THE STRATEGY OF CIVIL WAR.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3027, 24 April 1926, Page 4

THE STRATEGY OF CIVIL WAR.

WHAT PRESENT DAY SOCIALISM MEANS.

Professor Charles Sarolea, on the subject of “The Strategy and tactics of civil war, writes ns follows: —

“In attempting to estimate the nature and the extent of the peril of Communism and of socialism generally, all publicists without a single exception leave out of account one very startling paradox, namely that the strategy and tactics of civil war has become so much more efficient than the strategy of ordinary warfare and that it has been raised by socialist agitators almost to the precision and perfection of an exact science. Whereas the strategy and tactics of ordinary war have proved unable to cope with the unwielding machinery and with the enormous numbers of modern armies, whereas they have retrograded and degenerated into the immobility of trench warfare and would give very little scope to the genius of a Modern Napoleon, on the contrary the strategy of civil war has lhade the most alarming progress and gives almost unlimited scope to the activities and ambitions of the able and daring Demagogue. It is not too much to say that a 20th century Machiavelli might deduce from the theory and practice of Bolshevism a philosophy of demagogic despotism which would lie infinitely more elaborate, more consistent, more unscrupulous and more revolutionary than the policy of the great Florentine. “The tactics and strategy of “ordinary warfare” have been taught since Frederick the Great and Napoleon and Moltke in special military colleges and they have been expounded in countless systematic treatises. The tactics and strategy of civil war has its own exponents and , its own colleges. Every University in Soviet Russia to-day has become a practical school for agitators, a revolutionary Sandhurst and Woolwich. Propaganda has become a fine art. The study of the psychology of the crowd has become an exact science Demagogic agitation has become a trade. ' The modern demagogue is not an amateur, he has become a professional and it has become the main function of the Labour Colleges to equip him for his profession, to teach him the tricks of oratory, the mob mentality, the economic interpretation of history, in one word the successful engineering of revolution.” There is undoubtedly much truth in this view presented by the Professor. It is, however, most difficult to make the average person realise that there is any such thing existent as a movement of civil warfare. This is due to the gradations of views and expressed purposes of socialist adherents, shading from the mildest forms of academic altruism to the most violent efforts of disruptive criminality. To rightly grasp the meaning and import of present day socialism it is necessary to pass over mere personal opinions and face the fact of the trend of the movement which is variously named as socialism, communism or syndicalism. Beyond question this movement aims at a revolution of Society which will abolish private capital and the right of individuals to own property for the purposes of production, distribution and exchange. This would involve a complete upheaval of the whole structure of society.

The objective here stated is common to the socialist and communist movements. Communist and Socialist parties are in accord as relates to their ultimate goal and differ only as to methods. What, then, has to be realised is that the movement towards revolution is what constitutes the civil warfare. It presents differing tactics according to the circumstances with which it has to deal, but all the time it is warfare aiming at final conquest by a class and parly. THE NEW SOCIALISM. A great many people arc unconscious of the dangers of socialism because they live in the past; think of it as an utopian dream and fail to understand its practical import to-day. The new Socialist is no longer a sentimentalist or an idealist, but a stern realist and an opportunist. He adapts all his means and methods to the one end of overthrowing the existing order of Society. When we talk of the socialist or communist as mere “wild men” we are misleading. In reality the apostles of revolution are frigid and calculating. Even when they express themselves violently it is with cynical purpose.

The militant Labour Party (Socialist) is rigid and uncompromising with regard to the end pursued, and it is elastic and flexible with regard to its methods. The modern socialist is all things to all men. A designing sophist who makes the end justify the means. He selects his allies from all classes, from all sects, from the ranks of the aristocracy and of the capitalist plutocracy. He uses capitalists to fight capitalism. He enlists idealists and materialists, Christians and atheists, pacifists and militarists, free trader and protectionists. He exploits nationalist passions in the interest of his international revolution. The new Socialist has ceased to be, as he was previously merely an irresponsible free lance fighting a vanguard battle, instead of exercising pressure on the Labour movement, and other causes, from without, he tries to transform them

from within. Knowing, as he does, that revolutions are made by minorities, that is not of the masses, but merely uses them, the modern socialist has selected as his two most powerful and effective instruments the tools of camouflage and permeation. Such is the power Professor Sarolea refers to as closely studying and applying the strategy of civil war. It must be fought and it cannot be done in a dilettante way. Every point of its strategy must be met with conviction and skill if modern civilisation is to be saved from this destructive agency of world revolution. (Contributed by the New Zealand Welfare League).