BRITAIN AND RUSSIA

Otago Witness, Issue 3612, 5 June 1923, Page 23

BRITAIN AND RUSSIA

MR LLOYD GEOROE’S VIEWS. SOVIET COME TO STAY. [The following and all of Mr Lloyd George 3 articles are copyright by the United Press Association in America (all countries), copyright in Australia and New Zealand by the Australian Press Association, copyright in Great Britain by the Daily Chronicle. Beproduction in full or part is prohibited.] LONDON, June 1. Mr Lloyd George in his latest article writes :—- “1 am frankly delighted that the negotiations between Lord Curzon and the Soviet seem to indicate a genuine desire to establish a more satisfactory understanding between this country and Russia. The Bolshevist episode, like all revolutionary terrors, has been a shrieking nightmare which made the world shudder. It did render one supreme service to civilisation in bringing terrified democracy bark into sanity at a time when the nervous excitability following on the war was bordering on mental instability. In our attitude towards the Soviet, however, we must constantly tear in mind one consideration. What matters to us is not so much the Russian Government as the people of Russia, and for the moment the Bolshevist Administration constitutes the only medium of dealing with that nrightv nation. As long as it remains the 5 constituted authority in Russia every act of hostility against'it injures Russia, You cannot refuse to trade with it now without depriving the people of the commodities which are essential to their wellbeing. The people will suffer, and they ultimately will resent that suffering. Governments come and go, but the nation goes on for ever. “The Russian people deserve, especially at the hands of the Allies, every sympathetic consideration that can be extended to them. Those who denounce dealings with the existing order seem to have persuaded themselves that [irerevolutionary Russia was governed by a gentle, beneficent despotism, which conferred the blessings of a tolerant, kindly fatherhood upon a well-ruled household. In no particular is this a- true picture of THE ANCIENT REGIME. “The fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul was not erected, nor its dungeons dug by the Bolshevists. Siberia was not set up as a penal settlement for political offenders by the Bolshevists. In 1906 about 45,000 politicals were deported to endure the severities of Siberia. The persecution of the suspected religious leaders was not started by the Soviet. To them does not belong the discredit for initiating pogromism. Let us not forget that the revolution was rendered inevitable by the ineptitude and CORRUPTION OF THE OLD sv-v<-especially by terrible sufferings and humiliation which this state of things inflicted on Russia in the Great War. “M. Paleolugue, in his ‘Memoirs of an Ambassador,’ tells the story how a gallant army found itself at a critical hour without ammunition, rifles, or transport,

and often without food. No braver or more devoted men ever fought for their country than the young peasants who made the Russian armies in 1914 16. Vv ith little, and often no, artillery support they faced, without faltering, the best equipped heavy artillery in the world. There was nothing in the war compared to the TRUSTFUL HEROISM of these poor peasants. We know why there were no shells, rifles, or wagons. The wholesale corruption of the old regime has been fully exposed to the world by irrefutable documentary evidence. The Grand Duke Sergius (Inspec-tor-general of Artillery) said to the French Ambassador: ‘When I think that this exhibition of impotence is all cur aristocratic system has to show it makes me want to he a Republican.’ When the Grand Duke talked like that in the early days of 1915, what must the peasant soldier have thought by the spring of 1917 after millions of his comrades had been slaughtered as a result of the same exhibition of impotence? 1 recall one statement made to our general on the Russian front. When on anxiously inquiring as to gigantic losses which filled him with dismay as well as with horror, the usual reply was: ‘Don’t worry yourself. Thank God that of men at all events we have enough,’ an answer which sends a thrill of horror through you when you read it. That is why at the end of two and a-half years the patient men in the field mutinied. The Little Father had failed them. His minions had betrayed them. It is a sordid, horrid tale of peculation, maladministration, and cruel treachery. Millions of British and French money went to shameless, open bribery, whilst soldiers were exposing bare breasts covering brave hearts to the most terrible artillery in the world. There were honourable, upright men who did their duty, but they were helpless in the torrent of corruption. ‘‘lt is not pleasant to recall these DREADFUL EPISODES, but the story is essential to obtain right appreciation of the events. There is °no savagery like that of a trustful people whit l finds its trust imposed upon, the retribution being hideous in all its aspects, but the provocation was also revolting from every point of view. To judge Russia fairly that must be taken into account. I think the Government, therefore, is taking the right view in opening negotiations with the Soviet. You can easily evoke resounding cheers amongst the thoughtless by declaring melodramatically that you will never shake hands with murder. In practice, this policy has always been a failure. French Bolshevism was not defeated by foreign armies, nor starved bv the British blockade, but it was driven into the arms of Napoleon, and Europe suffered bitterly for the folly of the hotheads on both sides. “If you decline to treat with Russia as long as present rulers remain in power, then you ought to place Turkey in the same category. The military junta governing Turkey ‘has been guilty' of atrocities at least as vile as any committed by the Bolshevists, but at Lausanne we ostentatiously stretched out Great Britain’s friendly hand to the authors of THE ARMENIAN MASSACRES. ‘‘France, Italy, and America tendered the same warm handshake. I am not criticising the offer of amity made as a condition of peace. We must make peace in the world, and you cannot c.o it it you put whole nations off your visiting list because of the misconduct of those who govern them. Once you begin you are not quite sure where it will end. Refusal to trade with Russia, would not deprive the Soviet Commissaries of a single necessity or comfort of life, but the peasants who are not Communists would suffer, and the people in this country who need Russian produce would suffer. To some extent America can afford this exalted aloofness. She does not need Russian grain or timber, but we cannot do as well without them. We also sadly need Russian flax for our linen industries, which are languishing without it, but above and beyond all these material considerations ’ THE WORLD NEEDS PEACE. It is time we made up our minds that the SOVIET HAS COME TO STAY, whether we like it or not, and that one or other of the formidable men w'ho rule Russia is likely to rule it for some time to come. The sooner we have the courage to recognise this fact the sooner will real peace be established.”