The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. SATURDAY, JULY 8, 1922. THE NEW ORDER.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 160, 8 July 1922, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

SATURDAY, JULY 8, 1922. THE NEW ORDER.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that •needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good tliat tec can do.

Maxim Gorky's warning to the Soviet Government is not likely to make much difference to the fate of the unfortunate Social Revolutionaries who are now lying under sentence of death. But it will eerve a very useful purpose if it helps people in general to understand the iniquities that are being perpetrated in Russia under "the dictatorship of the proletariat." There is little doubt that the only eerious crime that can be laid at the door of the accused ie that they object to Bolshevism. For the Soviet leaders, like all fanatics, hold that those who are not with them are against them, and therefore treat all other types of Socialist or revolutionary as enemies and execute summary vengeance upon them when the opportunity comes. Mostof the leading members of the Social Revolutionary party—who would in most other countries be regarded as violent extremists—have been driven into exile or extirpated by the Bolshevik ; for to call a man a "reactionary"— which only means that he is not a genuine "red" Bolshevik—is practically to sign his death warrant in Russia to-day.

At first sight it might seem that the mere fact of bringing these latest victims to a court of justice suggests that the Soviet intended to give them what in civilised countries would be called a fair trial. But as Krylenko, the President of the Central Revolutionary Tribunal, was acting ac State Proeecutor it was evident from the outset that if possible they were to be convicted. The leading counsel for the defence was M. Vandervelde, who, apart from the fact that he is an able lawyer and has been one of the Crown Ministers in Belgium, is one of the best known and best reputed Socialists in the world; and his efforts on behalf of the accused are sufficient proof that theee Social Revolutionaries are "moderates" of the type that have always belonged to the Second International, of which Vandervelde has been president. But it coon became evident that the prisoners were already doomed, and as the trial went on the Soviet newspapers —for no "reactionary" journal may circulate in Russia—worked up a fierce and inflammatory agitation demanding the sacrifice of these helpless victims. At last an infuriated crowd burst into the Court, shouting "Death to the prisoners," and the President (who is Krylenko'e understudy on the Central Revolutionary Tribunal) pacified them with the assurance that "sentence would be passed" in accordance with their demand. No wonder that Vandervelde and his German colleagues, incensed and disgusted at this travesty of justice, threw up the case; and incidentally we are informed that they had great difficulty in getting out of Russia themselvee. But this monstrous burlesque of a trial seems to have horrified some who so far have tolerated the worst excesses of the Bolsheviks, and the protest that Maxim Gorky (who has hitherto acquiesced in the Soviet system, even if he has not actively supported it) hae addressed to the Bolshevik Government will find an echo in the heart and conscience of civilised humanity throughout the world.

All thie has a very direct and intimate connection with the essential meaning and character of Bolshevism. For the "dictatorship of the proletariat," as they have it in Russia, is based upon the undisguised appeal to force, and is bolstered up by violent crimes constantly committed in defiance of all the recognised principles of justice or morality. Mr. H. N. Brailsford is certainly well-disposed toward Bolshevism in many respects, ac his "Russian Workers' Republic" clearly shows; yet he frankly admits in this 'book that though the Extraordinary Commission was putting people to death while he was there at the rate of 300 a month, "almost worse than the blood, shed is the demoralisation caused by this irresponsible tyranny." Bolshevik denunciations of the capitalist system have become, so Brailsford tells us, "potents for disregarding all morality," and we advance toy natural and inevitable steps from the declaration of the "class war" to the system of legalised murder which the Soviet has set up in Russia to-day. Of all the monstrous perversions of truth that have ever deluded men to their own destruction, this horrible doctrine of the class war seems to us the worst. We can imagine no theory of life better calculated than this to kindle the flames of insatiable hatred in men's hearts and to encourage them in the perpetration of every conceivable injustice and cruelty and wrong. We need not be surprised that Brailsford protests boldly against the "demoralisation" that this horrible creed is producing, and Gorky spoke truly when he declared that, if Bolshevism pursues its evil course unchecked, it will bring upon Russia and its unfortunate people the moral condemnation and repudiation of all civilised mankind.