THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 1920. A COMMUNIST'S CONVERSION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18075, 25 October 1920, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 1920. A COMMUNIST'S CONVERSION.

Following the Hon. Bertraml Russell's exposure of Russian conditions, a recent cablegram reports Mr H. G. Wells as declaring, after a fortnight's visit, that conditions in Russia are "horrible" With M. Maxim Gorki he hopes to savo the mtelligentia—the remnant of the learned professions, artists, and scienforming a refugee colony where they may be allowed to live outside the turmoil and strife in the land of the " new freedom." The cablegram will only surprise those who refuse to accept the facts of revolution, and least surprised of all will be those who have read Mr Russell's impressions. He Is possibly the best known English Communist of the present day, and when '"t became known that he would personally visit Russia and investigate Sovietism at first hand unusual interest was aroused. Mr Russell went to Russia a convinced Communist—he returned full of serious doubts. To put it in his own words : : I went, to Russia believing myself a Communist; but contact with those who have no doubts has intensified a thousandfold my own doubts, not only of Commurtism, but of every creed" so firmly held that for its sake men are willing to inflict widespread misery. Mr Russell is an original thinker and a man of courage. His Pacifist opinions brought him into conflict with >the authorities during the War, and he was compelled to resign his lectureship at Trinity College, Cambridge. Although he is the scion of a noble family, beiri" the son of the late Viscount Amberley

find heir of Earl Russell, his opinions have cut him adrift from many of his former associates. When Mr Lloyd" George recently quoted him approvingly as an authority on Bolshevism it was another illustration of the vagaries involved in the whirligig of time, and not a few of those who insist on living in the past disapproved of the Prime Minister's authority. Nevertheless Mr IlusseLL has had a brilliant career as scholar and author and his series of articles on Russia in the Nation have enhanced his literary reputation. Mr Lloyd George quoted Mr Russell as saying in effect that the Soviet Government was neither Socialist, Democratic, nor Christian, and that the working classes were in a condition approximating in many rcspects to slavery, and he specifically used these words : —

P, conceivable system of free elections would give majorities to tho Communists ? r j ln ' x>wn or country. Various methods are therefore adopted for giving tho victory to Government candidates. It is not surprising, therefore, that the Russian dictatorship left Mr Russell cold and that his personal inquiries have made hiin sceptical of its ultimate benefit to' humanity. The one central fact recently brought home to British readers by unprejudiced investigators is the odious character of the Soviet dictatorship. "All real power," says Mr Russell, "is in the hands of tho Communist Party, which numbers about 600,000 iii a population of about 120 millions." Such a condition of things is almost unbelievable, and could only be tolerated by an uneducated and docile people. The suppression of free speech and the press are in the present circumstances necessary to the continuation of the Soviet Government. , The 'ruling party has no scruples about defeating its rivals by devious means, and the peasants are merely pawns which are not even counted in the game of dictatorship. " When a Communist speaks of dictatorship he means the word literally, but when he speaks, of the proletariat, he means the words in a Pickwickian sense. He, means the 'ciassconscious' part of the proletariat—i.e., the Communist Party. He includes people by 110 means proletarian (such as Lenin and Tchicherin. who have the right opinions), and he excludes such wage-earners as have not the right opinions, whom he classifies as lackevs of the bourgeoisie." Mr Russell believes that a dictatorship devoid of pretence is likely to ultimately evolve in Russia. "In political theory," he says, "it is necessary to take account of what may be called psychological dynamics—l mean the changes in men's aims and beliefs that are brought about b\ changed circumstances. Almost all men, when they have acquired the habit of wielding great power, find it so delightful that they cannot voluntarily abandon it. If they are men who were originally disinterested, they will persuade themselves that their power is still necessary in the public interest; but, whether with or without selfdeception, they will cling to power until they are dispossessed by force. This is bound to happen to the Communist minority when, as in Russia, it acquires a military dictatorship originally intended to be temporary. Given a few energetic and able men who have a great empire and a great army to play with, it is psychologically all" but certain that they will find some excuse for not sharing their power more than they can help. And those who have most power always can, if they choose, also have most wealth. Sooner or latei they will so choose, and the expected gains of Communism will be lost." Lenin is the world's supreme egotist labouring under the delusion that what he thinks is good for Russia must also be good for the rest of the world. "When I suggested," writes Mr Russell, "that whatever is possible in England can be achieved without bloodshed, he waved aside the suggestion as fantastic." Quite so! And yet some benighted folk who should know <?omething of British history and tradition advocate the adoption of the Soviet system for a British people. It is prescribed as a dictatorship of ,the proletariat, and doubtless they visualise themselves as the dictators with the obedient majority carrying out the decrees of the chosen. Such a travesty of Dejnocracy might work in Russia where the masses have only known Czarism, but in any land where freedom has slowly broadened down and liberty is counted as more priceless than, compulsory decrees Sovietism is not likely to find congenial soil. The more Bolshevism is investigated by men who will seek the truth and, finding it, will express it, the more unsuitable it will be found for British conditions. In the meantime it is worth remembering, on .Mr Russell's authority, "the Soviet system is moribund " and that the Bolshevists rule with the assistance of a brutal police, many members of which force performed similar duty under tTie Czar.