DEALING WITH RUSSIA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17100, 4 March 1919, Page 7

DEALING WITH RUSSIA

DIFFICULTIES OF ALLIES.

PEACE AN ESSENTIAL. LONDON, Feb. 16. Mr. Lloyd George, in a speech defending the Peace Conference, said that no proposal was advanced for recognising the Bolsheviks. There was a sense of <&• gust in dealing •with the leaders, but it was useless to blind the eyes to the real; fact that the Bolshevik power had grown' strong while Britain and Germany were too occupied to attack it. Without peace with Russia, Mr. Lloyd George said, it would be useless for the conference to dissolve claiming to have made the peace of the world. Some advocated intervention, but no sane man, after seeing the figures involved by the plan, would approve of the enterprise. The second course suggested was to support the anti-Bolsheviks. The Allies had already furnished them with guns, ammunition and and given them moral support, but the burden of sending men would devolve upon the British and French, as America refused to send men, money, or materials. The third course—a brutal policy— to let the fire burn it3elf*put. Hence after all the suggestions had been considered, the experiment of the Marmora Conference was being tried, which the Prime Minister defended, on the ground that parleying with brigands, even assassins, was well known on the Indian frontiers, as an alternative to despatching a costly expedition. In conclusion, Mr. Lloyd George said that Bolshevism could not last for evor. Britain would do her utmost to restore order and good government in that distracted country.