Interview by the Daily Express

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“Does not Great Britain realize that her industrial success is now so in the balance that it depends entirely on how soon she throws aside her quarrel with Russia?

“America does, and if Great Britain is not careful she will find the ground cut away from under her feet, for second-comers will only get the crumbs.”

When I asked him [Trotsky] for his views concerning the resumption of Anglo-Russian relations, he said:

“My views? Well, Great Britain is apparently blind, but she will get a serious knock very soon that will restore her sight when it’s too late, and this knock will come from America.

“Great Britain’s fear of communism reminds me of a child which closes its eyes when it is frightened. Yet she is big enough to act like a man and grapple with anything that she considers menaces her.

“With Anglo-Russian relations resumed she will still be able to say who shall enter her territory. Every government has this prerogative. Look at me. I am not wanted, so out I have gone.

“Then again, the fact of Great Britain being on friendly terms with Soviet Russia would give her an advantage in getting friendly considerations of her desires. But to continue her stand for reparation of alleged damages will only result in Great Britain being outrun by America.

“Russia has a score of millions on millions of pounds marked up against Great Britain, for blame for the bloody [counter] revolution attaches to her, or rather her soldiers and her gold. To persist in making Russia a debtor will never lead to any good, and the sooner this is realized so much the better for England.”

I asked Trotsky where he was going after leaving Turkey.

“I have, as yet, had no reply from Germany. I suppose it’s because of the cabinet crisis there, but I have no doubt they will give me a visa. I only sent in my request after Herr Löbe's favorable speech.

“Reports that I have applied to France, Czechoslovakia, and Holland are lies. I wonder what would be the result if I asked permission to go to England. You know I spent a happy period in London visiting the British museum in 1902, and I sometimes think I would like to see it again.

“Apparently the mere mention in the House of Commons of the possibility of my requesting a visa for England was sufficient to bring the House down in laughter. I have studied what appears to be the joke for some time, but I fail to see the point of it.”

“Churchill never knew and never would understand Lenin; in short, what he has written on Lenin is pure bunkum.”

In answer to my question whether he had given up active politics, he replied:

“Yes; active politics, but politics — well, I am a politician, and I am engaged in writing my autobiography which will be political.

“Henceforth I shall live by my pen. Offers from almost every country have been pouring in for my work.”