WAYS OF THE SOVIET.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19658, 9 June 1927, Page 14

WAYS OF THE SOVIET.

4a. STRANGE LACK OF HUMOUR. "A TREACHEROUS BLOW." [from our own correspondent.] ■' LONDON, May 4. There seems to be something about Russian Communism which, among its native professors no less than among their loving disciples in our own country, is peculiarly destructive of a sense of humour. » " I fancy," says a correspondent of the Times, "however, that even Mr. Cook would be disposed to admit that Mr. Bukharin's lament over the defection of Chiang Kai-shek, which you quote from the Soviet Government organ Izvestia, establishes a new high record in humourlessness. " 'We pretended,' says Mr. Bukharin, 'to make common cause with Chiang Kai-shek because he was a useful companion for a long part of the journey toward the proletarian revolution. Wo were preparing for tho inevitable clash with him and were mobilising the masses against him, but he dealt us a treacherous blow before we were ready.' "In other words, the tiresome fellow did not wait quite long enough for Bukharin and company to betray him; he had the bad taste to anticipate their treachery and go off on his own. Chiang Kai-shek clearly does not know how to play the game; one wonders where ho can have been brought up."