CORRUPTING THE ARMY

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 19 September 1924, Page 10

CORRUPTING THE ARMY

COMMUNIST CALL TO MUTINY

The Under-Secretary of the Home Office, Mr. Rhys Davies, stated in reply to questions in the House concerning an “Open Letter I ’, to Soldiers in the Workers’ Weekly of July 25, that “The Home Secretary is considering whether any action is called for in this matter. ’ ’ While Mr. Henderson is “considering the matter,” the Communists (says the Morning Post) are developing their plans to undermine the discipline of the forces. The latest action of the Communist Party is, following the methods adopted by the French Communists; to issue with the Workers? Weekly a “Special Service Supplement” addressed to “The Forces.” The first issue of this Supplement is published in a recent number or the Workers* Weekly. _ The character of the contents of the Supplement is indicated by the large head lines in which the forces are addressed in the following terms. — : Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen! Will You Kill Your Mates? Remember— You Are Workers! The Bosses are Your Enemies. DON’T SHOOT STRIKERS! '"* They are workers like you. They are fighting for a decent living for themselves and their women and kids. If the profiteering ■UapitalisiiS, through tfieir agents—your officers—tell you to murder British workeis—don’t shoot. Among other articles for the' Services one specially for sailors. It is heaaed: Form Your Own Committees, and contains the following passages : ■ — •

“Your fellow workers have their Trade Unions, Trade Councils, and Workshop Committees. Are you allowed to form committees:-' Y ou, Sailors in the Navy -you have Welfare Committees. What can they do? “The Admiralty know that if you get together to discuss things their rule would be broken. Why is this?” ~l s not because the 4 ‘ know very well that they want you lo use you against your fellow-workers, whether it be during a strike, to blackleg and moot them down, or during a war to increase the profits of the capitalists? Don’t do it. Get together and discuss your grievances. Get together and tell your comrades what you are there for form your own committees in your depots and on your ships, in the barrack rooms, and at aerodromes.” ■ . Bolshevist attempt to subvert tne fighting forces is directed from Moscow. On July 18 a special number of the “International Press Cori espondence” was issued containing a very long manifesto from the Communist International “For the Tenth Anniversary of the lmperalist War.” -his manifesto was signed by,, among others Trotsky, Zinoviev, ai/. Stalin ft contains the latest instructions from Moscow on Red Propoganda in the Army, and is The basis of the appeals to the: forces issued by the British Tommunists.

. The following excerpts from this (.ocument will pove that our Bolshevists, are merely obeying the orders of masters in Moscow: ■i “®“ sSar y' / the manifesto states) that the youth, enter the capitalist armies with an inward determination to direct thein arms not against their brother-proletarians but theU ’ cIa S enem y ? the bourSnof ‘ V We must maintain a c.ose connection with the barracks We must se that the word of triSh peaches every soldier. We must uhite groups 8 eonfieious soldler ? into small Ve must direct attention to the military factories. In each of these there must be a strong militant nucleus, which will be capable at the •dl ClS +h« of earr ying with, them ill the working masses. The bournor S thp fG | r "f 1^ er pacifist Pleaching nor the Social Democrats’ threat of a -oneral strike But the bourgeoi.se t emble with hatred and fear at the «ws of the formation of each little ; n M.l a nucleus on the railroads, in thA,m v Ldlhe Floet' 1 in the play a decisive role at the d«! ■are moment This is the reason that ■ veiv capitalist Government, whatevet cle S slv m 0 f uise - Persecutes meraH ™ al revolutionary work, d-Jl ,S< the reason that it is th*» it> of every, revolutionist to increase “onf; n’:, this , dire t tin " (July that party which from dav 0^ 871 l ' nrem,ttlntr Strug1,- , an ];. bourgeoise; that partv rallies the workers to the sW- , e . "hmh he s learned to hate the ormmatmn of capital: which infects ‘ eo ™“T e il„ W,th this •>•*«!> which cnaics the necessary forr-es COmhat: which ostoh. of suppm-t for the revo •» «•» -i-.V",/-' Iv t, *^‘."«»»»■ war + V may be such a directing force"'' M '