HL Deb 15 June 1921 vol 45 cc547-59

LORD SYDENHAM had given Notice to draw attention to the effects of organised propaganda in this country, and to ask His Majesty's Government whether there are adequate legal powers to enable the introduction of foreign money, or the import and sale of foreign goods, for the purposes of subversive propaganda to be treated as a criminal offence and if not, whether the necessary legislation will be undertaken.

The noble Lord said: My Lords, I imagine that the earliest propagandist of evil was the serpent in the Garden of Eden, and though his sphere of operations was limited he was more subtle than all the beasts of the field, and his success was catastrophic. This type of the serpent has been persistent ever since all through history, ancient and modern, and you will find traces of propaganda directed to mislead opinion and policy, but for evident reasons the opportunities and scale of operations have increased in recent years. There have been many foreign ambassadors in this country who have carried on propaganda in the interests of their sovereigns, but all this was a bagatelle compared with what Count Bernstoff accomplished at Washington before and during the war, which has not yet been wholly revealed. The fact is that the opportunities and powers of evil now have been enormously increased. If one compares the methods of Peter the Hermit in the years 1095 and 1096, the same as those now in vogue among the Mullahs on the Indian frontier, with those of the Wolff Bureau throughout the war, one realises what enormous advantages are possessed by the propagandists in these days. Bismarck reduced propaganda to something like a fine art, but his successors have gone far beyond him in subtlety and power for evil.

We must recognise now that propaganda carried on from one country for the ruin of others is a new factor in the modern life of nations which it would be madness to ignore. At the present time the British Empire is the main object of attack, and propaganda in the hands of our enemies is their most powerful weapon. Mrs. Webster, in a book which I regard as the most important contribution to history ever made by a woman, has traced back the project of world revolution for 140 years. Probably it goes beyond that; but what is certain is that its spiritual home is in Germany, that in Germany it is really a "key" industry, kept severely for purposes of export. The non-German peoples have contributed very little to the theories on which world revolution is based, but many of them have suffered cruelly in the attempt to carry these theories into practice.

I think it may be said that the British race has contributed nothing whatever to these theories, but, of course, it has produced its quota of communists, syndicalists and anarchists, imbued with the revolutionary mania and anxious to spread imported doctrines in this country. Before the war the object of Germany was to hamper France and England as much as possible by raising industrial strife in both countries. During the war those efforts were intensified to the last degree, and the results were painfully apparent, as the Duke of Northumberland has pointed out; and they were not confined to the miners, from whom very much was hoped and expected. During the war the Germans achieved one colossal success which really changed the whole course of events and gave them a new and powerful leverage of which they are making use to-day. The despatch of Lenin and Bronstein with large sums of money to Russia, to complete the ruin which Kerensky had begun, was a stroke of first class importance, for which, Ludendorf himself has told us, Germany was responsible. The direct effect of that was to make the issue of the war doubtful, to prolong it, and to came the loss of millions of lives. The perfect loyalty of the Czar to the Allies and the fine efforts of the Russian Army in the first period of the war were all brought to nothing; and now the secondary effects are those which we are feeling.

The wreckers of Russia know perfectly well that they are doomed unless they can impose their communist theories on other countries, and especially on the British Empire—unless they can accomplish the project of world revolution. Probably, therefore, the main propagandist efforts are now directed from. Moscow, with the co-operation of German and Irish agencies working together in America. Surely we can see at home, and in India, Ireland, Egypt and Palestine, the effects of that propaganda, and elsewhere the same deadly work is being carried on by different methods. I received a letter from New Zealand last week which says: There is a very great importation of revolutionary propaganda into the Dominion. Both in New Zealand and in Australia there have been special attempts to infect the coal-mining population. At the bottom of all this there must be money, and that is why I have ventured to raise this Question to-day. We know perfectly well that money is being liberally expended here, and the noble Earl the Leader of the House, in one of his Notes to the Bolshevik Government, spoke of— an attempt to subsidise a campaign against the British Constitution. The presence here for many months of the Russian Commercial Mission has greatly facilitated this attempt.

The second coal strike, following so closely upon the first, has been the greatest disaster that has ever befallen our industries. It is the most obviously political and revolutionary strike that we have ever known. Only after more than nine months was the question of wages allowed to be discussed, and the coal miners have been carefully kept in the dark as regards the wages which they could have obtained by frank negotiations with the coal owners. The plan of the coal strike to be supported by the Triple Alliance was conceived by revolutionaries and inspired and assisted from abroad, and it accords exactly with the project of world revolution. The decision of the miners' executive not to allow the mines to be de-watered would appear idiotic if that had not been their object. This great plan has failed only because the British manual working class have so far always been the despair of the foreign revolutionaries; but if it had succeeded, as was hoped, and if starvation on a large scale had overtaken our people—the starvation which was arranged carefully in the French Revolution and also in the Russian Revolution—we cannot tell how far the hungry masses might have gone. But the plan has caused widespread suffering, inflicted a blow upon our industry from which I do not believe it can ever completely recover, and bankrupted the unions themselves. Our sympathies must be, and will be, with the great majority of the working coal miners who, under the iniquitous card vote system, were not allowed to express their opinions, and who are never permitted to have a free and secret ballot.

Does anyone believe that there is not a Communist Red Revolution behind the Sinn Fein movement in Ireland, even if the dupes themselves do not know it? And can anyone suppose that the rebellion would have lasted so long as it has if there had not been foreign assistance and encouragement behind it? An Irish Republican Army, living upon the country, would soon have become abhorred by all the people, and the terror existing in Ireland to-day is exactly the same as the terror created in the French Revolution and, more recently, in the Russian Revolution—the terror exercised by the few upon the imagination of the many.

In this country the propaganda for corrupting opinion has mainly been based upon the teachings of Karl Marx. This man, whose real name was Mordecai, was expelled from Germany, and he settled in this country, where he was financed entirely by a German capitalist. As Mrs. Webster has shown, he was a shameless plagiarist and a pan-German agent, who did his best to help to ruin France in 7870, and who hated and despised the British working classes, though he may perhaps have infected a small part of our intelligentsia. While lie lived here lie had no influence, but latterly his writings have become the text-books of the Revolutionary Party in this country, and the utterances of many of our Labour leaders seem to be wholly inspired by them. Only last week Mr. Gosling, who is regarded as a moderate, used the following words:— In the struggle between the organised workers and the organised capitalists the war is never at an end. That is the precise doctrine of Karl Marx, the doctrine which he stole from the world revolutionaries and embodied in his teaching. Neither he nor they have ever explained what is to happen to the working classes when capital, as Mr. Hodges expects and hopes, collies crashing to the ground.

It is a remarkable fact that, with very few exceptions, these people have never shown the smallest concern for the welfare of the working-classes whom they have exploited. They demand a class war, though many of them were pacifists when it was a question of defending their country against Germany. What may happen during this war on capital, and what will happen when it ends, are matters that do not interest them in the slightest degree. If Marx originated nothing himself, he learned three great lessons during his stay here and reported them to his fellow conspirators abroad—(1) that world revolution could never be accomplished unless Great Britain were involved; (2) that the British people would never make the revolution themselves, and that they must therefore be helped to make it; and (3) that the revolution must be begun in Ireland, which, as your Lordships know, has happened.

This revolutionary propaganda has most certainly been paid for to a great extent from foreign sources, and it is to foreign agencies that we owe, in a great measure, the grave position in which we find ourselves to-day. May I earnestly press upon the Government that the State has a right to use any means in its power to protect our people against the poison which is being spread with the aid of foreign money? It is admitted that foreign funds are coining into this country, and that foreign agents are at work. The Bolshevists themselves have stated that £23,000 a month is being spent here, and in another place it was explained by the Under-Secretary of State for the Home Office that lecturers, paid from £5 to £10 a week; were going about the country preaching revolution.

I do not believe those salaries come from British sources. The noble Duke, with very great ability and fearlessness, has exposed what is now going on, and not one word of what he has said has been, or I believe ever will he, refuted. The Irish Draft Treaty with the Bolsheviks which the Government has lately published shows that very close relations have existed for some time between those two revolutionary bodies. Doctor McCartain stated his intention of asking for 50,000 rifles for Ireland, and no doubt he expected to get them. It is now stated that no Treaty exists because no Treaty has been signed. No Treaty has been signed—no one ever said that it had—but there is a Treaty between the Bolsheviks and Afghanistan which is distinctly inimical to Great Britain, and that Treaty has been signed.

It may be said that it is useless to legislate, because we cannot find out anything about these funds. That really is not so. We know that some time ago a large number of Chinese bonds were allowed to be sold here. We also know that £75,000 worth of jewellery, mostly stolen from murdered men and women, was sold in London; and we know who received the money. The subsequent distribution of this money could certainly have been ascertained. We know that one London daily paper is claimed by the Bolsheviks as being "our organ," and we know that other publications are now being subsidised. The police know the proceedings of some of the members of the Commercial Mission who made a tour in the north, certainly without any trade objects. Scotland Yard knows much more than that, and if it had been free to follow up its knowledge, I believe that it would not only have detected incoming funds of a suspicious character, but would have traced their ultimate destination. Of course, a much stricter control of immigrants is required than now exists, but it would not be right for me to say anything about that at the present time.

Clearly, the signing of the Trade Agreement with the Bolsheviks has made the operations of foreign propagandists easier. The Agreement contains this very significant condition: The Russian Soviet Government refrains from any attempt by military, diplomatic, or any other form of action or propaganda to encourage any of the peoples of Asia in any form of hostile action against British interests, especially in India and the independent State of Afghanistan. That curiously leaves out England and Ireland, but there is a further explanation later, and that is— It is understood that the term conducting any official propaganda' includes the giving by either party of assistance to any propaganda conducted outside its own borders. That is much more explicit, but I do not think that anyone would trust the murderers of Russia., and meanwhile immense harm has been done by the close connection between the Commercial Mission and some of the revolutionary leaders in this country.

The setting up of the Council of Action was done under Bolshevist advice, and that was a most effective form of propaganda. When Rosenfeld returned from London to Moscow, he stated that "the Council of Action has all the time supported us in the negotiations with Lloyd George." Of course it supported him! He went on to say: "The Council of Action has ordered a strike. The miners' strike which began on October 25 will show that we do not stand alone." In other words, this German revolutionary claimed the existence of an offensive and defensive alliance with the Labour leaders of this country.

What is going on here is repeated in America, where there is an organised propaganda among the immigrants directly they come in. Last autumn a remarkable sermon was preached by Dr. Hillis, a successor of Henry Ward Beecher, at the Plymouth Church, Brooklyn. It contains these words— Scarcely have these foreigners landed at the railroad stations than they receive a card published in six languages containing essentially these statements: Immigrants, remember that this is a capitalistic Government. Remember it is a dirty and rotten Government, where the capitalist will exploit your life. The only way you can get a job is to join a radical society or union. Join some revolutionary society and help us overthrow this wicked capitalistic Government.' Dr. Hillis went on to say— Now what men sow they reap. Sow wheat, you reap sheaves. Sow thistles, you reap thistles. Sow sparks, you reap conflagrations. Sow hatred of this Republic, you reap revolution. That is very sound doctrine, and I only wish it was more effectively preached here. It is hatred of our Constitution which is now being preached. The modus operandi of propaganda, in one of its aspects, was most lucidly explained in a report by the Labour Research Department, published after the railway strike of 1919. That strike is already almost forgotten, although it did. untold harm and caused the loss of the lives of quite a considerable number of people. This "Research Department," with the sanction of Unity House, decided to spend £2,000, afterwards reduced to £1,500, per day, on "publicity advertisements." This is a large sum to take from the contributions of working-men who have no voice in the matter. The report explains the astute way in which the Press was handled, and there was one particularly artful appeal to the London clergy, using the name of a well-known right rev. Prelate. That appeal was not altogether without effect. The propagandists claimed complete success for the manoeuvre, and they said that "before the strike ended the railway men had rallied nine-tenths of the industrial workers to their side." That was the effect of skilful propaganda. It was also pointed out that the Government had been placed in the unhappy position of "a beetle on its back." This report should be studied by everyone who wishes to obtain an insight into the clever manner in which propaganda is carried out.

But the world revolutionary propaganda is even more clever, because it is made to appeal to all classes by concealing from some what it impresses most upon others. Thus, it makes special efforts to capture the religious bodies, some members of which evidently have no idea of whither they are being led. I hope I have not wearied your Lordships in trying to show that this is a most serious matter, fraught with peril to the British Empire. The war on capital, which is the class war proclaimed by Marx and by much earlier world revolutionaries, if successful, would bring ruin on this country, deeper and. darker than the ruin which has fallen on Russia, because of the very small food resources which we possess. If the poor Russian workmen are starved in a country which easily fed itself, and a part of Europe besides, what would happen here? War on Christianity is being waged at the same time, by the same persons, and by the same methods, and it is also an integral part of the world revolution. If successful, it would end in the downfall of civilisation and a general relapse of the world into hopeless barbarism.

When I raised this Question some time ago, the noble Earl the Leader of the House said that it was engaging the attention of the Government. Since then a good many arrests have taken place of persons who arc making revolutionary speeches, but I have not seen any attempts to stop the application of foreign funds to the corruption of our own good people. Whatever liberty we permit to citizens of British race, surely we have a right to say to foreign revolutionaries: "You shall not have free trade in subversive propaganda, directed to bring about red ruin and the breaking up of the laws in this old country." I beg to ask my Question.

THE PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY OF THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH (THE EARL OF ONSLOW)

The noble Lord who has asked this Question has given us a most interesting and able speech, in which he has discussed the question of the propaganda both in peace, and war in this country and abroad, and in America and in the East; and he has put the Question to His Majesty's Government as to whether there are adequate legal powers to enable the introduction of foreign money, or the import and sale of foreign goods, for the purposes of subversive propaganda, to be treated as a criminal offence. I will attempt to address myself more particularly to the Question which the noble Lord has put to the Government, and not to follow him in the discussion and the illustrations which he has given us of the methods of propaganda undertaken in this country and elsewhere.

The answer to the noble Lord's Question turns on the definition of the term "subversive propaganda." That term might be held by some people to cover many actions that are not contrary to the law of this country. The definitions of seditious intention, seditious conspiracy, and seditious libel, are contained in the Laws of England, Vol. 9, secs. 909,901 and 902, edited by the noble Earl, Lord Halsbury, from which it is clear that, broadly speaking, it is illegal to attempt to influence the Government of this country by any violent means, or to incite others to do so. Thus, it would certainly be seditious to carry on a propaganda having the object of throwing the deliberations of Parliament into confusion, or of rendering them impossible by destroying or burning down the Houses of Parliament. But if the object of the propaganda is to show that the Crown has been misled, or to point out defects in the Government or Constitution, and how they can be remedied by reformation, or to incite persons to attempt by lawful means, the alteration of any matter under Church or State, the action is not illegal.

Therefore, we say that the dissemination of any views is not illegal, unless it is accompanied by incitements to enforce those views by violence, or in some way which comes within the common law relating to seditious conspiracy or seditious libel. Thus, if any person is detected in bringing foreign money or foreign goods into this country for propaganda purposes, which can be shown to aim at accomplishing its ends by some form of illegal compulsion; or if any person so acting is guilty of seditious conspiracy; or if any person distributes seditious libels, the guilty person can be prosecuted under the common law.

Now, I think it will be generally agreed that the principles which underlie our common law on this subject should be maintained, but there is also general agreement that all practical steps should be taken to enforce the law strictly, and to prevent the importation of illegal publications, or money from foreign propaganda funds, into this country, to promote revolutionary and illegal movements. I may tell your Lordships that the attention of the authorities, that is to say of my right hon. friend's Department and of the police authorities, is very much alive to the danger which may be caused by evil disposed persons promoting or inciting others to revolutionary and illegal movements, and the Police are watching the matter with the utmost care, with a view to the strict enforcement of the law. But it would be clearly undesirable that I should go into any particulars as to what particular action the police authorities are taking in this direction.

As to the question of strengthening the law in regard to the prohibition of the receipt of foreign money in this country intended to promote revolutionary movements, or to sustain revolutionary propaganda, I may refer the noble Lord to an answer given by my right hon. friend the Secretary of State to Major Kelley, in another place on May 12, in which he said that the Government is considering the possibility of introducing legislation with this object in view. I may add that the Government fully realise that the matter is a very important one, and we are closely examining it and giving it every possible attention.

THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURY

When was the answer given?

THE EARL OF ONSLOW

On May 12 last. As regards the importation of publications and the powers possessed by the Government, I may perhaps call attention to the special powers of search which are provided by Article 3 of the Aliens Order, 1920. The noble Lord, I think, referred to the question of immigration, and I gather that he did not consider that the Order was as strictly enforced as it might be, but I think I may reassure him on that point. The Regulations are strict, and they are strictly enforced. By Article 3 any alien landing in this country has to make a declaration whether he is carrying letters or printed matter. Of course, the declaration may not be of any particular value, but the immigration officer may search the immigrant with a view to ascertaining whether his statements are true. Use can be, and is being, made of this power to prevent the importation of publications which contravene the law—I mean seditious publications. Those of your Lordships who have read the Regulations may also be aware that there are provisions, under Part I, which prevent any aliens landing in this country without the leave of an immigration officer, acting under the directions of the Secretary of State. Thus, a double check is imposed on aliens who may try to introduce undesirable literature into this country.

The same Rules and Orders empower the Secretary of State to close clubs and restaurants frequented by aliens with criminal or disloyal associations. And the Secretary of State may, if he thinks fit, impose special restrictions on any alien, or any class of alien; and he also may make an Order requiring an alien to leave, and remain thereafter outside, the United Kingdom. Therefore. I think, it is obvious that the powers which the Secretary of State enjoys in regard to this matter are of an extensive nature. They give full power to enable the police to exercise the strictest control over undesirables. I can only conclude by saying that the Government are fully alive to the need of vigilance in this matter, and are exercising it most strictly.

THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURY

My Lords, I observed that the noble Earl in his reply called your Lordships' attention to an answer which had been made in another place on May 12. We are now at June 15. I must say I was a little surprised that the noble Earl was not able to add somewhat to an answer which was given a month ago. Of course, if it were an ordinary matter of legislation, not of an urgent character, one would quite understand the deliberate character of the delay, but, as a matter of fact, this revolutionary propaganda is an urgent matter. Your Lordships are aware of the evidence which has been laid before the public on this subject by my noble friend, the Duke of Northumberland, and which has not yet been confuted in any way.

I know that the Government have many things to consider, but it seems to me that a delay of a month should have been able to produce rather a fuller reply on this point from my noble friend opposite than a mere reference to the former answer. What have the Government been doing in the meantime? What conclusions have the Home Office come to as to the possibility of stopping the importation of foreign money which is directed to revolutionary ends? It may be that the Government have ascertained in the meantime that the information which has been laid before the public has been exaggerated. If that is so, let them say so; but, if the facts are true which have been laid before the public, then I think; considering that it is a very urgent matter indeed, we ought to have found that the Home Office had considered this matter, not merely deliberately, but with a view to coming to some conclusion.

The other observation I would make to the Government is to direct their attention to the evil education which is being given to children in this country on behalf of these extreme people. I draw a very distinct line between propaganda for adults and propaganda for children. That is surely recognised in our law in analogous cases: we should not allow dangerous things to be sold to children which we might permit to be sold to adults. We live in a land of liberty, and it will be said that a grown-up person is able to take care of himself. Even in his case there are limitations in the sale of poison, but at any rate he is allowed considerably greater liberty than a child. And yet there are institutions in this country where children are subverted by a recognised and continued system of education, inculcating doctrines of the most subversive order, and of the most extreme character, upon political, moral and religious subjects.

I am not speaking of mere differences of opinion. I am aware that they must all be allowed to have very full range. But I mean that doctrines are inculcated which, by the vast majority of our countrymen, are condemned as absolutely abominable Is that to be allowed? Have the Government considered it? Have they considered the Socialist Sunday Schools which exist in Glasgow, and, I believe, in London? If they have considered the question, at what conclusion have they arrived? I put these points tentatively to the Government, and I rather hope that some noble Lord sitting on that Bench, now or on a future occasion, will be able to give a fuller reply than that which has been given this afternoon.

LORD SYDENHAM

I beg to thank the noble Earl for his reply. I gather that the gist of it is that we have great powers, but that it is very difficult to apply them. One understands perfectly that you would not wish to penalise any political effort by our own people to attain their objects by constitutional methods. But can we not differentiate against the foreigner when he seeks to subvert the Constitution, which we have built up in so many years?