Princess fears "red grip"

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March 27, 1919

Princess Catherine Radziwill, who is the author of books on European and Russian royalty, "regards the establishment of a soviet government in Hungary as only one step in a formidable well-planned movement to create a combination of nations and peoples, compared to which the thwarted Teutonic Mitteleuropa ambitions would be child's play," reports the Los Angeles Times.

The princess, who is traveling incognito with just one maid, consented to an interview during her visit to Philadelphia. She said she is "haunted and filled with dread by a vision between Bolshevist Russia, Bolshevist Germany, Bolshevist Austria, Bolshevist Hungary, and China." In her opinion, the princess does not think that the Allies "would never be able to withstand or overcome."

Her solution: "Intervention, intervention, intervention." she declared "in a voice trembling with passion, and her little foot tapped the floor." She added that if the "Allies had intervened in Russia from the start. if they had set Trotzky and Lenin up against the wall and shot them like the dogs they are, Europe would not now be suffering from the leprosy of Bolshevism."

Princess Catherine feels that "civilization will be blasted" if there is no Allied intervention.

"You notice how the Bolsheviki are killing off systematically all persons of intelligence and education in Russia. There are hardly any left today unless in the jails and mines of Siberia."

The Princess said she feels that is wrong to demobilize because "the war is not over by any means." She added that she believes that the "European situation is now far more serious than in 1914 or at any other time during the hostilities. The Peace Conference does not rush its work. Germany and its secret allies will recuperate. Then what will happen? Imagine how difficult it will be to re-mobilize. Think of America having to send its men overseas again."

Princess Catherine has had the first-hand experience of the situation. "What I possessed in Russia has been destroyed, wiped out by the Bolsheviki, but let me tell you that it was the Germans who invented Bolshevism. They saw that they were losing the war in the west, and they were determined to win it in the east. They did not. But they will yet unless the Allies wake up and intervene."
She would not give an opinion of the League of Nations. But she did say that "the American government is so vitally interested in this problem that it would hardly be in good taste for me, who enjoy the hospitality of this country, to comment on the matter. I am glad to say, though, that I am a great admirer of President Wilson."