Orator Orating

In Trades Union Hall, Moscow, a huge blood-red disc above the stage, bearing the Hammer and Sickle, emblems of Soviet Russia, was hung. A vast crowd surged-- peasants in blouses, urban workers in tight, shoddy store clothes. They had come to hear the first public speech in four months by Russia's greatest orator, famed Leon Trotzky. All knew that M. Trotzky had been silent perforce, following the crushing of his section of the Communist party by Dictator Josef Stalin (TIME, Oct. 25). When Comrade Trotzky slipped upon the stage last week, pale, wiry, magnetic, there was stamping, applause and cheers for 15 minutes--proof enough that Leon Trotzky is still great, though subservient to Dictator Stalin.

Choosing words carefully, avoiding internal politics, yet speaking with his wonted fire, Comrade Trotzky said: "The lands bordering the Pacific will be the scene of the world's most important events. Europe does not relish this any more than it relishes the fact that the United States has become the most dominant power in the world, expanding northward through Canada and southward through Nicaragua. . . .

"We not only sympathize with the Chinese revolutionists, but, if we could, we would gladly drown in Shanghai waters all who intervene."

Then referring to the recent British note of protest and warning to Russia (TIME, March 7) he concluded: "It is not Britain who should have protested to us about anti-British propaganda, but we who should have protested to Britain about her anti-Soviet propaganda. The note complained that the Soviet press had caricatured Sir Austen Chamberlain as applauding the hanging of Lithuanian Communists. I say that he not only applauded, but also greased the ropes."