A POOR FIGHT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26638, 8 December 1947, Page 4

A POOR FIGHT

The statement of the Prime Minister at Greymouth, in which he expressed the view that “ Communism is a menace and a danger which has to be fought in every field ” should not lack approbation. To understand the methods of Communists —or, more correctly, of Stalinists, for political Communism to-day everywhere owns allegiance to the methods of the Soviet Union—the person of average intelligence requires no special text books. The objective is the seizure of power in a State; the tactics are the spreading of disruption throughout key organisations of State and key industries, creating the chaotic conditions in Which a small, well-prepared (and ruthless) group can seize a suitable opportunity to dominate and control a nation. A classic example of the technique of disruption is being unfolded in France at this very' time, for all who read the cable news to study inch by inch. An equally impressive demonstration of the events consequent upon the taking over of the State by the Communists is being furnished in the Balkan countries, wherein enlightenment by Russian methods is being spread by executions, banishments to concentration camps, rigged elections and all the other devices of terrorisation and regimentation of the highly-developed police State system. In the Soviet Union itself is to be found the proud exemplar of all these methods in full flower—a dictatorship in which twelve million persons work as the most debased of slaves, and absolute power is confided in a close dictatorship. These things are matters of knowledge. They explain why Mr Fraser condemns Communism as undemocratic and alien, and why the Leader of the Opposition says he would not have a Communist in the Government. They do not, however, explain why Mr Fraser, as tlie leader of the Labour Party, while attacking Communism in terms of great bitterness allows known Communists not only to have membership in the Party but to hold high office in the Federation of Labour which, as a Communist statement declares with truth, is “ the true prop of the Government ” —albeit a shaky prop to-day. This Communist statement, which we printed in our columns recently, proclaims with satisfaction what the Government has affected not to know. Trades unionism contains strong Communist elements, and these, working as cells—with the aid of “prominent officials in some district trade coun-. cils, notably in Auckland,” as the statement declares —exercise an influence disproportionate to their numerical strength in the industrial Labour movement, perhaps in the Government itself. Whether or not this obnoxious minority within the Labour Party will ever have the strength to control it would be difficult to say. . It is possible to sympathise with Mr Fraser in his belief that New Zealanders are not to be too long beguiled by so alien a conspiracy. But the evil yeast is there, and its workings are to be seen in certain ominous stirrings in the industrial unions—demands without ceasing, stopwork and strikes, which have no reasonable basis. Communism is content to work under cover, awaiting the moment when grievances and dissatisfactions reach a critical stage: is the Government of this country, which knows these methods, content to nurture it?