Page Four THE ADVOCATE THE ADVOCATE (Bormerly The People’s Advocate) Published Weekly by the Advocate Publishing As- sociation, Room 20, 163 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, B.C. Phone TRinity 2019. Editor: Hal Griffin @Qne Year —__.__-.__$2:00 Three Months -——- $ .60 aaah ear re $1.00 Single Copy -———-—— $ .05 Make All Cheques Payable to: The People’s Advocate Vancouver, B.C., Friday, September 15, 1939 Manion Reveals Reaction’s Hopes In House Speech “Ft is true he served Germany well, and had he stopped at a certain point he might well have - Zone down into history as a great German hero. ‘Fe raised the German people from dis- ecouragement, gave them back their pride after & just defeat, but a humiliating defeat . .. But he did not stop there.” i eee man who spoke these words is Hon. R. J. Manion, leader of the Conservative party in the House of Commons. He was giv- ing parliament his opinion of Hitler last Fri-- day. Strange words to hear at such a time, yet not surprisins. for they reflect as in a mirror the mentality and ideas of the speaker and of others of his ilk. The fact revealed by this statement is that up to a certain point Dr. Manion rather ad- mired Hitler, that up to a certain point Dr. Manion considered Hitler was doing a good job for the German people, that he was “a great German hero.” Hitler did not stop at the point Dr. Manion considered proper. Therefore only at this late date has Hitler- ism become a menace to mankind. The working people think differently. Ca- nadian labor has vigorously opposed fascism in all its forms and manifestations in the past as well as in the present. We do not think that in 1933 Hitler was a here and that only in 1939 he became a men- ace to mankind. On the contrary, Hitlerism was a menace to humanity in 1933 but would never have become such a potent and power- fill menace had there not been forthcoming the aid and comfort, the collaboration and the appeasement of those economic and political rulers of other countries who, like Dr. Man- ion. rather admired Hitler “up to a certain point.” It is only fair to ask Dr. Manion what ac- tions of Hitler justify the viewpoint that he might have gone down into history as a great hero. Is it the way Hitler became chancellor of Germany that he admired, when President Hindenburg gave him the office, although the majority of the German people had voted against the Nazis and, in fact, the last election held had shown the Nazi vote to be falling? Or is it the first “election” held after Hitler came fo power, when all socialist and com- munist papers and meetings were prohibited during the election campaign, when the Nazis burned the Reichstag to provide a pretext for arresting all Communist officials, to scare the eredulous and intimidate the fearful into sup- porting the Nazis? Or, finally, is it the way, after suppressing the Communist party, the Social-Democratic party was declared an illegal organization, the way the trade unions were suppressed, their funds seized, their leaders and active members imprisoned and all strikes prohibit- ed? As a would-be restorer of Section 98 in Canada those particular actions of Hitler all performed in 1933 probably seemed par- ticularly heroic and praiseworthy. When Ausiria was seized, when Spain was ravished, when Czechoslovakia was betrayed your voice, Dr. Manion, was not heard, join- ing the protests and warnings of the Canadian labor Nazism. movement against the menace of We are elad that at last you acknowledge the menace to be real, that it must be de- stroyed if civilization is not to perish. Do not blame us, however, if we are still suspicious of those who so recently admired Hitlerism, and even tdoay consider that “up to a certain point” Hitler was a hero. The slogan of the labor movement has been and remains: No Truce with Fascism! WNo In order to destroy Truce with Hitlerism! Hitilerism. to make the world safe from fas- ecism the labor movement cannot but state frankly that any confidence in the erstwhile admirers and would-be emulators of Hitler- ism would postpone the achievement of its aims. EENKS OF STRUGGLE History Unites Polish, German Peoples In Fight For Freedom By KURT KERSTEN A T THE present dramatic hour, when Germany’s brutal Nazi rulers have unleashed war against the Polish nation, it is well to remember that the Polish and German peoples have been tied by history in the struggle for democracy. Poland was the victim of three partitions by neighboring feudal and absolutist powers during the 18th century. Austria, tsarist Russia and Prussia in the course of 20 years appropri- ated sections of Poland without concern for the Polish people. The big landlords of Poland at that time did everything in their power to bring about dismem- berment of the Polish realm and passage of its people under the rule of a foreign power. But after the third partition of Poland the Polish people un- der Kosciousko’s leadership waged a passionate and bitter struggle for national indepen- dence. Those were the years of the French Revolution, and the wietories of the young revolu- tionary armies against the coun- ter-revolutionary armies encour- aged and inspired the Poles to take up the struggle for their rights. S : ANY of the Poles who took part in these battles be came world-famous. At the time when the powers combined to Gestroy Poland, throttling the people’s hope of freedom, hun- dreds of Poles, including Kosci- usko, emigrated to America, where they fought in the army of George Washington for inde pendence of the American colo- nies. There were Polish divisions among the troops commanded by the Baron Steuben and La- fayette. Germans, Frenchmen and Poles fought together for the national independence of th= American people. They were convinced that this struggle was at the same time. a struggle in the interests of their own peoples. Se uprising of the Polish people in i794 had profound repercussions in Ger- many and strengthened the struggle for liberty within Ger- many itself, awaking and en- courasine the opposition against the reactionary regimes. The struggle of the Polisna people at that time did not re- sult in victory, but there was no lack of sympathy for the un- happy Polish people among wide sections of the Germans. The song, Noch ist Polen nicht ver- loren (Poland is not lost as yet), written at that time, was sung throughout Germany, and be- BY 6preat came the song of the German Opposition struggling for liberty- The song became a railying- Call for the German people in the years following the WNapoleonic Wars, when the German people was deceived in its aspirations for free rights, the ruling class went back on its promises and a Stage of siege throughout Ger- many was declared by Mettern- ich. Poland, which experienced 2 national revival for a short period during the height of Napoleon's power was partitioned for the fourth time at the Vienna Co2- gress A governor-general of the tsar ruled in Warsaw. Prussian and Austrian generais command- ed in Posnan and Cracow. s | ON aes that time on the struggle of the peoples of Poland and Germany took a parallel course. The Poles, sorely oppressed in the Prussian proyineces, joined with the German liberal and democra- tic opposition. The great Polish revolt in 1831 found the strongest echo in Ger- many itself, and the tragic. end of the uprising was felt as the d=- feat of the German people them- selves. . In 1848, simultaneously with the outbreak of the German revo- jution, revolts began in Prussia’s Polish provinces. The revolis were put down by the Prussian troops only after long battles. The Polish democrat Mieroslaw- ski, who was brought to trial in Berlin, was freed by the victory of the Berlin people on March 18, 1848, and his trip through Berlin during the March days of 1848, was one ofthe largest demonstra- tions of the freedom-loving Ger- man people. Leaders of German democracy such as Robert Blum fought with all their energies for the right of the Polish people to national in- dependence, declaring that the re-establishment of a free Poland was a “sacred duty of the Ger- man nation.” Ss WN the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, -Marx and E:ngets,-leaders 3f the German working class and founders of scientific socialism, published numerous articles on Poland, supported its struggle for freedom, and attacked the re— actionaries and counter-revolu- tionaries for their persecution of the Poles. “There are necessary peoples,’ wrote the Neue Rheinische Zei- tung on Aug. 19, 1848, “and the Polish people unconditionally be- longs to these necessary peoples in the 19th century.’ Marx and Engels declared that the national existence of Poland was “neces- sary for no one more than for us Germans.” They came to this conclusion on the basis of the fact that op- pression of foreign peoples was the work of the same powers op- pressing their own peoples. The “Holy Alliance” was held together by the partition of Pol- and, the “cleavage which the three powers — Prussia, Austria and tsarist Russia—drew through Poland was the bond that tied them of each oher; the common banditry made them act in solid- arity with each other.” = HE. struggle against reaction was unavoidably bound up with the struggle for indepe- dence of Poland, and thus the Weue Bheinische Zeitung could declare that “the establishment of a democratic Poland is the first perquisite for the establisk- ment of a democratic Germany.” It was eranted that Poland, in order not to be given a spurious “re-establishment” but rather a real basis for life, needed “the ex- tension of 1772,’ not only the “‘dis- tricts, but also the mouths of its great streams,” “a great strip of land o the Baltic Sea.” In the following year many Polish Democrats fought in the ranks of the German revolution- ary army for the national consti- tution. The bonds between the German and Polish working class have always been particularly close and today more than ever the words of Marx and Engies be- come true that the “national ex- -istence of Poland is importantfor — no one more than for us Ger- mans.” LLOYD GEOREE SAYS-= N ONE of his rare interviews given recently to M. H. H alton, London correspondent of the Toronto Star, David Lloyd George, Britain’s wartime prime minister, had some biting com- ment to make as he discussed the new war in Europe. The veteran statesman told Hal- ton that in his opinion “the rot set in in Burope” in 1931. In that year, he deciared, “Ja- pan began her struggle for world power by invading Manchuria, and our foreign secretary was Sir John Simon. The United States cautiously suggested that Britain and the United States should act together to help China. She was snubbed for her pains. Simon is a man of no greatness. As Bal- four said so well, he is a big man for little things, but a little man for big things. Nothing was done. Japan annexed Manchuria while Britain looked on and the League did nothing but protest. “That was the evil hour,’ he continued. “That’s when the rot began. Japan openly flouted the law and got away with it. Other bandits took heart all over the world, and we British began our Jong weary retreat from the glory that might have been-~ “Abyssinia came, bringing the complete debacle of the League. Then came the infamy of the Spanish war; the rape of Austria and then the disaster and disgrace of last September when the fine Czech democracy was swept away. And all this time Britain seemed to be going out of her way to assist the forces that threatened Britain’s own life as well as the citadel of sanity and civilization. - “Why?” he asked, answering his own question. “Because,” he said, “at this crucial hour Britain couldn’t throw up great men, men with a genuine passion for demo- eracy and humanity. We got the weakest government I have seen in 50 years of parliaments. We got Men whose only strong in- stinct was property. Men who feared that if we stood up to fascism and caused its collapse we would have bolshevism. Men without fire and courage. “Now, he declared, “this gov- ernment has been forced to take a stand, but even now it is reluctant and public opinion must watch it closely. It was the same in France, France with its Bonnets and Flandins.” When Halton asked him if he did not think it seemed as though “Germany never wanted to be democratic,” Lioyd George an- swered, “Wrong. Why, the Ger- man people fought the greatest war for freedom of thought ever fought—the Thirty Years’ War in which 80 percent of her people died.” WHAT THE PRESS SAID (Cg and Daladier must be held responsible for their deliberate failure to achieve a peace front against Nazi agg of a large and significant group of Socialist and labor fore war broke out with Hitler’s invasion of Poland on Septem Soviet-German non-aggression pact as and as a warning to Chamberlain who had been on inciting Hitler to attack the USSR.” Wews of this substantial body of informed opinion, delayed due to outbreak of hostilities, throws light on the European situation and stands in sharp contrast to the hysterical attacks on the Sov- jet-German pact by certain So- ecialist leaders in Europe. Sir Stafford Cripps, outstand- jing Liberal in England, Labor party leader expelled for advocat- ing a peopie’s front against fasc- ism, hailed the pact two weeks ago in The London Tribune, his weekly labor paper, 45 smashing manoeuvres of London and Paris diplomats to provoke German ag- gression against the USSR, stat- ing: “tA: pact of non-ageression between Russia and Germany will be a great reinforcement for peace in Eastern Europe.” Cripps’ paper charged that “Chamberlain was cateculating by his continued equivocation on in- citing Hitler to attack the USSR. “But Hitler has long ago realiz- ed that the might of the Soviet Union based on the unity of 2 Socialist people, the boundless possibilities of a Socialist econ- omy and the destruction of all fifth columns, Cliveden sets, Links and other Nazi instru- ments, has made the USSR too formidable for him to tackle... e EON NICOLE, leading Swiss Socialist and editor of the Geneva Socialist paper, Le Tra- vail, wrote on August 25: “The people have mot the same interests as the armaments mak- ers and the capitalists who get rich through the blackmail of war. The people want peace and Soviet Russia also wants peace, and today has made itself the champion of peace. “Hitler has been caught in his own game. He needs to measure now the abyss which has opened under his feet. While the democ- racies of the capitalists still en- courage warmongering Germany by their hesitations in constitut- ing at long last the peace front, Soviet Russia has, on the con- trary, estimated that the moment has come to take the steering ression, and not the Soviet Union, in the estimation papers throughout Europe. Even be- ber 1, these papers hailed the “a sreatreinforcement for peace in Eastern Europe,” “calculating by his continued equivocation wheel of Europe out of the de- bilitated hands of British and French diplomacy. “Toast week it was a question of a four-power conference with-— out Russia. Who knows if to- morrow it will not be a question of a conference of all European states desiring peace taking place as the result of the firmness shown by Soviet Russia since the beginning of the grave crisis into which Europe has entered. “In any case no one can now seriously talk of the reorganiza-— tion of our continent without the Russia of the workers and peas- ants. This grand country has be- come the arbiter of the capitalist forces opposed in Europe and threatening to lead us to new mas- sacres. This role was played up to now by England to the profit of the financiers of the city of Tondon; it will now be played by Soviet Russia in the name of the working peoples of all lands and with the object of procuring peace through useful work and honesty.” sHORT Cam § IENBS 2 5 = by OF Bill aT + put = ‘— it | bac : « As the local press sees tk I No Banzais, question, the world’s war SE! |) oos What? tors have been marrowe | ong down to the Polish front, the Western front an | + the high seas. At least this conclusion is justifie | ca if we scan their pages for news of the wars i if¥ China and the Mongolian-Manchurian borders. Onj f would imagine, from the paucity of space devote Ali to these battlefronts of the world war, that peac] pal now reigned in the Par Hast. ; As However, there are other channels through wicks ish we may learn. A story has recently been release | ~~ from Moscow, the most reliable of all news sources; + that an engagement was fought between the Sovie be Mongol army and the Japanese Kwantung arm; * te which lasted seyen days, from Aug. 20 to Aug. 27. = — In this battle the Soviet troops captured or de stroyed 164 Japanese planes. They captured & Ff | cannon of varying calibres; 67 heavy and 98 ligh | 1 machine guns; 36 mortars; 8 tanks, 14 tractors, ie trucks and 19 automobiles; and 9000 rifles. Bu? best of all, 294 Japanese “officers and men deserts; the Kwantung army and came over to the side o f the Soviets. Only 16 planes were lost in this opera f tion. ae Although we do not hear of it, Chinese armie further south, are no doubt giving, or preparing ti five, the Japanese invaders experiences of a simila: | character to write home about. — Z Since the Soviet Union busted the anti-Commin- tern pact into small pieces, the bombastic war lord: ¥ ef Nippon are not so cocky. They no longer takr the pants off Britishers in the streets and stuff thei | passports into their mouths. This is one of the re 7 sults of the Soviet-German non-aggression pact f Another will be the relinquishing of the Mongoliar campaign. A third will be the wiping out of thi) Japanese armies in China, although it may take < couple of years. Other results are already apparen’ in the West and prove that the Soviet sovernment; ‘= pact with Nazi Germany is the most profound ant % RB far-reaching political manoeuver the world has see: in a hundred years or more. x \) et bd] The internal policies of the Soviet statesmen am calculated to get results in short order, in plannec ) economy, in the collectivization of agriculture, ir the building of socialism—Five Year plans at most In their foreign policies now, they appear to he ; aiming to get results in the same short space 0) F time. ‘ ¢€ The rapidity with whick Neutrality. President Roosevelt —recos > = nized that a state of war | exists involving Britain and France, and invoke: } the US neutrality laws, is a strangely contradictar position, when considered in relation to the situa. tion in the Orient. For two years and two months Japanese war-mongers have been showering deati on the most peaceful people in the world. a The ordinary, every-day, run-of-the-mill, two-by four individual, who, taken collectively, makes ur f the mass of all nations, has no doubt about the wa in China, a war which is beimg conducted in th /} most brutal manner, with such savagery Aas ni mask of civilization or culture is able to hide; ¢é war in which United States citizens have beer slaughtered and United States warships and prop erty destroyed. : The Japanese imperialist brigands maintain, witk froth on their lips, that there is no war. It is jus! © an emergency, ‘the China emergency,” they call it To the US president and government, it does noi even come in the category of an “emergency.” They carry on just as though there had never been a sho |) fired, mever a Chinese baby disembowelled, never Ip a Chinese woman raped. Wo neutrality act is in- 3 voked to stop the flood of war paraphernalia té | Japan. If the shipment of scrap iron was held up © in American ports, it was longshoremen and other | workers who stopped it, not the neutrality invoking government. ee The serap iron merchants; the arms manufactur ers, the airplane factory owners, don’t know there is a war on in China either,—or do they? US de& partment of commerce figures recently released, show that in the first five months of 1939, airplanes were exported from the US to Japan, to the value of $1,665,389. No one can say the figures are cooked as they are published by a-responsible department of the US government. But, of course, there is no ® war in China! - Whom To During the last longshore ff I A men’s strike, the so-called In-f ntern: dustrial Council, at the head } of which is the notorious Hdgett, imported from | the prairies quite a number of Nazi Germans t6| seab on the striking longshoremen. Many of them { were still working on the waterfront till this war broke and may be there yet. Demands are being made on every hand, that to prevent damage to ships and docks, these Nazis. should be interned. It is justifiable to deal thus with these agents of Hitler in our midst, but this internment demand should not be encouraged be- yond that point, for it will work a hardship and bring a great deal of suffering to innocent Germans in Canada who are better anti-fascists than the re- cently discovered shouters who want to destroy Hitlerism. ‘ « Technocracy? Im the Eootenays one may hear, almost any time, the statement that “Technocracy, Inc.” is being used as a cover for Nazi propaganda and activity. The claim is being made by workers and business men who make a habit of observing what they see going on around them. : 3 Some color is lent to -this belief by a letter in one of the local papers a few days ago. The local branch’ of Technocracy, Inc., expresses its opinion about conscription which is all right, but one of the’ two signatories, ©. V. Von Strauss, is described as} “Chief of Staff.” | “Ghief of Staff” is a purely military term. It has} no place among technicians. Manager, superintend- ent, chief engineer, shift boss, straw boss,—any of these would be OK. But “chief of staff’ does not belong in the engine-room, the ‘lab, the factory fe) the field. The Nazis appear to have got in fal enough to militarize this “Technocracy, Inc.” & : Is this a symbol or a pra- An Augury.- phecy? The Nazi Bund in Vancouver had a headquarters at Main and 16th- Tt was just an ordinary store. They are out of if for some time, and the store is now ocecupied by 2 Jewish second-hand dealer.