BACKING WRONG HORSES

Maoriland Worker, Volume 10, Issue 447, 1 October 1919, Page 4

BACKING WRONG HORSES

Muddling Through of the Allies k Russia

The Lloyd-George-Churchill crewarc, possessed of a positive genius for hacking wrong horses in Russia. Immediately they decide to "recognise" and support this or that of the socalled Russian. "Governments" opposed to the Revolution, those Governments collapse, are chased hy the Bolsheviks, or sell out to "the enemy." This experience hu* been so. consistent that those Tsarist generals and admirals who are now plotting' to establish themselves as Ihe Big Panjandra ia the Russian scheme must bo terror-stricken at the thought of "recognition" which seems certain to blight, their chances. The policy cC backing the wrong horse started some time before Nicholas Romanoff renounced his job. When towards 1917 the growth of the revolutionary' forces threatened the Russian Monarchy the British Government sent Lord Milner, the Prussian member of the War Cabinet, to Petrograd, with the object of devising ways and means of perpetuating Tsardom, and he returned with the story that there was little need to worry- Without further ado, the Russian workmen dragged the mighty Tsar from his seat, and very thoroughly cleaned up the whole aristocratic brood. Wrong horse, number one. In the turmoil following the Tsar's abdication, the Russian capita! it, t party called tbe Cadet Party (£i'.eral Party here) jumped the workers' claim to the Government. Headed hv Miliukoff. who installed himself in charge of the Russian Foreign Office, the capitalists issued an Imperialistic manifesto endorsing the Tsar's programme, and consequently received the hall-mark of Lloyd George's favor. The Russian workmen, however, somewhat disliked the idea of making a revolution only to see it exploited by their exploiters, and straightway paid some strenuous attention to Miliykoff, who lasted: about, five minutes. Ho "hopped it," ducked un__rgro.u_d for a space, and Ultimately reappeared in Germany, ap-> peal ins to the Kaiser for tn._p against (he l.o)sheviks v He irt nt>w conspiring in Britain for the sanx?

Kerensky then took charge, and, as he-was a moderate and anti-German, Lloyd George made a show of supporting him, although his Socialism made him a hard pill to swallow. His support of the International Conference at Stockholm, of course, overstepped the hounds, and from that moment he was hooted at and spurned. The rejection of Stockholm by the Allies made his fall in Russia certain, because it supported the contention of the Bolsheviks that the Allies did not want a democratic peace, but were fighting an Imperialistic war. He is now in England, where the authorities refuse him a passport either to return to Russia or to go to America. Wrong horse, number three. Just before Kerensky's flight he had a 'mix-up" with a chap named Kprnsloff, wbo 'ed what the cables described as "The Savage Army." The Allies barracked for Korniloff, but the Petrograd workmen soon settled him. He has not been heard of since, except. insofar as he has been assassinated by the Bolsheviks six separate times in six separate places in six different ways. Wrong horse, number four. After Kerensky and Korniloff came the Bolsheviks, who, to the horror of all right-thinking and stock-holding persons, repudiated the war debts contracted by the Tsar, and entered into negotiations with the Germans, j'-ver since we have been informed of the hind of monstcs they are, how they nationalise women, and how Lenin eats £2000 worth of fruit a day. These wretches actually wanted peace for everybody. We preferred instead a so-called Government of the Ukraine, which got itself formed while the Bolsheviks were negotiating with the Germans at Brest-Lit ovsk. We lent this "Government" £7/000,000 to oppose the Bolsheviks, and immediately after it entered into a proGerman peace with the Kaiser, under the terms of which the Ukraine was occupied by German military, who ultimately turned out this "Government" at the bayonet's point. Wrong horso, number five. We then tried a conspiracy with a gent called Lockart as our principal agent. He scattered money about like dirt and worked things up lo a certain point. A Bolshevik Commissary or two were murdered, and* n attempi was made to assassinate Lenin. Revelations were made which resulted in the terror and the imprisonment and shooting of a number of implicated j people. The conspiracy failed and the Bolsheviks strengthened their grip on the Russian people. Wrong horse, number six. After this there was nothing for it but military intervention in the internal affairs of Russia. Any Tsarist general or admiral who was prepared to nickname himself "Government" and assume the powers of a dictator was certain of receiving millions of pounds sterling from the British Government. British armies were also thrust upon Russian soil, although no declaration of war had been sanctioned by the British Parliament. Take Archangel: The British Government was invited by the "Government" of Tchaikowsky—a moderate Kerensky Socialist —to land an exepdition here. This was done. As soon as it landed it put Tchaikowsky in jail, shot the members of the Soviet, a;tfl established the "puppet Govern_r£.nt'' now in. charge, and now also preparing to be "evacuated by sea." as Churchill puts it. After defeating the Bolsheviks for about a year and advancing at least a million miles, as per cable, threatening to take, in conjunction with other forces, and actually taking Petrograd, as per cable, several Lime.., it i_ now withdrawn to avert disaster, and Churchill, the Galiipoli gambler and Antwerp muddler, is sending up a screen of words to camouflage the ghastly hash he has made of it. Wrong horse, number seven. Then came Koltchak, the Siberian Dictator, with his "Government" at Omsk. This scoundrel, who has not hesitated to shoot moderate Socialists and anti-Bolshevik members of th-_ Constituent Assembly elected under Kerensky, advanced against Moscow with Allied money and munitions and men. About two months ago he was reported to be within a hundred miles of Moscow, but within three days of that he was also reported to have been heavily defeated at Ufa, which is just on the European side of the Ural Mountains and not less than 1000 miles from Moscow. Ever since he has been going hell-for-leather in the rearward direction, hunted out of his so-called capital of Omsk, and lately it that he had changed his headquarters to Irkutsk, which is about 1000 miles nearer Japan than Omsk. Following this announcement came the news that the Allies had dropped Koltchak in favor of another joker called Yudenitch, who, with a chap named Lapanipff, "a wealthy oil merchant" (cable), is running what is described as the "North-Western Russian Government." Koltchak was another wrong horse—number eight. Immediately Yudenitch was "recognised" he informed the world that his army had no boots, no tobacco, no clothes, and generally was in a horrible mess. He is faced by wellequipped Bolsheviks, who have just taken Pskoff, not far from him. Shortly, the Allies will drop him and he will be another wrong 'un. There remains Denikin and Petlura. The former is a Cossack and the latter is a moderate Socialist Ukrainian. They are about to junction against the Bolsheviks at Kieff, so the cables say: but there is nothing so certain that if they ever get into, touch with one another no love will be lost between them. (After this was written a cable told us that they were fighting one another in Kieff!) As General Maurice said in his "Daily News" article the other day, the anti-Bolsheviks are "incompetent," and in any case the Bolsheviks in the North are now being transferred to the South to meet them. Commanded as the Eolsheviks are by Brusiloff (this statement was made recently in the French Chamber of Deputies), and supported hy the great mass of the Russian people, Denikin and Petlura will be out of it soon, and then, there being no wrong horses to lose our money on, we might think it wise to stick to what we've got instead of sending good money after bad. Is it «tny wonder, ia these circumstances, and with tMg fisrthur fact considered, that the Soviet is the form of Government de@Jb.ect by the organised workers and peasants of Russia, that, the Trades* Union movement in Britain is, demanding tfcfc .-arnodiate withdrawal of British troop.*, from .Russia, and that Robert StstttUe, ths greatest. Trade Union lwd,<*r in tfee. country, is urging a general strike t$ J__fi__ft_Ll.