THE NAME BOLSHEVIK

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 74, 21 December 1918, Page 8

THE NAME BOLSHEVIK

Sir,—Of late the term Bolshevik has been now and again somewhat loosely applied to the extremists of the New Zealand labour Party, and in calmer moments one has perhaps entertained n doubt whether sufficient justification existed for the use, in this country, of so opprobious and sinister a designation. However, it would seem thai in the caso of one at nnrrnte of our most assertive Labour-Socialists no such scruple need have been felt. By his..own statement this Labour leader accepts the name, accepts it with satisfaction «s being that of the Socialist Party that "over and above all Socialist parties in the world stands true to working-class principles," and haa "created the keenest democracy that has over been established in the world."

Now, Sir, as far as most of us are aware, Bolshevism, ae a term, first came into being in Russia wifh or shortly after her revolution. The "workingclass principles" it has put into practice there are not so new; they have found expression at other times in the world's history. A comparatively insipid instance is Hie French Devolution, when democracy had not attained the degree of "keenness" we now see in operation. But what is a novelty and incidentally a shock is to discover that the present state of affairs in Russia, mercifully the only country so far where Bolshevism holds sway, is to be regarded as the carrying out of "working-class principles."

Iβ New Zealand Labour going to eit down calmly under the imputation that wholesale murder and rapine, the abolition of all religion and iaw, flic stoppage of all industry with resulting staryatioi: and misery, in fact, anarchy in its most hideous form, is to be accepted .is displaying to an admiring world the rise to triumph of "working-class principles"? ,

I think the majority of New Zealanders whether in the ranks of Labour or otherwise will deeply resent tho insult implied in such an assumption.—l am, etc., PATRIOT.