inllametl that the combatants on either side can only think of wreaking death and torture . .. we have' two lust-maddened peoples who have swept aside all culture and the higher sense of human decencies, in the blind effort to kill and destroy." War is not a pretty thing. It is an effort to destroy the enemy. The Soviet armies are fighting the Nazi armies and. destroying tliem, but there have never been any authentic reports- of senseless torture, and cruelty on their part, such as the Nazis employ. The Soviet armies are trained politically as well as militarily, j They know that their light is against Nazism, but* and this is. always emphasised, they have, no quarrel with the German people. The; soldiers of the Soviet armies know that it is their duty to befriend the peoples of other countries and. any soldier who used unealled-for violence against the civilian population would be punished. Another reierencc which is somewhat unfortunate is that,, "The soui of Germany is praying for the. British and Americans to beat the Russians to Berlin." (One may take "the soul" to mean the common people of, Germany). It is necessary to take into account the fact that these people, are suffering much more at the hands of British and American bombers than they have suffered, or are likely to suffer at the hands, of the Soviet Union, so that what you stated likely to be the ease. It is also necessary to remember that we declared war on Nazi Germany and if the oppressed milt lions of Europe arc looking to America and. Britain to liberate, them it must appear to them that we have not made, any very great, effort yet. Though the British and Americans are bombing Germany, they have not yet, opened a Second Front to help in the liberation of the European peoples. After four years of war the. British and Americans are engaging only nine German divisions in Italy, and making very little headway against them,, while on the Eastern Front the Soviet armies are hurling back 197 enemy divisions at amazing speed. The "soul'" of Germany, the "soul" of Europe as a whole, must look to the Soviet Un-? ion as the. greatest force in their liberation l'rom the frightful oppression which has been their lot under Hitler. To illustrate this point,, here is a quotation from a speech made at Bristol by Admiral J. J. Larsen» Commander in Chief of the. Royal Norwegian Air Force: "Mediaeval torture was nothing to what the Nazis were inflicting .on the Norwegians. We shall not forget, but we are afraid that you will forge.t. I am not nervous about what Stalin will do, but I am nervous about what Britain may do." That perhaps is a truer indication of the feeling of. the peoples of occupied France to-day.

Yours etc.. Secretariat,. Edgecumbe Branch,

Communist Party of New Zealand,

(We thank our correspondents for their interesting and well-compiled letter but with all due respect to the Edgecumbe Branch of the New Zealand Communist Party we feel that we cannot accept the halo of per fection which is painted about the} Soviet soldiery. Whilst not seeking to incriminate the. gallant legions of Stalin in any way we l'ecl with an ordinary knowledge of human nature that in the face of the: ghastly extremes to which the Nazis hava gone in occupied Russia,, the. soldiers of the. Soviet will react in the same way, as would fighting; men the world over when their turn. came. Let us not blind ourselves by falsei values when dealing with things of war. Atrocities occur on both sides and, it is only propaganda which dishes up the news for the public palate of either combatant. Our own boys, we like to think would ; wage war on decent,, clean lines, had they seen their own homes destroyed their families butchered, theirywomenfolk ill-used and murdered, jtheiir (Continued in previous column)