THIRD INTERNATIONAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 May 1943, Page 4

THIRD INTERNATIONAL

COMMENT ON DISBANDMENT DECISION PROPAGANDA WEAPON LOST. TO HITLER. SOME SCEPTICISM IN SWEDEN. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 10.55 a.m.) LONDON, May 23. Observers in Sweden view M. Stalin’s dissolution of the Communist International as removing from Hitler one of his most potent weapons of propaganda, says the Associated Press correspondent in Stockholm. The Germans, he adds, have always capitalised on the Red menace to Europe, especially in the Scandinavian and Baltic countries, where distrust of Russia is hereditary. One observer asked what Hitler was going to do with the AntiComintern Pact. Swedish papers greatly display the story, but are sceptical as to whether Russia actually means it. The Associated Press correspondent in Moscow says there is no connection between the dissolution and President Roosevelt’s letter to M. Stalin, or the visit of the former United States Ambassador to Russia, Mr Joseph Davies. The resolution on the dissolution was reached on May 15.

The executive of the Communist International (an earlier message reported) recommends the disbandment of the Communist International because of the conditions of the world war. The executive has decreed: “Being unable in the conditions of .the world war to call a congress of the Communist International, the executive submits the following motion for acceptance by the sections of the Communist International: First, that the Communist International, as the directing centre of the international workers’ movements, is disbanded; secondly, to free the sections of the Communist International from the obligations of their rules and regulations and from the decisions of the congress of the Communist International.

“Thirdly, the praesidium of the Communist International appeals to all the members of the Communist International to concentrate all their strength on full support and active participation in the war of liberation waged by the peoples and States of the anti-Hitlerite Coalition for the speediest rout of the cruellest enemy of the workers—German Fascism and its Allied vassals.” Washington authorities are reported to regard the dissolution of the Comintern as one of the most important political developments in the history of Russia and the war. In Britain also the action taken is regarded as important. The Berlin radio professes to regard the whole affair as a gigantic bluff.