The daily worker., 1930-06-30
A Prelude to the War Against the Soviet Union.
By V. CHATToPADHYAYA

THE savage war that is being waged by the
Macdonald Government against the indie
pendent tribes of the Northwest Frontier of
India deserves the closest attention of the
workers of the world. European imperialism
has conducted a number of such wars during
the last twelve years, g. g.. the French and
Spanish wars against the Moroccans, the
French war against the Druses in Syria the
Italian war in Tripoli, the British attack on
the Arabs of Palestine and on the Nubar tribes
IN the Sudan. But the present campaign on
the Northwest Frontier of India is of even
greater Importance because of its immediate
connection with the coming war that is being
planned by British Imperialism against the
Soviet Union.
Wars on that frontier are nothing new in
the history of British imperialist aggression
Between 1858 and 1922, according to the Simon
Commissions Report just issued there have
been no less than 72 military expeditions"
l. e., an average of one war every year, against
those treedom-loving tribes, whom British i'm
perialist propaganda has Systematically stig-
matised as "wild' "unruly' and "barbarous,"
IN order to create moral justification for its
wanton attacks on their liberay. AS far as the
tribes themselves are concerned, they have
hitherto successfully resisted every attempt to
reduce them to subjection, although regiments
in Britain's abroad and they have often
made themselves feared during their raids into
India by plundering Indian peasants and shop
keepers.
But the general revolt of the tribes that is
now in progress shows three new character
lstics that were entirely absent in previous
wars with the British. Firstly, the offensive
of the tribes aims at the overthrow of British
imperialism altogether and not merely at pre-
serving their own liberty. Secondly, the tribes
are acting for the first time in solidarity with
the Indian masses, is shown by the COM
plete absence of looting and by their armed
support of the Indian revolutionaries in Pesha-
war, Kohat and other towns of the Panjab
frontier. Thirdly, there are for the first time
signs of revolutionary movement among the
tribes themselves, as is shown by the organ
ization of their youth in the "Red Shirts"
While this remarkable development is due
to their miserable economic condition and to
the growing agrarian discomfort throughout
the Northwest, it has undoubtedly been stim-
ulated also by the theological influence exer-
cised by the very existence of the Soviet
Union
Lie About Russian Menace"
Before the war, the enormous military and
secret service expenditure, the unproductive
and costly network of strategic railways in the
Northwest, the numerous wars and military
expeditions against Afghanstan and the in
dependent tribes, were all justified by the Bri-
tish imperialists on the ground of the rus
sian menace i. e., the imperialist expansion
of czarist Russia into India. The clash be-
tween the two rival imperialst powers was
averted by robber agreements in 1907
gardng spheres of influence" in Persia,
Afghanistan and Tibet. But war and revolu-
tion swept czarist Russia out of existence,
and its place has been taken by a free Russia
that is standing warning to all imperialist
oppressors and message Of liberty to the op-
pressed nations. To this free Russia of the
workers and peasants, enslaved India is dam
ger 1t is the British menace to Soviet Russia
that has to be realized and fought against by
the workers of the world and they must there
fore not only give their most active support
to the Indian revolution but make special ef-
forts to paralyze the whole military apparatus
that is being set in motion on the North
West Frontier.
The British imperialists however, still con-
tinue their cry of the Russian menace"
as to mobilize support for their war plans