THE EVIL BOLSHEVIST GOVERNMENT

ANYONE who had followed closely events in Russia from the termination of the Japanese war of 1904-5 knew perfectly well that it was only a question of time before an upheaval in that country must take place. In 1905 serious revolutionary outbreaks occurred in various parts of the Empire. They were repressed with great severity, and the outside world heard little or nothing about them.

When the Great War of 1914-18 broke out it was popular with the uneducated masses. They did not understand the original causes, but in their slowly working brains they had a dim notion. that it was to be a struggle à l'outrance between the Slav and Teuton. The military experts of some foreign countries fully believed that the Russian Army was ready to take its place alongside the best equipped and trained armies of the Western Powers. But not all the experts held this view. Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson, who had studied their organisation on the spot, told me in 1913 that when the Great War broke out it would be found that the Russian Army had learnt little or nothing from the Japanese war. While all our papers, in the early part of the war, were full of the 'irresistible power of the great Russian steam-roller,' which was to cause the fall of Berlin in 1914, the same authority predicted that, though the Russians would form a great defensive army, they could never carry out a lengthy offensive when opposed to the Germans.

The Russian Army made one of the most heroic defences known in history, with their terrible shortage of rifles, guns and ammunition, but the provisional Government under Rodzianko, Kerensky, and Miliukoff, etc., all patriotic Russians, soon lost control, and the Army organisation broke down, owing to the abolition of discipline resulting from the new laws issued by that Government, and signed by Gutchkoff.

With the downfall of the dynasty the simple moujik could no longer say, 'Tsar Batiouchka' (our little father the Tsar'), and all who knew the Russian peasants must be aware that 'God and the Tsar!' was the foundation of their religion. The new cry of Kerensky, 'Zemla i vola!' ('Land and liberty!'), was no efficient substitute.

These new laws, which were issued under Ukase No. 2, brought about the débâcle of the Army, and Lenin, Trotsky, Dzerjinsky, Kameneff, Radek, Stalin, etc., made use of that period of anarchy to consolidate their power.

From that time to the present moment, a period of six years, Russia has groaned under the domination of these men. Where one may have dropped out his place has been taken by another just as cruel and crafty. It would be useless for me to enlarge on the inhuman cruelties committed during the ensuing years. They are known to all the world. The worst outrages told of the French Revolution pale before them, and history will record that this was the greatest period of bloodshed, lust and cruelty that ever has shocked a horrified civilisation. Not only were these cruelties perpetrated on Russians, but also on many persons of other nationalities. We have many accounts of British subjects thrown into Bolshevist prisons, and left to rot and die in them. Some survivors are now in England with their health permanently ruined, and if it had not been for the splendid efforts of the Rev. Mr. North, our chaplain in Moscow, who defied all orders of the Bolsheviks that no help should be given to our people in prison, the death-roll would have been even heavier than it was. These countrymen of ours have lost everything they possessed in the world. They were mostly people of moderate means who had lived in Russia all their lives, retired foremen, bank and insurance clerks, small traders, etc. Many of them had married Russian wives and had done their utmost to make the name of England loved and respected amongst the Russian people. The reputation they had established for British uprightness, honesty and fair dealing with the populace is no small matter as regards the future.

Let us remember that, out of a population of 160 millions, there are not in Russia more than some 300,000 avowed Communists and Bolsheviks. The Russians as a nation are not and never have been Bolshevist. The national craving was for the possession of more land. Once that craving was satisfied, they soon discovered that they had got more than they could possibly cultivate; and, as the Red Guards demanded that all surplus stocks should be handed over to them, the peasants refused to cultivate more land than would provide food for their own use, or else they hid their produce from the commissars. Numbers of commissars have been killed by the peasants whilst endeavouring to seize foodstuffs, and it is certainly true that the 130 million moujiks as a body are now entirely opposed to all communistic theories.

The great rôle played by our manufacturing firms, such as the Hubbards, Coatses, De Jerseys, Reddaway, Elworthy, RussoAsiatic, Spies Petroleum, Baku Consolidated, etc., to mention only a few, in the development of Russian life, should not be over

looked. In all their large mills and works they had set a high standard for the welfare of Russian industrial life by building churches, schools and hospitals, and at the present moment there are tens of thousands of Russian workmen who would welcome the return of their old British employers. The workmen now realise that this cannot take place until the properties are returned to their rightful owners. The British are, so far, the most popular nation with the masses for the reasons that I have given, and, at the same time, the most unpopular with the Soviet Government. They endeavour to frighten us by telling us that Germany will sweep the Russian market. That is a Bolshevist economic fallacy; Russia is large enough for every country to take its share of trade.

German trade was predominant before the war. In 1913 German exports to Russia amounted to about 60,000,000l., while British exports were valued at 20,000,000l., and this predominance will continue, owing to the geographical position of Germany. In 1914 there were about two million Germans living in Russia, and of these it is safe to say that at least twenty Germans could talk Russian as against one Englishman who possessed this qualification. The number of large German factories was small compared to ours, the Germans being primarily traders; yet, with all their trade advantages, they were never really popular.

Our popularity should be a priceless asset when the day comes for the masses in Russia to cast from them the fetters of Bolshevism. So far I have avoided politics; but when considering the Russian question the two things are so closely connected that it is impossible to steer clear of the political side, for, as the Soviet Government has nationalised everything, it follows that everything is political. The Russian Government is a revolutionary Government and is maintained in power solely by violence and the terror of the Che-Ka, and though said to be a democratic Government, the bulk of the people have no say in the matter. This being the case, one would imagine that the civilised and advanced Powers of the West would have avoided all official contact with it, and that is indeed the line of action adopted to-day by France and America. I am convinced that we shall for ever regret the insane policy that Mr. Lloyd George thought right to adopt towards the Soviet Government on behalf of England. The exploration of this avenue' began in 1919, when the suggestion was made that we should meet the Russians at Prinkipo, but this was turned down by all the other Powers. In 1921 the Prime Minister, Mr. Lloyd George, who was always in a hurry to do something sensational, carried through the Trade Agreement with the Soviets as a great stroke of genius. It was to place us in a more advantageous position than all the other countries for

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trading with Russia. To seek a parallel, can anyone who has read the history of the French Revolution imagine Pitt inviting Robespierre and Danton to come and set up business in our midst ? For this is practically what it means. As regards trade it has done us no good, and in many ways has done us great harm. To the Bolsheviks it has been of inestimable value, and there is nothing they would dislike more than to see it cancelled.

The Trade Agreement was followed by the Genoa Conference, which, like many other conferences, was entirely abortive so far as we were concerned. The Bolshevist delegates arrived at Genoa with swelled heads, and, after much feasting and photographing, returned to Moscow with their heads in much the same condition as when they started. Then the Hague Conference, where, beyond the fact that M. Litvinoff made some sort of tenative offer about properties and debts, little advance was made on Genoa.

The purpose of the Trade Agreement signed by Sir Robert Horne and M. Krassin was to give us preferential trade with Russia. Has it done so? Not at all. America, who has no trade agreement, and, as a Government, has always taken the line that she would have no dealings with the Bolsheviks, who have violated every principle of honest trade, has improved the volume of her trade with Russia during the last two years far beyond any results that we have obtained. Germany has, of course, improved her trade, as one would have anticipated, for she alone has a treaty with Moscow.

In the matter of concessions from the Soviets one would have expected to find a preference for the British. But, on the contrary, out of the last list published in the Izvestia, giving details of twentynine concessions granted to foreigners, the first ten are German concessions. Second on the list comes America with six, and Britain comes next with five. The remaining eight are divided amongst other European nations. Neither is this all. When examining the concessions one finds that the German and American concessions are nearly all such as will provide work for German and American workmen. Our five concessions are as follows:(1) An agreement for the restoration and working of the Indo

European telegraph line.

(2) An agreement with certain English firms for the formation of a mixed company, 'Russangloles,' for the export of timber.

(3) An agreement with the English firm Hudson Bay Company' for the import of necessary goods into Kamchatka. (4) An agreement with an English firm for the export of eggs.

(5) An agreement with an English firm for the export of offals

(kishki).

Not one of which will provide a day's work for one single British workman.

Could No. 5 be a lapse into grim Bolshevist humour? Is it a grant to export 'guts' to Britain ?

The above will show clearly enough that we have derived no benefit from the Trade Agreement.

Let us see what the Bolsheviks have derived from it.

They have been allowed to come and settle down in Moorgate Street; to found their own companies under the protection of our laws (vide' Arcos' and 'Centrosoyus '); to refuse or grant permission for any persons or goods to enter Russia. Moreover, they have been able through this agency to sell in this country vast quantities of oil and timber actually stolen from British-owned properties in Russia. (I will not trouble my readers with the names of owners and approximate amount of money raised by this means, but I could easily do so if required.) Nothing has so far been said in this article about the peculiar actions of the Bolsheviks in regard to Article 1 of the Trade Agreement (the undertaking to refrain from propaganda); but in April 1923 the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs sent a strongly worded note to Moscow after our representative there had been treated with studied insolence. From first-hand information received from a most trustworthy Englishman who was in Moscow at the time, this Foreign Office note fell into the Bolshevist camp like a bombshell; there was great consternation; they believed that England meant business this time. Unfortunately, after some trivial concessions from the Soviet and promises (!) to carry out other demands, our Foreign Office announced itself as being quite satisfied, and the correspondence was closed. One can perhaps imagine the joy and relief of the Soviet at this exhibition of our folly! Little wonder that Trotsky announced shortly after that the Soviet Government had won a glorious diplomatic victory at the cost of 13,000l., the sum paid for the murder of Mr. Davison and the disgraceful imprisonment of Mrs. Stan Harding!

We are now being treated to a great deal of propaganda regarding the new Soviet currency (the tchervonetz) and its stability.

There is no getting away from the fact that so long as Russia is ruled by the present Junta and their terrorist instrument, the Che-Ka, with its inquisitorial tyranny, there never can be peace in Europe or any real development of honest trade with Russia. The majority of people in this country have no idea what a remarkable body the Che-Ka is (now called the Gosudarstvenoye Polititcheskoye Ukravleneye-State Political Department). It is a combination of the old Okhrana, i.e., the Secret Police of Tsarist days, and all the cleverest inquisitors and torturers that the Revolution has cast up. It is practically a self-contained army,