Evening star., 1936-09-27

IN the thrd ara LdSt OF SeTtes
of dispatches By a famous ,Drtter
and foreign correspondent Uho has
lust reached Paris after trnrel'ng
seperal weeks in Spain and record
iro his impressions OF undersuT-
tace conditions there.
BY WALTER DURANTY.
By Radio to The Star.
PARIS, September 26.-As far as
Germany is concerned. the Spanish
civil war has a two-fold advantage
first it gives an appearance OF reality
to Hitler's assertion that the Naz
mission is to save the world from boil
shevism, and. second. it divides Frenc!
opinion on that very ground am
thereby strikes blow at the Franco
Soviet mutual assistance pact.
However loudly Hitler may denounC
the barbarism, futility and failure C
the Soviet regime. the Germans know
better than any other people in Eu-
rope how strong that regime is anC
how strong the red army is and whst
weight the red army and air feet coult
throw into a conflict between Franco
and Germany.
It might almost be said that the
chief object of German foreign policy
today is to rupture the FrancoSoviet
pact. which. the Germans know, is the
greatest obstacle to their plans for
war Of revenge. Toward that object,
Nazi propaganda is working overtime,
and-thanks to circumstances in
Russia, France and Spain-not with
out success.
"Liauidation" Of Trotzkyites.
The sudden, savage. and, to me, I
must admit. inexplicable, liquidation"
of former Trotzkyites in Russia en-
ables that Nazi propagandists to de-
clare there is something gravely rot
ten in the Soviet state. 1t shows.
they say. political unrest which goes
far deeper than the world knows. but
they know that, by saying this, they
weaken the value of the Russian alli-
ance in French eyes.
That is the first line of the Nazi
attack against the Franco-Soviet pact.
It is followed by an appeal to the
French right" that is based on events
in Spain. The Spanish events. shout
the Nazi propa gandists, are proof pos
tive of how bolshevik poison is dis
senlinated through the channels of So
called democracy. Unless France is
careful, they cry. she will be the next
victim, through the follies of machina-
tlons of Kerensky-Blum and Blum's
master" JouhauX, of the labor fed
erations.
1t cannot be denied that the Na1
propa ganda, whose purpose it is to
shift the ostensible causes of the war.
which Europe now believes inevitab BILE,
from national to social basis, has
found considerable acceptance in
France. Newspapers of the French
right" already are playing the Ger
man game by attacking the pact with
the Soviet. But the French general
staff; no less than the German gen.
trail staff, knows the value of the
red army. and. although the French
right" may use the German argu-
nlents for internal political advantage,
there is no sign at present that France
will yield to German Establishments
and denounce the pact with the
U. S. s. r.
Soviet Is Absolved.
True. a section Of the French press
has adopted the German-inspired view
that Moscow deliberately provoked the
Spanish civil war in order to embroil
France, and thus direct the German
menace westward against France in
stead Of eastward against Russia. This,
CT course. is sheer nonsense, because
the Spanish civil war was started by
military Teactionaries with the moral,
if not material, support of Germany,
not by Spanish left extremists with
the support of Moscow.
If the truth be told the U. S. S. r.
has nothing 10 do with events in
Spain, except in so far as they affect
the international situation. The Span
ish Communist party was at least as
much Trotzkyite as Stalinist, and the
Soviet desire for peace, which is so
obvious as to need no demonstration,
not only precluded any attempt by the
comintern to provoke an outbreak in
Spa in, but tended to hold it back and
prevent it.
The Spanish events have injured the
U. S. S. R., as they have injured
France, by strengthening the illogical
position of Hitler in his aim to re
store Germany to her rightful status"
at the expense of France or the
U. S. S. R.
1t was not for nothing that the
Nazi propaganda bureau found it
necessary to 'rectify" Hitlers phrase
in his Nurnberg speech about what
Germany could do with the wealth of
the Urals and the Ukraine. What
Hitler said was, IF We had the Urals
and the Ukraine, we would be
drowned in abundance But the
German papers printed a different
version: IF the Urals and the
Ukraine we're in Germany. their
wealth would give us abundance"
Understands Propaganda.
Perhaps more clearly than any
other European power. Moscow un-
derstands the purport of the Nazi
propaganda. just as Moscow was the
first to realize that the neutrality of
Portugal in the Spanish struggle was
more important than that of any
other country in Europe. But Mos
COW is in a different position because
the Spanish militarist rebellion has
developed into a social revolution not
far different from the Soviet revolu-
ton itself. This ties Moscow's hands,
politically speaking. and has an effect
not only in France. but in England
also-and, Of course, in Italy. for
obvious reasons.
Like Germany. Italy is weli-nigh
bankrupt, with vast military estab-
lishment which must be used-else-
where than Ethiopia-before its bur-