THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS TURNED INTO A WAR WEAPON

The Pravda newspaper On December 17, 1939,

On December 14, the Council of the League of Nations issued an absurd resolution on the "exclusion" of the USSR from the League of Nations. The Anglo-French directors of the cynical spectacle in Geneva, called by the Assembly and the Council of the League of Nations "on the Finnish question", brought this shameful spectacle to an end. But the performance turned out to be clearly unsuccessful, no matter how hard its directors themselves, and the actors and choristers selected by them, tried.

The official subject of the League of Nations was the so-called "Finland question". In reality, this was an attempt by the British imperialists to forge an anti-Soviet bloc after all attempts to drag the USSR into an imperialist war had failed. This is evidenced by the entire preparation of the Geneva action and its entire procedure.

To begin with, the very convening of the League of Nations took place with such fire haste, which the League of Nations has not shown during the entire period of its existence. How many times has the League of Nations been presented with occasions for hasty action! Suffice it to recall the real aggression to which China, Abyssinia, Albania, Spain was subjected... In all these cases the British government showed slowness and unwillingness to act against real aggressors. This is not surprising. Aggression is the essence of the present policy of the British and French governments. It is these states, which hold hundreds of millions of colonial slaves under their imperialist heel, which have started a war against Germany and are stubbornly waging this predatory war, rejecting all proposals for peace.

On the order of the day of the League were questions about aggression against China and Albania, long awaiting their turn. They were taken down. Only the "question of Finland" remained, according to the British order. But there is no such question in political nature. The Soviet Union is not waging war against Finland and is not threatening her with war. The Soviet Union concluded an agreement on mutual assistance and friendship with the Finnish Democratic Republic. Under this treaty, the Finnish people are provided with complete independence, a significant increase in territory and the realization of the cherished dream of reuniting the Karelian regions with the kindred Finnish people. This treaty represents a political reality. It is carried out in close and friendly cooperation between the government of the USSR and the government of the Finnish Democratic Republic, in the joint fraternal struggle of the Red Army and the Finnish people's army to cleanse Finland from the enemies of the Finnish people, from war provocateurs, from the Mannerheim clique.

Unwilling to deal with politically real questions, the League of Nations busied itself with listening to the false and slanderous report of Mr. Holsti, the illusory representative of the unreal Finnish "government". So from the very beginning, to please the Anglo-French masters of the League, the meeting in Geneva plunged into the world of phantoms, which was aggravated by the vigorous activity of a native of the other world, a delegate of non-existent Poland. It is quite clear that neither the Geneva Assembly nor its bosses had anything to do with genuine, real Finland, with the true interests of the Finnish people. The "Finland question" was only a convenient pretext for continuing the anti-Soviet maneuvers of the British imperialists. Not about the Finnish people, but about their executioners, about the robber clique of Mannerheim, the English warmongers care.

This was revealed with all obviousness in the League of Nations when the "committee on the Finnish question" was set up. It was composed of representatives of the following 13 states: England, France, Sweden, Ireland, Egypt, India, Canada, Uruguay, Bolivia, Venezuela, Portugal, Siam. With the exception of Sweden and Norway, all other states are either direct clerks of England, its dominions, or clerks by proxy of the United States - the states of Latin America. Of the 13 states that the League of Nations has instructed to draw up a draft resolution, 9 do not maintain any diplomatic relations with the USSR and are a haven for the most unbridled anti-Soviet agitation.

A "committee" of such a family composition, of course, without disputes, adopted exactly the draft resolution that the English master was pleased to propose.

So the first act of vaudeville was played in Geneva. The second act of vaudeville took place in the Assembly. The representatives of England, France, India and Ecuador spoke. Representatives of other European states were silent. The mystical nature of the meeting was given by the appearance on the podium of the "spirit" of the late Poland in the image and angelic face of Gralinski. The meeting was closed, but the American "observer" Mr. Edgar was present as a class teacher. He was silent and carefully watched how the Latin American extras were behaving. They behaved "according to plan", without losing their role. The representative of the only American state that conducts an independent policy - Mexico, objected to the exclusion of the USSR.

The vote in the Assembly was very revealing. Of course, Britain and France voted for the resolution against the USSR. But of the European states, only Belgium obediently followed them, being an appendage of England and France in foreign policy, Portugal is a vassal of England, and a few others, devoted to England in body and soul. This small company in its vanguard had a great power - Luxembourg and Poland beyond the grave.

Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, and China declared their abstention from voting. Afghanistan and Iran were absent and did not take part in the voting. The rest were silent.

Thus, in Europe itself, England failed to put together a strong anti-Soviet bloc. The exclusion of the USSR was decided by the votes of the British dominions and colonies, by the clerks of Anglo-French and American capital.

It was a tricky game.

This was revealed even more strikingly during the voting in the Council of the League of Nations. This Council consists of 15 members according to the charter - 4 permanent and 11 non-permanent, elected for three years.

The non-permanent members made England anxious. Therefore, before the vote, scams began. The Assembly has elected new non-permanent members: the Union of South Africa, Bolivia and... Finland! They also introduced a "temporary" member - Egypt.

Of the 11 non-permanent members of the Council, Yugoslavia, China and Greece abstained from voting. Abstained - for the sake of decency - and the representative of the non-existent White Finnish "government". It was not only a tribute to hypocrisy. He couldn't vote in his case. Peru and Iran were absent. Thus, together with England and France, five small states voted: Egypt, the Union of South Africa (the same England), Belgium (the same France) and two American republics - Bolivia and the Dominican Republic.

In these five states, the population is only thirty-eight million people. In England and France - 89 million. And so, the selected "representatives" of 127 million people decided the question of whether or not to be in the League of Nations of the great Soviet country with a population of 183 million and with tens, hundreds of millions of friends all over the world!

Truly, one must lose all sense of the ridiculous in order to play a criminal anti-Soviet game with such methods.

This venerable assembly of notorious aggressors, political Tartuffes, after a fair amount of pious speeches, decided to expel the USSR from the League of Nations, as a country unworthy of communion with the gamblers of imperialism. One can only pity those individual members of the League of Nations who were awed by the Anglo-French terror and who preferred craven support to open and bold protest.

The Anglo-French imperialists for many years did everything in their power to kill even the modest political authority that the League of Nations still had - it had only because the Soviet Union participated in it. The policy of the Anglo-French bosses - the policy of intrigue, setting one state against another, forging together imperialist blocs - increasingly weakened the League. The League of Nations left one state after another. From the very beginning, the United States refused to participate in it. True, American politicians did not abandon intrigues in the League of Nations, but this by no means served to strengthen its moral and political authority. Germany, Japan, Italy, Spain are also not members of the League of Nations.

The League of Nations compromised itself with the hypocritical policy of England and France on the issue of aid to China, the Spanish Republic, Abyssinia and Albania. Through the efforts of the Anglo-French leaders of the League, she rotted alive. The current comedy will only hasten this process of decay.

The Soviet people have never overestimated the significance of the League of Nations. To the extent that it was still a "hillock" preventing war, the Soviet government, true to its policy of fighting for peace, remained in the League of Nations. It hindered attempts to turn it into an instrument of war. That is why the League of Nations became inconvenient for the British imperialists. To use the League of Nations as an instrument of provocation and war, the Soviet Union had to be eliminated. This is done now with all the rudeness, reminiscent of the techniques and language of 1920. But the British warmongers of the world war forget that now is not the time at all. The authority, strength, and international significance of the Soviet Union is immeasurably higher than in those years. Any attempt to talk to the Soviet Union in the language of failed Bourbons is not only ridiculous, but also risky for presumptuous politicians.

The attempt of the British imperialists to put together an anti-Soviet bloc failed. White Poles and White Finnish people from the other world can console themselves with the resolutions of the League of Nations. The Soviet and Finnish peoples regard with deep contempt the dirty game of confused politicians. This game deserves the contempt of all honest people in all countries of the world. Where there was a "bump" of the League of Nations, there is now a hole dug by warmongers.

The League of Nations has turned from an instrument of peace into an instrument of war, into an instrument of the Anglo-French military bloc.

Well, so much the worse for the League of Nations and its directors. The USSR may ultimately benefit from the evolution of the League. The USSR is no longer bound to the League of Nations pact and is not responsible for the inglorious deeds of the League of Nations.

The policy of peace, the policy of helping the Finnish people and liberating them from the chains of imperialism, the Soviet Union will continue, regardless of any fuss in Geneva and other political lobbies.

The anti-Soviet undertakings of the warmongers of the world war are doomed to failure.