RUSSIAN WRATH

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 70, 14 June 1927, Page 7

RUSSIAN WRATH

TIRADE AGAINST BRITAIN SAMPLES OF SOVIET RAGE Anger stirs Russia merely at the thought of England, but the Soviet rage against John Bull, we are told, has never flamed so high as since British and other foreign military and naval forces were sent to China, observes “The Literary Digest.” America, it seems, comes in for its share of castigation, but it is chiefly Britain that keeps the ire of the Russian press at white heat. Favourite head-lines mentioned are “Hands Off China,” “Down With British and American Intervention,” and the old familiar “Long Live the World Revolution.” Especially profuse in its vilification of what i* calls the “bloodstained interventionists” is “Pravda,” the official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. Editorials, cartoons, special articles, and poems on China are said to be found in every issue of this newspaper. In one of the poems, illustrated with the monster of Anglo-American capital aiming heavy guns at China, we read the following cordial sentiments: “The cursed reptile has shown its teeth; It has covered Nanking with the blood of the Chinese, While heavy shells spit out melted lead. Vain are thy attempts to combat the revolution, These are thy last crimes, thy last efforts, For thy last days, cursed reptile, are near!” Attacks On Statesmen Some of the “poems” are still “stronger” and in them Sir Austen Chamberlain, Mr. Briand, and Mr. Mussolini are pictured as gluttonous beasts greedily devouring the Chinaman whose limbs are torn apart. The information contained in the dispatches published by the “Pravda” is in harmony with the poems and cartoons. For instance, it is a sheer lie, we are told, to charge that the bombardment of Nanking by British and American ships was due to attacks by the Nationalist soldiers on foreigners. According to this journal the imperialists have invented this pretext in order to “sweep Nanking off the earth, to inaugurate intervention and murder thousands of Chinese.” The editorial comment of the “Pravda” on the attitude of foreign Powers toward China and on their joint note to the Government of Hankow and to Chiang Kaishek is as follows:

“New battleships and new transports with troops, munitions and war material arrive every day in China. The idea is not only to blockade Chinese ports, but also, in case of ‘necessity’ to bombard them. Blockade or bombardment? This is the question that every workman, every true proletarian democrat hears. To blockade and to bombard the Chinese revolution, to blackmail, terrorise and kill it—such is the real purpose pursued by the imperialists in China.” It is alleged by the “Pravda” that Lord Birkenhead, whom it calls a “brazen-faced clown,” has said that “there is no one to talk to in China.” So this newspaper berates Lord Birkenhead, and declares that for him the Chinese coolie and worker are “unI worthy and negligible quantities.”