BRITAIN AND RUSSIA.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 130, 2 June 1923, Page 7

BRITAIN AND RUSSIA.

RE-ESTABUSHING RELATIONS. MR. LLOYD GEORGE'S SUPPORT, j OLD REGIME'S DOWNFALL. " THE "WORLD NEEDS PEACE." (By Cable.—Press Association. —Copyright.) LONDON, June 1. Basing his remarks on the British and Russian Notes, Mr. Lloyd George in his article this week on current affairs states Russia's case. "I am frankly delighted." he writes, "that the negotiations between the Marquis Curzon and the Russian Soviet Government seem to indicate a genuine desire to establish a more satisfnctory understanding between this country and Russia. The Bolshevik episode, like all revolutionary terrors, has been a shrieking nightmare which made the world shudder. It did render one supreme service to civilisation. It terrified democracy back into sanity at a time when nervous excitability following the war was bordering on mental instability. "In our attitude toward the Soviet. Government we must, however, constantly bear in mind one consideration. What matters to us is not so much the Russian Government as the people of Russia, and for the moment the Bolshevik Administration constitutes the only medium for dealing with that mighty nation. As long as it remains the constituted authority in Russia every act of hostility against it injures Russia. You cannot refuse to trade with it now without depriving the Russian people of commodities essential to their well-being. The people will suffer and they ultimately will resent that suffering. Governments come and go. but a nation goes on for ever. SYMPATHY FOR THE PEOPLE. "The Russian people deserve especially at the hands of the Allies every sympathetic consideration we can extend to them. Those who denounce dealings with the existing order seem to have persuaded themselves that pre-revolu-tionary Russia was governed by a gentle beneficent despotism, which conferred blessings of a tolerant kindly fatherhood upon a well-ruled household. In no particular is this a true picture of the ancient regime. The fortress of St. Peter ! and Pt. Paul vas not erected nor it = dungeons dug by Bolsheviks. Siberia was not set up as a penal settlement for political offenders by the Bolsheviks. In 1006 about 4.5,000 political offenders were deported to endure the severities ot" Siberia. The persecution of suspected religious leaders was not started by the Soviets. To them does not belong the ! discredit of initiating pogromism.

"Let us not, forget that the revolution was rendered inevitable by the inepti- j tude and corruption of the old system, especially by the terrible suffering and humiliation which this tate of things inflicted on Russia in the Great War. M. Paleologue, in his 'Memoirs of an Ambassador.' tolls the story of how a gal- i lant army found itself at a critical hour without ammunition, rifles, transport, and often without food. No braver or devoted men ever fought for their country than the young peasants who made the Russian armies in 1014-16. With , little and often no artillery support they faced without faltering the best equipped ! heavy artillery in the world. There is i nothing in war comparable to the. trust- I ful heroism of these poor peasants. I A TRUST BETRAYED. "We know now why there were no shelh?. rifles, or wagons. The wholesale corruption of the Czarist regime has been fully exposed to the world by irrefutable documentary evidence. The ; Grand Duke Sergius, Inspector-General ;of Artillery, said to the French Ambassador: 'When I think that this exhibition of impotence is all our aristocratic system has to show, it makes mc want to be a Republican.' AYhen a Grand Duke talked like that in the early part of 1015, what must the peasant soldier have thought by the spring of 1017 after millions of his comrades had been slaughtered as the result of the same exhibition of impotence? I recall one statement made to our general on the Russian front when he was anxiously inquiring as to the gigantic losses which filled him with dismay as well as horror. The usual reply was: 'Do not worry ycurself. Thank God, of men, at all events, we have enough,' an answer which sends a thrill of horror through you when you read it. "That is why at the end of two and a-half years the patient men in the field mutinied. The Little Father had failed I them and his minions had betrayed them. It is a sordid, horrid tale of peculation, maladministration, and cruel treachery. Millions of B-itish and French money went in shameless, open bribery, while soldiers were opposing bare breasts covering brave hearts to the most terrible artillery in the world. There were honourable and upright men who did their duty, but they were helpless in the torrent of corruption. It is not, pleasant to recall these dreadful episodes, but the story is essential to a right appreciation of events. "There is no savagery like that of a trustful people finding its trust imposed upon. The retribution has been hideous in all its aspects, but the provocation also was revolting from every point of view. To judge Russia fairly, that must be taken into account. I think that the I British Government, therefore, is taking ' the right view in opening negotiations with the Soviet Government. You can easily revoke resounding cheers among the thoughtless by declaring melodramatically that you will never shake hands with murder. Tn practice this policy has always been a failure. French Bolshevism was not defeated by foreign armies nor starved by the British blockade, but was driven into the arms of Napoleon, and Europe suffered bitterly for the folly of hotheads on both sides. A COMPARISON "WITH TURKEY. i "If you decline to treat with Russia as long as her present rulers remain in power, then you ought to place Turkey in the same category. The military junta governing Turkey is guilty of atrocities at least as vile as any comr mitted by the Bolsheviks, but at Lausanne we ostentatiously stretched Britain's friendly hand to the authors of the Armenian massacres. France, Italy, and the United States tendered the same warm handshake. I am not criticising the offer of amity made as a condition of a peace. We must, make peace in the world, and you cannot do it it yon put | whole nations off your visiting list be cause of the misconduct of those who govern them Once you begin you are not quite sure where it will end.

"The refusal to trade with Russia would not deprive the Soviet Commissionaries of a single necessity or comfort of life, but the peasants who are not Communists would suffer, and the people of this country, who need Russian produce, would suffer to some extent. The United States can afford this exalted aloofness. She does not need Russian grain or timber, but we cannot do as well without them. We also sadly need Russian flax for our linen industries, which are languishing without it. But beyond and above all these material considerations, the world needs peace. "It is time we made up our minds that the Soviet regime has come to stay, whether we like it or not. and that one or other of the formidable men who rule Russia is likely to rule it for some time to come. The sooner we have the courage to reeopmise this fact, the sooner real peace will be established." —(A. and N.Z. "Cable.) MUST PAY THE DEBTS. LONDON, June 1. A meeting of the Association of British Creditors of Russia carried a resolution that no conference should take place be- I tween the British and "Russian Govern- | ments until the Soviet' Government ex- j presses willingness to discharge all j foreign debts.—(A. and N.Z. Cable.)