The Evening Star FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1935. DICTATORSHIPS.

Evening Star, Issue 22145, 27 September 1935, Page 10

The Evening Star FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1935. DICTATORSHIPS.

An interesting message .from Moscow announces the virtual abolition of the entire system of rationing foodstuffs throughout Russia. Material conditions evidently are improving; it is methods of rule that leave much still to bo desired. The truth is that a country cannot be run by a creed. In these days no nation is sufficient unto itself. Contacts'of international scope are inevitable', and these must affect the conduct of ' Governments. Lenin’s overmastering, desire was for world revolution. He planned and acted to bring it about. Stalin sees that it is a lost cause and that every country will have its own particular form of government. Hence his relations with • the outsisde world have become increasingly cordial. M. Litvinoff, the Foreign Minister, has gained respect for his breadth of outlook and reasonableness of attitude'. These things are particularly noticeable in the Soviet’s conduct at Geneva since Russia entered the League. But it is remarkable . how dictatorial forms of government tend to resemble each other. In discussing the relative systems of Russia and Germany at the moment, the London ‘ Times ’ says that every law lately passed in these countries has tended to bring them more nearly to a common pattern. This is a paradox, but it is none the less true. Outwardly there is a wide gulf dividing the systems of the two countries. In Russia Communists'and Jews have a preponderating influence. These two classes are anathema in Germany, Yet the State systems in both cases are almost identical in fundamentals. Russia has been steadily progressing towards a system based on nationalism, State Capitalism, and a partnership between the peasants and town workers. Such developments replace the slogans of Lenin’s day, which were Workers of the World, Communist Equality, and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. These fantastic ideas have had to yield before the logic of inescapable tacts. In Germany the political creed is the opposite of Communism, yet under Hitler’s dictatorship there are increasing encroachments on personal liberty, the substitution of propaganda for opinion, the subservience of justice to State needs, and the organisation of a great part of industry and public works on a. military basis. The decrees that enforce these things are new in Germany, but they have prevailed in the Soviet since its establishment. General Goering declared that justice must be guided solely by State interests. Dr Frank Reich, Commissioner for Justice, said that the Nazi unity of philosophy must not be challenged by anyone. Compare these assertions with those uttered in Russia. Krylenko, Soviet Commissar for Justice, said: “Every judge must remember that his decisions are intended to promote nothing but the prevailing policy of the State.’’ Lenin’s teyso ruling was: “The party is not a debating society.” Both countries have their secret police, and woe betide anyone who has the temerity to criticise the acts of those who sit in the high places. ’ Even Karaeneff and Zinovietf, who were members of a triumvirate that ruled. Russia under Lenin, were sent to prison recently for raising their voices

in opposition to Stalin’s administration. “No one may dispute Stalin” is an order. “No one may dispute Hitler” can be said with equal truth. The prisons or concentration camps in both countries are not the last word in comfort. “ For some the school has been' hard,” said Krassin. “ The camps are not sanatoria,” agreed Goering. In Russia and Germany there are the same censorships in art, literature, the Press, and religion. Thus freedom has departed. It never did exist to any great extent in Russia, which was impregnated with Eastern ideas of autocracy, but it was different in ‘ 1 deepthinking, learned, indefatigable Germany,” as Carlyle called it. Now the patterns in both countries are very similar —one leader, one party, one opinion, one arbitrary law. These are the fruits of dictatorship. The case of Italy at the moment shows what may develop from such a system. It is no exaggeration to say that Democracy is in chains at the moment over a great part of Europe. What may develop it is impossible to foretell.