The Daily Worker Newspaper, July 19, 1924, Page 11

The danger of war i& always im- minent in capitalist society, But never was this danger so apparent as in the present period, when even bourgeois journalists and statesmen, , as for instance Nitti, Caillaux, Lloyd George, Keynes, etc., who until re- cently attempted to persuade the pub- lic that the world war of 1914-18 was the last war, which would usher ir eternal peace, are now compelled to recognize the truth, that at present, thru the economic development and the international position of the im- perialistic Great. Powers, a. situation has arisen in the whole world which is making for war. At present there are incomparably more reasons for a world war than on the eve of 1914. Comrade Lenin was much occupied with the question of the approaching world war. In a remarkable doecu- ment which he wrote on the 4th of December, 1922, as instruction for the delegation of the Comintern to the Hague Conference of the Second In- ternational held to consider the ques- tion of combatting the danger of war, he said among other things: “In the second place every present day conflict, even the most trifling, must be adduced as am example of how a war may break out any day with no further cause than a quarrel! between England and France with re- gard to some detail of their agree- ment with Turkey, or between Ameri- ca and Japan over some unimportant difference referring to a question of the Pacific Ocean, or between any of the other great powers with regard to disagreements about colonies, tariffs or general commercial policies.” In this Lenin gave a short but pro- found analysis of the facts which are . driving to a new world war. It is a great mistake when scientists explain the whole meaning of the war of 1914-18 as a rivalry between Germany and England. Doubtiess the compe- tition between. Germany and Englend for the hegemony of the work! was one of the most important facts of the world war and played a promi- nent part in causing the outbreak of the world conflagratron. But apart from the Anglo-German conflict, the outbreak of the war was also caused by the rivalry between Tsarist Russia and Germany and Austria for the hegemony in Turkey and in the Bal- kans, as well by the Franco-German competition for the possession of Africa and the mineral ores on the European frontier of both countries. And precisely because, on the eve of the world war, not only the imperi- alistic interests of England and Ger- many clashed together, but also those of Germany and Russia, of Germany and France, of Russia and Austria, of ‘taly and Austria, of Serbia and Bul- saria, etc., the result was not an Ang- ‘o-German but a world war, whose im- nediate cause was a trifling incident n Serajevo. At present, not only the imperialis- -ic interests of America and Japan, but also those of Englarid and France, of France and Italy, of France and Spain, Yugoslavie and Bulgaria, Yugo- slavia and Czecho-Slovakia, Rouma- ria and Hungary, Poland and Lett- land, ete., are colliding with each oth- er and therefore a “trifling” difference can cause an explosion to the accum- ulated combustibles at the different points of junction of international pol- cy, as in Tangier, Singapore, in the Ruhr, the Banat, in the Philippines, and set the whole world in flames. The Armaments Race—The Chemical : War. The first symptom of the extreme ension that has arisen in the rela- sions between the capitalist powers, consists in the extraordinary war pre- parations of all states, which by far surpass those preceding the-—world war. According to the statistics of the English general F. Morris, in the year 1922, there were in_Europe 4,- 354,975 men under arms, while in 1913, the total European armies amounted to 3,747,179 men. Consider- ing the fact thatthe combined stand- ing armies of Germany, Austria, Hun- gary and Bulgaria have been reduced to 696,135 men, General Morris comes to the conclusion, that the remaining European powers have increased their armies by 1,303,921 men. In Europe, France has got the largest army. On the ist of January, 1923, it numbered 831,828 men, including the colonial garrisons and the officers. These armaments consist not so much in the numerical increase of the armies, altho this increase is quite remarkable compared with pre-war time, but in the unexampled improve- ment in war-technics,-as well as in the expenditure upon the same. Thus, for instance, the “pacifist” “England of MacDonald intends, according to the budget for 1924-25, to reduce the home forces by 12,000 men (to 152,000 as against 164,000 in 1923-24) but at the same time the budget provides for an increase inthe air fleet of two. million Pound. Sterling, while eight new air squadrons are provided for.* England is increasing her navy by the construction of &ve néw cruis ers and two destroyers, she is de- voting enormous sums for the “chemi- zation” of the army, for the invention of mew explosives, for the construc- tion of hundreds of light and heavy tanks for the home forces, etc. From the end of the world war up to 1923, AFTER RUSSIAN COMMUNIST CONGRESS (Continued from page 2) masses!” The resolutions of the Con- gress form a booklet of 90 pages of Internal ship of the proletariat, the other be- ing the growth of the fundamental in- dustries managed by the state; partic ular attention to be paid to the peas- geoisie; unification and order in the land distribution; special attention to agricultaral imstructors and village school teachers; furthering of the OMING WAR England had already spent 290 mil- lion pounds on armaments. France also attaches the greatest importance to the development of her air forces, which already far surpass those of England. The creation of 132 fighting squadrons is provided fer. -The air fleet will comprise 30,- 000 met in peace and 360,000 men in war time. The expenditure of France on the air forces surpasses that of all other great powers. The French government devotes the greatest at- tention to the development of war chemistry. In France a military corps has been formed of: engineers and chemists, whose task is the invention of new means for the chemical war. The French imperialists are dream- ing of bombs. which could, if neces- sary, destroy Berlin or London in a few hours. And as the French chemi- cal imdustry is Yar behind that of England, not to speak of that of Ger- many, the French government intends A RELIC OF THE By M. PAVLOVITCH selves .incapable of keeping up the pace in the race for armaments any longer. And perhaps the moment will soon arrive, when the nationalist press of all of these states will pro- ceed, as did the “German chauvinist press on the eve of the world war, by pointing to the terrible burden of armaments necessitated thru the threats from the foreign enemies, to. ineite the population to enter the war under the slogan: “Better a finnish with horror, than a horror without end!” The Anglo-French Antagonism as the Basic Factor of the Coming War. The main guilt for these feverish preparations in Europe and for the approaching European war, which threatens to become a world war lies upon France and England. France of the notorious Comite des Forges is striving for domination on the European Continent and the dis- placement of England from Europe. GOOD OLD DAYS Gas Mask to keep in their hands the occupied, area of Germany if not for good at any fate for a very long time. This umprecedented intrease in arflaments which characterizes the period after the war, is the result of two faets. On the one hand, the acuteness of the industrial crisis and of unemploymént in the capitalist countries, as well as the restriction of the foreign markets, induce the bour- geoisie to see in the intensification natural tendency to arm to in order to be eap- able of crushing the enemy and get- ting hold of the coveted booty. But armaments in the countriés has its limits and consequences. If the United States wing to their financial are capable of war with the same or ° For this purpose France adopts two methods: - first, by increasing the; army, the air and submarine fleet, by concluding military conventions with Czecho-Slovakia, Yugoslavia, Poland, Roumania, both of whieh latter are military semi-colonies of France, which in case of need will put at the disposal of France their whole mili- tary forces; second, by means of strangling Germany, by destroying all her possibilities of life and before all by seizing the Rhineland. It is a matter of course that Eng- land cannot assent to the plan of a French hegemony on the continent. (Continued on page 8) *—In this connection the following advertisement, which has repeatedly appeared in the advertisement col- umns of the Daily Herald, the organ of the English labor movement, is not without’ interest: “The Royal Air Force requires Ar- morers, Carpenters (for training as . Carpenter Riggers), Electricians, Electrical Fitters, Instrument Repair- ers, Power Station Tradesmen, Tin- smiths, and Sheet Metal Workers, and Wireless Operators, Age limits: Ex- Service or skilled and semi-skilled tradesmen, 18 to 30; all others, 18 to 26. Pay from 21s. to 38s. 6d. per week,.on enlistment, and all found. Allowance for wife and children to men 26 and over.—Write, stating age, or call: Inspector of Recruiting, Royal Air Force.” a