RAISING THE BLOCKADE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIII, Issue 1721, 23 January 1920, Page 4

RAISING THE BLOCKADE.

Ini view of the threatened overflow of th'c Bolsheviks into Western Europe, and unto Eastern Siberia, Turkey, Persia and India, the reported decision of the Allies to abandon the blockade of Russia, and to confine their opposition to the-Bolshevik forces to affording Poland and the Caucasian Republics such protection as they require against possible aggressions on the part of the Soviet Government, is probably v the wisest that could have been come to. It has long been recognised, if not 'aQtu'aJly admitted, that’jfor t ■ *:■: v..- ; r -

active intervention in Russia itself has long passed. Whatever the future may have for her, Russia must be left to work out her own salvation. The Bolsheviks have traded so largely upon the ignorance* of the people, that the illiterate population at least regard the Allied Powers as the enemies of Russia, and are convinced their main object is to reintroduce the autocratic rule of the Czars. The revolution of March, 1917, was endorsed by probably fully nine-tenths of the Russian people; the Bolsheviks, we are told, would not receive the support of N more than a tenth of the people were they permitted to give free expression to their wishes. But,, in choosing between the two evils of Czardom and the Soviet autocracy, they have elected to accept the latter, probably with the idea that, when internecine strife is ended, and Allied forces no longer threaten them, they may replace Bolshevik rule by a more truly representative Government. In lifting the blockade the Allies are adopting conciliatory measures, which may appreciably affect the situation, dangerous as it still appears, and lead to the re-establishment of the friendly relationships which existed between the British, French and Russian peoples prior to the war. With his customary courage in facing an awkward situation, Mr Lloyd George has gone further, in proposing to reopen trade with Russia—a course to which Colonel John Ward is opposed, because he is of opinion that the Russian Co-operative Societies, through which it is proposed to trade by barter, are no longer in existence, and that the goods which are to lie sent to Russia, under guarantee by the British Government through an insurance scheme, upon which it is proposed to spend something like £40,000,000, will simply fall into the hands of Lenin and Trotsky, and thus increase the already heavy British losses arising out of the Russian upheaval. But the British Premier probably thinks it will bo better to lose thirty or forty millions that way than to spend a .similar amount upon further useless fighting. The experiment is certainly worth trying. At the same time the orders received by the British Mediterranean Squadron to proceed to the Black Sea, and the Allied decision to send troops to the Caucasus to preserve order there, and to take such otiler measures as are necessary to prevent the Bolshevik propaganda filtering eastward, show that the Allies are not disposed to accept risks beyond this.