Evening star., 1939-04-09

in cellars and garrets. They are a
broken hopeless people.
More to be feared in time of national
crisis are the hundreds of thousands of
technicians and engineers and the dis
possessed peasants who, like animals
we're loaded into boxcars and shipped
from their homes to swamp and tundra.
Some of these persons have made their
peace with the regime. But it is doubt
full that their memories of suffering are
obliterated. They made peace under the
threat of overwhelming force.
The Soviet government never makes
public statistics as to the number Of per-
sons in prison, forced labor camps or
In exile. Hence any estimate of them
can be formed only by putting together
isolated scraps of information. How
ever, a close student of Soviet Russia
recently computed that there were now
in prison for political offenses, in forced
labor camps or in exile approximately
5,OOO,O 900 persons. The same source esti-
mated that the NJ K. v. D.-the political
police-including both the uniformed
and non-uniformed branches of the
service, numbered approximately 1,ooo,-
600.
Save for the uniformed N. K. v. D.
troops who guard the border, the rail-
roads and strategic industries, this entire
force has one prime mission-to spy
upon and ferret out those who are (or
are suspected of being unsympathetic
toward the regime. It is not necessary
actually to plot against the Stalinist
hierarchy in order to be arrested. A care
less word of disapproval or even asso-
citation with some person whom the
Kremlin regards as an enemy Is enough
to provoke a nocturnal visit from the
secret police, then arrest, imprisonment
or exile.
Traitor Plots Publicized.
1t would seem that for reasons Of mill
tary policy the Soviet leaders would at
tempt to keep secret the extent OF
counter-revolution and espionage pre-
vailing in the country. But, oddly
enough, the Soviet press has announced
many times during the last few years
that the nation was honey -combed with
spies and counter er-revolutionaries, that
even the Red Army was shot through
with traitors.
Very likely, in the opinion Of military
men, Moscows frequent charges Of es-
pionage and disloyalty in the Red Army
had much to do with encouraging ia
pans campaign of aggression in the Far
East Just before the beginning of the
invasion of China in the summer Of 1887
the Japanese deliberately tested Russias
willingness to fight (the Bolshoi Island
incidenn and found it lacking.
BY the solemn announcement Of its
tainly have formidable fifth column
at home to be watched with anxious eyes
in the event of war
Adolf Hitler, too, has his phantom
brigade" No doubt the Jews would gladly
lead the column. But they are not alone
in their sufferings under the swastika.
Others who have seen German prisons
and concentration camps include many
OF the 100000 Communists and COM
munist sympathizers in the Reich at the
time of Hitler's coup: many Of the for
mer Social Democrats and Reichsbanner
men, both Catholic and Protestant
clergymen, and even few of the Royal
lists, men Of noble families, who had
hoped to restore the Hohenzollerns to
the imperial throne.
Estimate Loyalty to Hitler.
A Journalist who has lived for years
in Europe-many of them in Germany
Kaiser, the Social Democrats and Hitler
told the writer recently that he did not
believe more than Is per cent Of the
German people were sincerely loyal to
Der Fuehrer. Most authorities consider
that estimate far too low. They point
out that the German, more than most
races, has deep sense OF loyalty to his
fatherland, regardless of who is in power.
and that this loyalty is almost instinc-
lively given to the head Of the state. even
though the individual citizen may not
admire the leader as person. Yet,
even allowing for the Germans native
loyalty, most observers who know Ger
many agree that Hitler has made q host
of implacable enemies who gladly would
drive him from power If there were hope
Of a successful counter
Mussolini has ruled Fascist Italy with
less terror than has been employed by
his confreres In either Berlin or Mos
COW. In the early days Of the regime,
Fascist gangs beat up their political
enemies castor oil parties" attained an
international reputation and . number
Of Communists and Socialists were sent
into exile. But Italy has never been
subject to the periodic "blood baths"
which have occurred in Germany and
Russia.
The phantom brigades" Of Europe
are suffering in silence. They live un-
der constant threat and little Is heard
from them except in the sensational
moments of trials and purges. But, like
the underground forces in imperial Rus
sia, they are an enemy with which tl1efr
rulers must reckon In time Of waS.