The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 5, 1925, Page 7

! “The Idea becomes power when It pene- trates the masses.” —Karl Marx. SPECIAL MAGAZINE SUPPLEMENT THE DAILY WORKER. SATURDAY, SEPT. 5, 1925 age 290 SECOND SECTION Thia magazine supple ment will appear every Saturday im The Daily Worker. The Geneva Conference on the Question of Commerce in Arms By I. D. MARKOV (Moscow) N the month of June a conference on the question of the commerce in arms completed its work. Forty-three ‘states had taken part in it; it was summoned at the suggestion of the League of Nations. States which do equipped with arms, they attack the Soviet Union? What will the leaders: of the Geneva conference’ say then? Have they forgotten that Pilsudski’s army ‘marched on Kiev with the ob- ject of conquering White Russia an the Ukraine? Have they forgotten the attf&ks of English, French, Jap- not belong to the League of Nations, |®2¢8e and other troops in Siberia, also took part in the conference: Ger- many, the United States. Turkey, Egypt: the Soviet Union alone did) not take part. It is not difficult to guess why no representative of the Soviet Union was present at the conference. Those who promoted the conference knew very well, when they summoned it at Geneva that no Soviet representatives would put foot on the soil of Switzer- land, where Comrade Vorovsky was murdered without expiation being made. And they were right. By re- fusing to accept the suggestion of the Soviet Union to hold the conference in some other country, the leaders of the confreence ensured themselves perfect freedom of action. A repre- sentative of the people, numbering 130 million of the worker and peasant state was lacking. As we shall see below, they made the best use of this circumstance, The history of the conference is as follows: After the conclusion of the war with Germany, the allies had enormous stores-of arms at their dis- posal. The cofstant conflicts of im- perialist greed in the colonial and Archangel, Odessa and Transcaucasia? Or do they think that the Soviet Union was the’ attacking party in those cases? HY did the conference not grant the same privileges to Persia, countries bé-éxtendéd ‘to Lithuania, It was natirally asked for what reason it wanted this. Saunis, the represent- ative of Lithuania, showed himself to be very naive when he reminded the conference of the strained relations between Lithuania and Poland, in- stead of “the Bolsheyist danger.” This resulted in obtaining a unanimous re- fusal for Lithuania. It ‘was quite another matter when the Polish delegate, General Sossni- koviski rose and, while being warmly supported by his Roumanian col- league, declared that “in view of the Trade Union Delegation of British Women Visited Russia - semi-colonial: countries. were decided; ~~ with arms which had been bought from some allied state or other. Thus for instance, in the Greco-Turkish war, Greece, which was carrying out England’s commands, reCeived arms from the English stores. But the pur- chasers of arms might later on turn them against those who had sold them. This is why the convehtion of Saint Germain of Sept. 10, 1919, pro- hibits the sale of arms in a whole number of zones; England carefully protected her security in. Persia, Africa, etc. Such a well-preserved and simple solution of the question was a hindrance to the United States, which refused to ratify the conven- tion. Since then a commission of the League of Nations has worked for more than 414 years at this question. The result of this work was the summon- ing of the conference at Geneva. A DRAFT convention which had been worked out by the commis- sion, was laid before the conference for discussion. According to one. of the points of the draft, the convention tion by twelve states, among them -the Soviet Union.. The Soviet Union _was not represented at the confer- “ence, but this-difficulty did not trouble its’ members. The. representatives of. England proposed to substitute for the’ Soviet Union—Czecho-Slovakia, and this proposal was accepted. . In general the resolutions of the conference are to the effect that agreements as to the sale of arms and munitions should be concluded ex- clusively thru the governments, but publicly and on the responsibility of the latter. There is also a proviso that “Poland, Roumania, Esthonia, Finland and Latvia alone are not under the obligation of making known the quan- tity and nature of the arms and war “material purchased.” : Why just these countries? The con- ‘ference assumes that, as they border on the Soviet Union, they are ex- posed to the danger of assault from the Bolsheviki. But what if, being — Delegation of British Trade Union Women who recently visited the Union is to come into force after its ratifica-| of Soviet Republics. Top row, from left to right: Miss Annie Longhlin, Tailors’ and Garment Workers’ Union, Mrs, K. Coates, interpreter. Center: Miss Mary Quaile, Transport Workers’ Union, Bottom row, left to right: Mrs. A. Bridges, Nationat Union of Printing, Bookbinding and Paper Work- era; Miss May Purcell, stenographer. Turkey, China, Afghanistan? They al- so border on the Soviet Union :. . The riddle is easily solved: Persia, Turkey, Afghanistan and China are countries into which English imperial- ism has already fixed its claws. They may not buy arms at all except under the control of England as this would endanger English imperialism in these countries. And what is the sense any- how of allowing’ them to: arm, since they wish to live in friendship with the Soviet Union? We have learned the following de- tails from sources closely connected with the League of Nations. At the Geneva conference, Lithuania asked that the exception made in favor of Poland, Roumania, Esthonia and other danger of an attack on the part of the Soviet Union” it was impossible to apply the restrictions con¢erning the ae Fst alcatel telnet inheinnipiginsce Si purchase of arms to the countries bor- dering on Russia, and that altogether the question of traffic in arms could not be separated from the question of disarmament and that under pres- ent circumstances the latter could not be begun in the countries bordering on Russia, 'VEN the representative of France remarked that the fear of Russia felt by some states does not corre- spond with _the peaceful intentions it professes. The representatives of China and Turkey remarked that the conference did not sufficiently appreci- até the peace-loving exertions of the Soviet Union. It was not without pressure from England, that a motion from the Unit- ed States was rejected to the effect that there should be a special, inter- national organization for the control of traffic in arms which should be in- dependent and not subordinate to the League of Nations. The English dele- gate insisted that the purchase} and sale of warship and naval equipment should not be restricted = gag of the opposite view held by thany delegates, among them the French, the motion of the English delegate was accepted, Let us contrast a few recent facts with this! The representative of Esthonia in London, Kallas, invited an English squadron into the Baltic to protect Esthonia (from whom?) Den- mark has deepened the Drogden canal and opened the Baltic to English sup- er-dreadnoughts. An English squad- ron has visited the Baltic ports with the exception of the’ ports of the So- viet’ Union. N connection with this, the Frank- furter Zeitung speaks of an Eng- lish “military demonstration,” of a “naval demonstration against the So- viet Union.” Further, rumors are abroad that Esthonia is handing over the islands of Oesel and Dago to England. The above facts are fully sufficient to make the real object ofthesGeneva conference comprehensible. It is not surprising ifthe border states of the Soviet Union, instigated by European and especially English imperialism, contemplate drawing the natural con- clusions. Should this be the case, we would remind them of the words of Comrade Frunze at the Third Soviet Congress: “Every attack against us will result not in a destruction of our house, but in the construction of new wings.” The Martyr Dead One by one... One by one... Our heroes fall. a. Slain by the bloody hands Of the criminal bourgeoisie. a The death of heroes... They fall.. With the call to Revolution ‘On their dying lips. . Their last gaze Throws poisoned files , Into the hearts of the enémy. And the master crawls Before the final challenge Of a Rutkovski; And the blood hounds Bare their heads Before the heroism of a Marko Friedman, All our brothers... All our comrades... Heed, you despots— Beware, you lackeys— The fruit of their work lives on... The spirit of their sacrifice Forms a chain of comradership In all lands— The world over. Your glorious deaths, Noble comrades... And when the day will come— We shall remember... And with the defiance and curses Silenced by the hangman's nooze, We shall march on to victory.. ,, Our martyr dead... Isidor Kpeimin, New she ik IS Do ees