COMMUNISM IN EAST.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 October 1920, Page 5

COMMUNISM IN EAST.

HOW ASIA IS RESPONDING. FARCICAL CONGRESS AT BAKU. London, Sept. 30. The correspondent of the Times at Constantinople states that the Communist Congress at Baku, by means of which the Bolsheviks hoped to gain Asiatic allies, was a fantastic affair.

Zinovieff (alias Apfelbaum) presided, and all the bourgeois were ordered to leave the city to give the proletariat Reds a chance of enjoying negotiations undisturbed by critical witnesses.

A review of the troops and the playing of the "Internationale" was followed by Zinovieff unveiling a statue of Karl Marx. The chairman, in a flowery inaugural speech, expressed the hope that_ they would soon see similar ceremonies in Constantinople and London. (Loud cheers.)

Then effigies of M. Millerand, Mr. Lloyd George, and Mr. Wilson, wearing their decorations, and remarkably lifelike, were placed on the platform near the statue, amid communist execrations. The dummies were solemnly sentenced to death, and the executioner poured petroleum over them, crying, "Here's a taste of the Baku oil you are so anxious to grab."

The burning of the images caused much merriment, especially the contortions of the figure of Mr. Llovd George, from the pockets of which rolls of English bank notes made at Moscow were caused, by an ingenious contrivance, to fly in all directions.

Later the congress turned to serious business. The Turks bulked largely among the Mahommedar.s attending, Enver Pasha himself, ex-Turkish Minister of War, Kiazim Bey, and other prominent militarists and' authors of massacres being present. One wonders why Ludendorff and Tirpitz were not invited.

A large proportion of the 2000 delegates were illiterate, and unable to cope with the bewildering diversity of languages and opinions. Inter-vacial quarrels were ffequent. The Indian delegates complained that the Turks had not helped India, and a Tartar representing Elizabetpol, in Georgia, protested against the massacre of 15,000 of his townsmen by the Bolsheviks, until he was pulled down. The Turkestan delegates accused Moscow of oppressing the Uzbegs and Sarts, and demanded self-determination until silenced.

Enver Pasha, after an affecting scene of reconciliation with an old enemy, one of the assassins of Mahmud Slievka Pasha, began what promised to be a lengthy oration, but discovering that !ie was not allowed to talk more than ten minutes he left the congress in a. huff.

Many resolutions were parsed against the Entente, and the delegations left in a fine fury of enthusiasm, swearing that they would shed the last drop of their blood, and doubtless being determined to shed other also, in the struggle against cgOHfc»Jjain end ImDarialiwvt