POLITICS ONLY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 December 1938, Page 8

POLITICS ONLY

SOVIET RUSSIA’S INTEREST IN LEAGUE

MANY INVITATIONS IGNORED.

WORK IN VARIOUS SPHERES NEGLECTED. Soviet Russia is unique among members of the League of Nations in confining its interest almost exclusively to the political activities of the League, observed Demaree Bess in the “Christian Science Monitor.” During the current year, especially, Moscow has demonstrated little interest in the varied and important cultural and technical organisations and commit- ' tees which the League has developed. It is a curious fact that the United States, which has never joined the League, and Japan, which resigned from the League after yeares of active membership, are both much more active than Russia in all except the political activities of the League. A continuous procession of important men come to Geneva all through the year, members of one or another committee set up by the League. Some such committees are permanent, others consist of experts assigned to work cut some specific problem. They accomplish interesting work, though often not sensational or decisive enough to attract wide popular attention.

During the eight months this correspondent has been stationed at Geneva, Soviet Russia has not been represented or. a single one of these committees. Moscow has been invited, but has declined to serve, on several groups in which Russia would appear to have a special interest. Russia was the only important member of the League which had no delegation whatever at the 1938 International Labour Conference. It was understood that she refused to attend because Soviet trade unions were denied affiliation with the International Federation of Trade Unions. But the latter organisation has no connections with the League or the 1.L.0. The Intellectual Co-operation Organisation of the League constantly arranges meetings and conferences of students, artists, writers, professors and the like from all countries members of the League. During the past year, Russia has ignored such gather.ngs, and has .sent few if any representatives to the institutes and standing committees designed to promote intellectual co-cperation. The United States, Japan and other non-members of the League have often been .represented.

Why does Soviet Russia ignore almost completely the activities of the League except those which are directly concerned with “collective security"—a (erm which is now often confused with European power pcli;ics? Why did Moscow show some interest in the cultural and technical activities of the- League for a time after she came to Geneva, and then gradually lose interest? There seem to be two possible explanations. First, the “purges” in Russia since 1936 have claimed so many of those Russian men and women who were qualified to co-operate in the intellectual and technical activities of the League that Moscow really has very few persons she can spare for work in Geneva. The Soviet Foreign Office, for example, has lost so many of its best officials —executed or in. exile or prison—that it has had to draft hundreds of men and women who were formerly free for other work. VZith so many of its intellectual class already in emigration, the “disappeaTance” of a considerable part of those remaining has made it difficult for the Soviet Government to find qualified persons for League work.

In the second place, Moscow has been withdrawing ever more completely within her own borders. This process has developed rapidly in the years since Russia joined ihe League m 1934. The official Soviet creed—monotonously reiterated—that Hie world consists of two parts: the Soviet Union (socialist) and the “capitalist encirclement" (all other countries). does not encourage intellectual or any-other kind of co-operation, whether through the League or through any other organisations except the Communist International and its affiliated political-minded societies and groups.