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Hokitika Guardian, 19 July 1929, Page 4

The news that some sixty officials of the Soviet have been arrested in China for the purpose of deportation, and that as a consequence, what is virtually an ultimatum has been issued by Russia to- China may lead to a very grave crisis. Tt is of course only in accord with the policy of Russia to extend socialisjtic and revolutionary propaganda throughout the world. Hardly a country has escaped this pest, and it will be remembered that this was the reason why trade relations were broken off by Great Britain with Soviet Russia. America and some of the Euro-

pean Powers took also a very firm stand. Though the sinister activities of the world-revolution propagandists have been suppressed, they are only too I apparent even in the western nations and their colonies and dependencies. The form they take is the inciting to class hatred, and industrial problems provide a fertile field in which the poison germs can propagate. Therefore there is a wide scope for communist 1 propaganda, as industrially the whole world is more or less in a state of industrial reconstruction. But China ,is in the throes of not only industrial but national reconstruction. The nation is changing completely and like Japan is absorbing fresh ideas, from the more modern civilisations of the west. If left to work out her destiny she will probably evolve a civilisation suited to her requirements and might well become a help to the world and not a menace. But there are potentialities for good or for evil in this huge nation with its teeming millions, and poisonous seeds of anarchy and class hatred which would be comparatively innocuous in western nations, but may well have an appalling effect on the ignorant and unformed minds of the dense masses of the population of China as it is to-day. Therefore those ruling the destinies of the nation while calling for help from foreign experts to grapple with finance, currency and other questions, are no doubt keenly alive to the extreme danger of communist propaganda finding its way into the country. In the guarding against this they are only taking such precautions as other. countries are taking. But apparently the Soviet Government is developing a different attitude towards China to that'which-was shown towards the Western Powers. The next few days will show what the result may be; Probably it is only bluff on the part of Russia, hut if in all seriousness an attempt is made to coerce China into accepting the policy of Revolutionary Communism which has made Russia itself the pariah of the nations it will be a chance to test the efficacy of the League of Nations, a* the safety and peace of the world may well be involved in the issue.