A TRAITOR'S DEATH

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 296, 3 September 1918, Page 4

A TRAITOR'S DEATH

It is impossible to say what effect the assassination of Lenin will have on tho Russian situation, because no on© knows exactly what the Russian situation is. As a matter of fact there is really.no situation. What oxists in Russia is a. state of utter chaos,' which changes from day to day, while every chango seems to make the confusion worse confounded. Sensation follows sensation so quickly that our EcnEC of wonder has been blunted, and nothing in that mad welter can now surprise us. There is no visible

logic in Russian events. Things just happen. A return to order and sanity must eventually come if tho country is not to bleed to death, but tho dawn of the now and better day tarries long. Tho organisation of tho Czecho-Slovaks and the tentative steps that have been taken in Allied intervention may reasonably be regarded as tho first streak of light, but whether that streak will broaden into full day remains to be seen. Lenin was supposed to bo the brain of the Bolshevist regime. It is, therefore, not irrational to assume that his tragic removal from the tumultuous scene will woakon the Bolshevists and assist the efforts of those who are striving to ro-ostab-

ish stable government. Lenin was i tyrant and a traitor. H<y alowed himself to Iμ used by the memies of, Russia as an instrument 'or the dismemberment of his own xrantry. Ho was largely responible for tho indescribable reign o! error which now prevails. Friends if democracy in various parts oi ihe world wcro at first inclined tc lelieve that Lenin's intentions were ;ood: that he was honestly striving o help the Russian peoplo in theii vild groping towards self-govern-nent. As time went on it became rery difficult to reconcile this beliei vith facts; yet some peoplo oonjniiod to hope against hope. Bui jventually every rational ground for "aith in Lenin's patriotism was legatived by the course of events, md for months past ho stood before ;he world as the betrayer of hit country and the- chief ag_cnt oi 3erman domination in Russia. The idea that he exercised his dictator' ship in the interests of the prolejiinafc has become too palpably false to deceive any intelligent person, Keiiensky completely shattered it ir the address he delivered at the La-

bour Party Conference , in London. Kerensky's own position may be somewhat enigmatical, but ho ought to understand tho Russian Revolution as well as anyone can. In reply to those strang_c-mindcd folk who persist in thinking that Bolshevism is a form of democracy he pertinently asked how any sane man could call a regime democratic which dispersed tho Constituent Assembly, abolished freedom of speech, made human life tho easy prey of every Red Guardsman, destroyed liberty of olection even in the Councils of the Workmen, and destroyed all tho institutions of self-govern-ment that wcro elected by universal suffrage "If," said Kerensky, "this method of dealing with the population may bo considered democratic; then I may be permitted to ask what may bo the essence and tho characteristic features of genuine reaction?" It is not too much to say that in the namo of democracy Lenin and his traitorous colleagues deliberately murdered democracy in Russia. Assassination is an ugly thing. It is abhorrent to cvoryono who can appreciate the blessings of civilised government. But it is impossible to shed tears over the ■ death of a man whose treachery has wrecked his country and sacrificed tho lives andlibertios of his countrymen in obedience- to tho orders of a foreign despotism.