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Page Six

Chamberla

CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE

Has Blocked All
USSR Proposals

Germany could be seriously ques-
tioned.

But Chamberlain is not and
mever was 2 defender of demo-
eracy; he is not an opponent of
fascist aggression. On the con-
trary, he is an inveterate foe of
democracy, a profascist. It
was the national government of
which he has been 2 member and
of which he now is the head that
encouraged and aided Hitler to
attain the position of strength
and be the danger to democracy
and the peace of the world that
he now is. it was the national
government that broke a treaty
to enable Hitler to arm and re-
militarize the Rhineland.

Tt owas the same government
that concluded a naval treaty with
him, also in violation of its pledg-
ed word, that further assisted in
strensthening the fighting forces
of Hitler. It was the same gov-
ernment which supported the in-
vasion of Manchuria by Japan as
2 move in the direction of aggres-
sion against the Soviet Union. It
was his government that assisted
in the destruction of Abyssinia and
Austria and republican Spain. And
it was his plotting with the other
Munichites that stil] further streng-
thened the Rome-Berlin axis by the
dismemberment and final destruc-
tion of Gzecho-slovakia, Albania
and Memel.

Only when the Chamberlains saw
that all their assistance to Hitler
for the purpose of encouraging
him to march East against the land
of Socialism, were being frustrated
by the tremendous gErowth of the
Soviet economic and military

strength of which Hitler well knew,
and feared, and when they saw

that Hitler might seek an easier
road to expansion, namely, by mov-
ing against Britain and France and
their colonies and spheres of in-
fluence—and then and under pres-
sure did they mask their bourgeois
snebbishness and class hatred and
approach the Soviet Union.

But not for the purpose of form-
ing an alliance to resist Hitler, no
matter in which direction he might
strike. Even in the hour of dan-
ger to the empire, which the Cham-
berlain policy brought on, the na-
tional government could not be
honest; it could not but act with
its customary perfidy and duplici-
ty. It sought to have its imperial-
ist chestnuts out of a West Euro-
pean fire by having the USSR fall
into the trap of pledging assistance
to Britain and France should Hit-
ler and Mussolini attack British
and French interests in South
Eastern Europe and thereby open-
ing a road to the Near East and
India, without compensating pro-
tection for the Soviet Union by
also guaranteeing assistance to the
latter should Hitler attack the Bal-
tic countries bordering on the Sov-
iet Union, either openly or by “in-
mer aggression” in collaboration
with native pro-fascists, as was
done in Spain.

This pretty little scheme did not
work. For four months Chamber-
lain kept up the pretence of ne-
gfotiating a peace front of Britain,
France, and the Soviet Union. Four
months of British Tiory deceit,
double-dealing and trickery.

Poland Under Pressure

Whilst the Soviet Union, on the
average, tock only twe days to con-
sider a Brtish proposal and have

its reply in the hands of the Bri-
tish fSovernment, it took Cham-
berlain on an average of 15 days
to reply to a Soviet proposal. Un-
derstrappers without authority
were sent to Moscow to “conduct
negotiations,” while dilatory tactics
were employed in order to kill time
and to enable Germany to streng-
then its position while pressure
was being brought to bear on Pol-
and, as was done on Gzecho-slo-

valkia, to yield to the Nazi de-
mands.
Chamberlain’s game was to

prevent the formation of a tri-

power peace front and divert Hit-
ler aggression away from British

interests and against the Soviet

Union. As it sacrificed Czecho-

slovakia in an attempt to bring

this about, so it stood ready to
sacrifice Poland for the same
purpose, with the hope that the

USSE would be alone in defense
of Poland, and that the exhaust-
ion af Germany and the Soviet
Union in such a war would re-
store to Britain and France the
balance of power in Europe
which they lost by their assist-

ance to the Rome-Berlin axis
against Abyssinia, Spain, Czecho-—

slovakia and smaller European
victims.

Because of the sabotage of Cham-
berlain, the USSR saw that there
could be no peace front established
except a front of Britain and
France—if that could be called a
front—for their own imperialist

purposes. The only possible chance

for Poland, and for the peace of
Europe, lay in securing as many
pacts of non-aggression aS poOs-
sible.

Since Ghamberlain and Daladier
would not agree to a tri-power mu-
tual assistance alliance, but per-
sisted in excluding the Soviet Un-
ion, it was but natural that the
USSR would seek to protect its
own territory. Im doing so it dis-
rupted no peace front. A peace
front of Britain, France and the
USSR did not exist, although the
Soviet Union tried for four months
and more to achieve it, therefore it
eould not disrupt that which did
not exist. As for the Anglo-Frencn
front, the action of the Soviet Un-
jon has in no way disrupted it.

Unwitting admission of the
USSR’s endeavours to bring about
a tri-power peace front is made
by the capitalist press. The Van-
couver Province, in concert with
ether reactionary papers, in an edi-
forial suggested that the Soviet
Union held out the prospect of a
non-agpression pact with Germany
to force Britain and France into
a tri-power peace front. Such ac-
tion by the USSR, the Province
calls “blackmail” and “extortion”
of the democracies.

If it were true that the an-
nouncement of Soviet - German
talks on non-aggeression pact was
for the purpose of putting pressure
on Britain and France for a tri-
power antiNazi alliance, would
there have been anything repre-
hensible in that? Would it not have
been a meritorious effort on the
part of the USSR to force an alli-
ance for peace on reluctant gov-
ernments?

Plea Of USSR Unheeded

It must not be forgotten that
after the announcement of the
proposal to form such a pact and
the time of its signing, there was
still time for Britain to agree to
an Anglo-French-Soviet alliance to
stop Hitler. The pact was not
sprung suddenly as an accomplish-
ed fact. Announcement that one
was impending was made in Mos-
cow for the information of the
world. Surely this was sufficient
warning. But Chamberlain remain-
ed adamant.

So the USSR, which in one
breath is charged with breaking
the non-existent peace front, is in
the next breath charged with |
blackmail and trickery for striving
to bring about such a peace front

The Province admits a feeling of
disgust and anger because of what
appears to it to be eiforts of the
USSR to build an effective front
against Nazi aggression, and in its
“Giseust and anger” becomes in-
temperate and vents its reaction-
ary spleen against the Soviet Un-

ion and apologizes for the stew

Chamberlain has got Britain into
by charging that the Soviet gov-
ernment, the most democratic in
the world, is a “gangster” govern-
ment.

Fomenters of war do not, and
never did like, non-ageression
pacts. They fume and rage be-
cause the people of Soviet Russia
and Germany may not get at each
other’s throats after all and per-
mit the British and French reac-
tionaries to pluck their chestnuts
out of the conflagration and ga-
ther in spoils for their respective
imperialisms.

Opponents of the proposed non-
aggression pact, those who were
licking their slavering chops over
the prospect of the USSR alone
fighting against the combined
Wazi-Fascist forces, stand exposed
for what they really are—pro-fasc-
ist enemies of peace and stooges
of Chamberlain and Hitler.

There was no need for conditions
in Europe to be permitted to come
to the pass they have reached.
Wad the pleas of the Soviet Union

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been heeded and its proposals for
collective resistance by the demo-
eracies against fascist aggression
been accepted, fascist afgression
could have been nipped in the bud
years ago, before Chamberlain and
Daladier so greatly strengthened
the Rome-Berlin axis at the ex-
pense of the democracies.

From the rayings of the enemies
of the Soviet Union one would
think that the non-aggression pact
represents a departure trom Soviet
policy in foreign affairs. But it
Goes not. The policy of establishing
such pacts has been the policy of
the USSR for more than a decade.
The USSR has a non-ageression
pact with Italy and with other
Buropean states. It sought for
years to secure a non-aggeression
pact with Japan, and also with Bri-
tain. It had sucn a pact with Ger-
many, even with Nazi Germany,
until it was broken off by Hitler.

Not Mutual

Enemies of the Soviet Union
speak of the pact as if it were a
mutual assistance agreement, when
it is nothing of the kind: ft is not
an alliance with Hitler, but it isa
step taken to block CGhamberlain’s
scheme for a Soviet-German war,
the aim of British Tory policy for
more than 20 years.

The peoples of the democracies

The USSR wants non-aggres-
sion pacts among all nations. In

the League of Nations it advo-
cated that line accompanied by
proposals for disarmament, all of
which proposals were opposed by
Britain; and the pact with Ger-
many is further confirmation of
the desire of the Soviet Union
for world peace.

The whole world knows that ef
fective resistance to the mad dog
of WNaziism could not be made
without Britain. And with Britain
and France both, and together, col-
laborating with Hitler, for the Sov-
iet Union to attempt it alone would
be to invite disaster and certain
destruction.

While the Munichites had such
a trap ready for the USSR, the
USSR was not ready for the trap.
But the Munichites are caught in
it themselves.

Aid Pact

must be made clear on two main
points: First, does the Soviet-
German nonraggression (again
not mutual assistance) pact place
Poland in a more dangerous po-
sition than it was in before the
pact was made? And, secondly,
what are the advantages gained
by democracy and world peace as

some time this fall.
For the past two years the pro-

Gov't Expects To Spud In
First Oil Well This Fall

VICTORIA, BC.—It is expected that the provincial governs ‘-
ment will spud in its first oil well in the Peace River distrie: |

vincial government has undertaken
extensive prospecting for oil in the
Peace River country, with the an-
nounced intention of establishing a
provincial oil industry.

At its last session the legislature
voted $60,000 for exploration work
and geological parties have been in
the field this summer.

The proyincial government boasts
that it is the only government in
Ganada or the United States ever
to undertake oil well drilling opera--
tions in its own behalf.

Big oil companies, however, are

known to be interested in the as — -

yet undeveloped Peace River fielq
Private
Pouce Coupe announced this week
that the area promised to be better
than Alberta’s Turner Valley. Tf
the government is to fullfil ifs

pledge to establish a provincial oj] 1

industry, the need is for strone
public pressure to ensure that
private interests do not reap the
benefits of the government's initiay
operations, conducted at public ex
pense, as they have in other fields

ef the Mumnichites, which accomp-
lished the extinction of republican
Spain, Czecho-slovakia and other
Gemocratic states, and because of
the refusal of Chamberlain to form
an Anglo-FrenchSoviet pact to re-
sist Hitler, Poland was doomed to
destruction.

Its position could not have been
worsened. Before the forming of
the pact the Fifth Columnists of
Poland, and they include its for-
eign minister, Josef Beck, spurned
Soviet military assistance on Polish
territory. They did not want such
an unanswerable demonstration of
the Soviet sincerity in defense of
democracy.

Like the Chamberlains, the Dal-
adiers, the Bonnets, and the top
section of the ruling class of Czech-

oslovakia, they placea their class

Lives of British and Canadian
nationals in China will as a conse
quence be safer and the cause of
Ghinese independence is immeas-
urably strengthened. And the
lives, the welfare and the national
freedom of 400,000,000 people are
worth taking imto account when
striking a balance. Japan and
Spain are isolated, and danger of
attack by war-mad Japanese mil-
itarism against the peaceful people
of the Soviet Union is greatly les-
sened.

Just as the Soviet Union is it-
self not an aggressor state, so it
strives, and with success, to bind
other states to a policy of non-
aggression.

Wet these very people who now
berate the Soviet Union for mak-
ing a non-aggression pact with
Germany, who, over the years slan-
dered the Soviet Union because it
worked for collective security
against the aggressor states, and
who joined with Ghamberlain in
calling the Soviet Union and all
Communists “blood thirsty paci-
fists” and ““war-mongers,” are now
just as maliciously denouncing the

| a result of the pact?
Because of the pro-Nazi policy

Soviet government for abandoning

———

interest above the national inter ~

ests, They were willing, in the

event of an attack by Hitler, that i

the USSR supply them with fosd
and war materials. But they can
have that today or tomorrow, for
there is nothing in the pact to pre
vent it.

The non-aggeression pact has
brought tremendous gains to de
mocracy and for the cause of
world peace: It has smashed
the Rome—Berlin-Tokyo alliances,
the most dangerous fee of world
democracy and peace. The Jap-
anese militarists are thrown in-
to confusion, and the tie-up of
Franco Spain with the Rome
Berlin axis has been dealt a shat
tering blew. This has been ad-
mitted by Tokyo and Burgos.

Soviet Enemies Exposed —

the quest for collective security
when it is piain that it cannot be

achieved as long as the Chamber-
lain government holds power.

Like reactionary Labor party
leaders in England who at every
critical moment supported ths
Chamberlain government, they
want the people to continue trust
ing in Chamberlain to resist Hit
ler. They still deceive the people
into thinking that Chamberlain
is a defender of democracy.

They charge the Soviet Union
with having “betrayed” peace be
cause it would not permit Cham-
berlain to deceive the Soviet people —
and lead them into a trap But
when the USSR was working with
might and main for collective se-
eurity, it was charged with betray
ing socialism by “co-operation with
capitalism.”

We have heard this sort of howl
ing before, when mouthy social-
democrats outdid, as they are now
doing, the capitalists and their -
press in lying vituperation born of
their chagrin. But “let the galled
jade wince, our withers are un-

wrune.”

CONTINUED FROM

PAGE ONE

Soviet Union Strikes Effective Blow
At War Plans Fostered By British Tories

since the Munich crisis, the fact
remains that the direction of Bri-
tish foreign policy has not chang-
ed. Now, as before, it is directed
against the world’s first socialist
state, the Soviet Union.

True, the tactics have been

changed. The policy of appease-
ment has been exposed for what it
is. It is too crude a policy to be
repeated. But the fundamental
aims of appeasement—of sacrific-
ing the smaller democracies to Ger-
man and Italian fascism, of giving
concessions to the fascist states—
are being pursued in a different
way.

Policy of Duplicity

The GChamberlain government's
policy in past months has been one
of endeavoring to weaken Poland,
one of seeking to satisfy Hitler’s
demands on Poland, and, in effect,
one of placing Poland in the posi-
tion of aggressor.

It may be asked: How can Pol-
and be placed in the position of an
ageressor? Poland does not want
war. Any act of ageression must
surely come from Germany. This
is not necessarily the case.

Danzig already has been taken
over by the Nazis in all but name.
Tt requires only a formal pro-
nouncement for Danzig to be an-
nexed to the Third Reich. Poland
would then be forced into the po-
sition of an aggressor by having
to go to war with Germany to pre-
vent economic strangulation. Wazi
annexation of Danzig means reduc-
tion of Poland to the status of 2
vassal state of Germany.

The Chamberlain government
has stalled for the past four months
in its negotiations wath the Soviet
fovernment for conclusion of 2
military alliance between Britain,
France and the USSR it hoped
to gain time for Hitler and the
satisfaction of his demands.

On what point were the Anglo-

Soviet negotiations finally block-
ed? Britain gave guarantees
against aggression to the small

southeastern European states. The
Chamberlain government gave
these guarantees because through
southeastern Europe lies Hitler's
road to the oilfields of Irak and to
India. But the Chamberlain gov-
ernment would not give similar
feuarantees to the small Baltic
countries which lie between Ger-
‘many and the Soviet Union. Britain
closed the road to India but left
the road open to the Soviet Union.

The Chamberlain government
has been conducting secret negoti-
ations with Hitler designed to be-
tray Poland, to extend the boun-
daries of the Third Reich to the
Soviet border.

Similarly, on the Far Pastern
front Britain has retreated before
Japanese demands, thereby ob-
jectively strengthening Japanese
fascism and weakening world
peace and democracy- The policy
of the Chamberlain government
has not been designed to promote
world peace. Rather it can only
lead to war by weakening the de-
mocracies and strengthening the
faseist states.

If you ask why the Chamberlain
government has been able to fol-
low this policy, the answer is clear.
The democratic forces in Britain
itself have failed to unite in op-
position, to rouse the people to the
fact that war can only be averted
by a peace front of the democratic
countries with the Soviet Union.

Soviets Want Peace

Tt is against this background
that the proposed Soviet-German
non-aggeression agreement must be
viewed.

The Soviet Union already has a
non-ageression pact with fascist
Tialy. Until 1935 it had a non-3aZe-
gression pact with Germany. AS

The Soviet Union’s policy has

consistently been one fer peace.
The Soviet Union has no inten-
tion of launching an aggressive
war against any other country.
At the same time, she has an-
nounced her readiness to partici-
pate with the democratic coun-
tries in any peace front calcu-
lated to prevent fascist aggres-
sion.

While the Nazi press is hailing
the proposed non-aggression pact
as enabling the carrying out of
Fitler’s designs on Poland, actual-
ly the agreement may prove to be
the salvation of Poland. The
Chamberlain and Daladier govern-
ments have given only verbal as-
surances to Poland. They are not

the extent they were committed to
aid Gzecho-Slovakia—commitiments
they did not hesitate to break
when the test of Munich came.
Yet these governments expected
the Soviet Union to render full as-
sistance to Poland, while they
themselves might withdraw.

In other words, the Soviet Union
was to be embroiled in a war with
Germany. This has been the aim.
of British foreign policy for years.
Stalin stated some time ago that
the Soviet Union did not intend to
pull the chestnuts out of the fire
for Hrance and Britain. Yet this
is obviously what the Ghamberlain
and Daladier governments hoped
the Soviet Union would do.

Confound War Plans

Announcement of the proposed
pact has had the effect of con-
founding the plans of Ghamber-
lain and Daladier for the satis-
faction of Hitlers demands on
Poland. Their governments are
now confronted with the neces-
sity of taking 2 stand for peace
by concluding the ynilitary alli-
ance with the Soviet Union or
exposing their hand to the whole
world that they do not want to
see fascism halted and defeated,

committed to aid Poland even to |

in other words, that they do not
want peace.

The mnon-aggeression pact with
Germany is no obstacle to reach-
ing the Anglo-Soviet-France alli
ance.

Further, the effect of the propos-
ed non-aggression pact has been
to throw the Rome-Berlin-Toekio
axis into confusion and disagree
ment. Japan believes the pact @
violation of the anti-cominternm
pact. China and the democratic
powers are thereby strengthened
in the Far East.

The non-aggression pact is 2
factor for peace. It is a factor
for peace Decause it has con-
founded the war plans fostered
in London, Paris, Berlin and
Rome.

The question may well be asked:
Why is Nazi Germany concluding.
the agreement with the Soviet Un-
ion?

Wazi Germany has no desire to
clash with the determined strength
of the Soviet Union. Rather, Hit
ler’s policy is directed against the
weakness of the democracies
which are enervated by treachery
of Fifth Columnists from within.

His motive in trying to conclude
a non-ageression pact with the Se
viet Union. is
Soviet Union, as he hopes,

those
easily obtain them —
ments The Nazi press is already
raising Hitler’s demands for colon=
ies again.

But Hitler is enmeshed in the

with the Soviet Union,
gression pact which represents 2
triumph, not for Nazi diplomacy;

put for the Soviet Union and the
cause of world peace.

interests now drilling at 7

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