DOUGLAS HYDE'S COLUMN

This was the `Springie' I Knew
DF. SPRINGHALL, t h e "–"British Communist Party's one-time national organiser, who is reported to have died in Moscow last week, embodied all the characteristics normally attributed to Communists by their opponents. He looked the part—and he lived it, too.
He was a great, grotesque brute of a man. with tiny eyes set deep in a fleshy face. The nudeness of his great bald head was accentuated by the fact that what little hair he had at the sides was kept close shaven, Russian fashion. His soft voice and light step seemed sinister in themselves, coming from such a thug-like type.
All his life he had been a revolutionary, an agitator living on the edge land often passing over it) of illegality.
During this country's intervention in Russia, soon after the Revolution, he was discharged from the Navy for agitating on behalf of the Soviets. He became a leader of the unemployed and also of the Young Communist League.
In 1926 he was sent to jail for being in unlawful possession of documents regarding troops; soon after his release he went back to jail again for promoting disaffection among His Majesty's Forces.
In the early '30s. when the Communists were regularly staging unemployed and anti-Mosley riots in London, his reputation for toughness grew.
That reputation was further strengthened when in 1936 he went to Spain as political commissar to the British battalion of the international Brigade. By the time he returned, with a slight wound, the following year stories were already circulating of his ruthless treatment of brigaden who developed "deviationist tendencies" in Spair
In Moscow
E f a short period as editor Hof the party's daily paper, then had d
went to Moscow on the eve of war as British delegate to the Communist International. It was he who brought back the directive, signed by Georgi Dirnitroll, switching the British party's policy of support for the war to one of opposition to it. He became national organiser and still held that position when in 1943 he was convicted of passing State secrets to Russia. He was sentenced to seven years' penal servitude.
The party, anxious not to alienate the growing public support which it was enjoying at the time, formally expelled him. It had, in any case, even from the Communist point of view, been a serious indiscretion on his part to do the spying himself whilst occupying a prominent public position, instead of delegating it to someone else.
On his release from jail he went to Prague, then to Moscow and, after briefing, to China, where he helped to advise Mao Tse-Tung on Western affairs.
When the Korean war began he advised the North Korean and Chinese Communists on the indoctrination in Marxism of British prisoners of war.
He died of cancer of the throat, at the age of 52, in Moscow last week.
D. F. Springhall was, as I have said, the embodiment of all the antiCommunist expects of the Red. He was sinister, ruthless, a traitor. He loved power and he revelled in violence. His personal life was deplorable by Christian standards.
Yet the "Springie" I knew was, in his own circle, kindly, considerate, always ready to show infinite patience with younger comrades or to lend a helping hand to those who were in difficulties.
It is that element of good in even the seemingly worst of men which we too often overlook.
Positive measure
NEWS that Nairobi city council is aiming to house another 20,000 Africans by the en..I of next year comes as a refreshing .ciiange from the reports of Mau Mau murders and man-hunts which one has
come to expect each day from Kenya.
This new target represents a big speed-up in the city's housing programme, and its fulfilment will, it is claimed, result in the housing of all Africans who are now without it.
The big cities of the Union of South Africa, with their appalling "shanty towns," are deplorable examples of what can happen in the way of human degradation if this problem is allowed to get out of hand. Kenya, with its Mau Mau problem, most certainly cannot afford to let any similar situation arise.
In the long run the new houses of Nairobi may he of more value in the fight to end terrorism than all the collective punishments of Kikuyu, which leave behind them a smouldering sense of grievance.
A similarly vigorous new land policy for the landless Africans of Kthickucriountryside would still further undermine the appeal which Mau Mau has made to discontented
Same record
THE .1ussian process of trying to make religious leaders the instrument of their Communist policies goes on remorselessly all the time. And it is not just upon the Christians that the pressure is exerted. Leaders of other religions are subjected to the same process, The current issue of the Jewish Chronicle carries a report of a Jewish New Year message from the Chief Rabbi and President of the Moscow Jewish Religious Community which follows the normal pattern of Communist "peace" propaganda.
A message from the Chief Rabbi of Rumania takes much the same line. The Chief Rabbi of Hungary takes for his theme the freedom of religion which exists in his Communist-ruled country.
Safe bet
TIMES headline, September 9, 1953: "Ulster Elections on October 2:1—No Change Expected in Balance of rower."