Why I Want to Come to London

Add a subpage to this text

Read the help page for usage.

 

My state of health has obliged me to decline all interviews during the past few weeks, but I now desire to receive a representative of an English newspaper, especially after false information concerning me has been spread throughout the world by a prominent London newspaper from its Constantinople correspondent, and in view of its inconceivable refusal to publish the formal denial which I forwarded it immediately this information came to my knowledge.

It is untrue that I have addressed a demand to return to Russia to the Stalinist faction, which for the moment governs Soviet Russia. Nothing is changed in my situation as an exile, and it ought not to have been necessary to make a denial to the fantasy of a poor imagination, which is without scruples concerning so- called plans in the Orient and the Extreme Orient. The Near East begins in Turkey, and my sojourn here has shown that I understand the right of refuge.

I have just addressed a request to the British government for permission to go to England. This is not because I have any reason to complain of the treatment which I have received at the hands of the Turkish authorities. On the contrary, they have shown themselves to be perfectly loyal and hospitable. I should not dream of leaving Turkey were I not compelled to do so for a number of important reasons.

My state of health and especially that of my wife demands treatment which it is impossible to obtain here. Furthermore, residence in London would allow me to pursue my scientific work and enable me to superintend the publication of my books in English. Here I am deprived of the necessary sources of information. The smallest verification entails a great loss of time.

I do not wish to conceal that there is besides, at this moment, a special interest for me to go to England, where a great political change has just taken place.

The party which for the second time assumes power in Great Britain believes that the difficulties created by private ownership can be surmounted through the medium of democracy. I want to see how it will be done.

I do not think that democracy which believes it can solve the greatest problems by democratic methods can begin by refusing the right of asylum — a democratic institution — to an adversary who has no intention of interfering with or intervening in British political affairs, but who desires only to observe and to learn.

It is well known that the German government refused to give me a visa for Germany. I was therefore unable to receive that lesson in democracy which Herr Löbe, the president of the Reichstag, had promised me. The right of asylum exists in Germany only for its political friends, which means that it does not exist at all, despite the fact that it is continually affirmed that Germany is the freest country in the world.

The Norwegian government, which by the way I had not approached, declared itself unable to undertake responsibility for my personal security. Suffice it to say that I am the only private person whose security is dependent on oneself and one’s friends. To put the question on a humane basis, I demand that less importance be attributed to my security and more to my health.

Leon Trotsky

[Trotsky's written statement was followed by a verbal exchange with the Daily Express correspondent

I asked M. Trotsky then how he would reconcile the offer of refuge by Great Britain to a man exiled from Russia with a renewal of diplomatic relations between the two countries. He replied that he saw nothing in that connection whereby difficulty might arise.

“On the contrary,” he said, “for the British government, clinging firmly to the principle of nonintervention, the right of refuge is entirely one of an internal order. Equally am I sure that with the reestablishment of diplomatic relations the British government would not think of demanding that the Soviet government should modify its internal regime.”

He added laughingly that of course he would never have dreamed of asking for permission to enter England while Sir Austen Chamberlain was at the Foreign Office. “Sir Austen,” he said, “for some reason had a personal objection to me which he has aired on not a few occasions.

“Yes,” he continued, speaking of the question of resumed relations, “I hope the new government will repair the mistake committed by its predecessor. That British industry should be made to suffer merely because of discontent with the Communist International is a thing I cannot understand. I believe, moreover, that this is also the opinion of British industrialists, who found it necessary to send an important delegation to Russia to study the situation.”

M. Trotsky spoke of his works which are now in preparation, citing especially that which has for its subject the world situation since the war, notably the situation of the United States vis-a-vis Europe in general and in particular vis-a-vis Great Britain.

“What is my opinion,” he concluded, “concerning the possibilities of the new socialist government and the perspectives open before it? It is precisely these questions which I shall treat in my new book on world politics.

“The great experiment which begins with Mr. MacDonald’s new cabinet will furnish me with new elements for appreciation and discussion.”