RED RUSSIA

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, Issue 18084, 2 June 1923, Page 9

RED RUSSIA

And Mr Lloyd George EX-PREMIER’S ROLE. “ Frankly Delighted at Peace Prospect.” To-day we pubiisli tho best article Mr Lloyd George has cabled. The British statesman presents an entirely now view of Russia; and is frankly sympathetic to the peasants who fought for the old regime of Aristocracy. Stephen Graham, the traveller, best describes the loyal Russian peasant, faithful to his little father, the Czar, until the corruption of the autooracy opened his loyal eyes. “He was of a Guards Regiment ... he called himself a Gosudarstvenny, , or Stats peasant, indicating that his family had not been serfs. It was the ’burgui’, he thought, who had brought revolution to Russial If wo had been at Petrograd, it could not have happened. The Germans told us of the Revolution, and we wept, and the officers wept with us! He was still iGyal; his eyes glistened, and he professed unending devotion to tho Czar.” Mr Lloyd George tells of the antecedents of the Revolution in his most enthralling style. BY CABLE—DRESS ASSN.—COPYRIGHT (Received 9 p.m., June 1.) LONDON.

I AM frankly delighted that negotiations between Lord Curzon and tho 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. Ic terrified democracy back into sanity at a time when nervous excitability following on the war was bordering o. ( mental instability. In our attitude towards the Soviet, Jmwever, we must consantly bear in, n&d one consideration. What matte# to us is not so much the Russian Government as tho people of Russia, and for the moment tho Bolshevist administration constitutes the only medium for dealing with that mighty nation. As long as it remains the constituted authority in Russia, every act of hostility against it injures Russia. You cannot refuse trade with it now without depriving the people of commodities essential to their well-being. The people will suffer, and they ultimately will resent that suffering. Governments come and go but a nation goes on for ever. The Russian people deserve, especially at the hands of the Allies, every sympathetic consideration- that can he extended to them. Those who denounce dealings with the existing order seein to have persuaded themselves that pre-revolutionary Russia was governed by a gentle and beneficent despotism which conferred the blessings of tolerant and kindly fatherhood upon a well ruled household.

In no particular is this a true picture of the ancient regime. Tlie fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul was not erected nor its dungeons dug by Bolshevists; Siberia was not set up as a penal settlement for political offenders by Bolshevists. HORRORS OF SIBERIA. In 1906 about forty-five thousand politicals were deported to endure the severities of Siberia. The persecution of suspected religions leaders was not started by the Soviet. To them does not belong discredit foi’ initiating pogromism. Let us not forget that the revolution was rendered inevitable by the ineptitude and corruption of the old system, especially by tho terrible sufferings and humiliation which this state of tilings inflicted on Russia in the Great War.

Palcolugue, in his Memoirs of an Ambassador, tells a 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 honntry than the young peasants who made tlie Russian armies in 1914-16, with little and often no artillery support.

A BRAVE BAND. They faced vilhout faltering tho best equipped heavy artillery in tho world. There was nothing in iho war comparable to the (rusiful heroism of these poor pea sail Is. We know why there were no she!!:, rifles, or waggons. r !'he wholesale corruption ol the old regime has hoen fully exposed to the world by irrolutnblc documentary evidence. The Grand Duke

Sergius. Inspector General of Artillery said to the French Ambassador. “When T think that this exhibition of impotence is all our aristocratic system iyis to show, it makes me want to be a republican.” When a. Grand Duke talked lilts that. in the early days <>( dOld "hat must the peasant soldier have though by the spring of 1017. afler millions of his comrades bed boon slnmddovod ~s a. result of the same exhibition of impotence 0 I recall one slalenient made to our genera! on the Russian front when on anx;ionslv inquirim-: as lo Ibe giganlic losses which rilled him with dismay as well as horror the usual repb “Don't worry yourself. Thank God. men, at all events, wo have enough, j A TErmißi-E ANSWER? j An. answer which sends a thrill o. horror through you when you road it That is why at the end of two and a half vears, patient men in Iho hold mutinied. The Little Father had lulled them; his minions had betrayed thorn. It is u sordid, horrid, tale of peculation, J maladministration, and cruel treachery. Millions of British and French money went lo shameless and open bribery, whilsi soldiers were opposing bare breasls. covering bravo j Pear!.-', lo the most terrible nrldlerx p.' t -y. Drill . Thmo were honourable apriyh! men who did Ibeir duty, but they were helpless in the toiicnt oi

corruption. It is not pieasanr to recall these dreadful episodes, but the story is essential to the right appreciation of events. There is no savagery like that of a. trustful people finding its trust imposed upon. Retribution is hideous in all its aspects, but provocation is also revolting from every point of view. JUDGE FAIRLY. 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 i resounding ' cheers amongst the j thoughtless by declaring melodrama- ! tically that you will never shake | hands with a murderer. In practice, ; this policy has always been a failure, j French Bolshevism was not defeated I by foreign armies, nor starved by British blockade, but was driven into the arms of Napoleon and Europe suffered bitterly for the folly of 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 samecategory. The military junta governing Turkey has been guilty of atroci- , ties at least as vile as any committed by the Bolshevists, but at Lausanne we ostentatiously stretched out Britain’s friendly hand to the authors of 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 do it if 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 ic will end. Refusal to trade with Russia would not deprive the Soviet ( Commissaries of a single necessity, c. j coni fort 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 and timber, but we cannot do as well without them. We also sadly need Russian flax for our linen industries which am 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 wte like it |or not, and that one or other of the : formidable men who rule Russia is likely to rule it for some time to come. The sooner we have the courage lo recognise this fact, the sooner will real peace be established.—=-A. and N.Z. (Special Copyright.)