NOTES OF THE DAY
The story told in the news to-day of great preparations by the Russi3.ll Bolsheviki for .tlie military conquest .of Western Europe may be set down in part ,as imaginative. Fpr. instance, a, statement that there is ialrs&dy a Bolshevik army of a million men, and accoippanying suggestions that it is elaborately equipped ynfli .guns, aeroplanes, and other :material accessories of modem warfare, are decidedly unconvincing. A country reduced as B.olshevikji.ussia js to conditions of chaotic anarchy and a to the worst evils of want and famine is in no condition to organise and maintain an efficient army a. million strong, whatever it 1 may pos,sess in ihe way of predatory hordes. This, however, does not dispose of the jjact that -Bolshevism in Russia, as matters stand, offers a. definite menace to the , rest of Europe, and one there are np pbyipivs means at present of suppressing- Apparently the Allied Powers and America have abandoned all thought of military intervention in Russia on _ a big scale. The hope has not disappeared, however, that the Bolsneviki may be overthrown in civi) war with their own countrymen.
While the fate of the internal struggle in Russia remains in suspense there is an evident danger that Bolshevism may extend into other countries, and this danger is probably nowhere greater than in the case of countries like.Germany and Hungary. Little reliable information has been afforded for a long time past about internal conditions in "Hungary, but, l'jke the Germans, the Magyars are notably lacking in democratic instincts, and lent themselves, to all appearance quite willingly, to a policy of prefatory conquest. There is evident plausibility in the suggestion made in one of to-day's messages that the Germans and Magyars may prefer an alliance with Bolshevism to the acceptance of such peace: terms as are jn prospect. The possibility of such a development is evidently one against which the Allies are bound to safeguard themselves by every means jn tljeir power. The suggestion of an aggressive alliance between the Bolph.evjki and the nations whiph made tjie war may seem fantastic at present, but any serious descent by the Allied peoples from their , present standard of effective organisation might easily make the peril real.
The .complaint made by Clynes' that the British Government has failed to honour the Prime Minister's pledge that Labour would bs represented at the Peace Conference is probably made possible by the internal split in the Labour Party. Jjtii, G. N. Baunes, the well-known labour leader, is one of the British representatives at Versailles, and Mr. Lloyd George ■probably regards his inclusion in the delegation as a, fulfilment of the pledge to which Me. Olynes refers. Such a view would be not unreasonable, considering that Mr. Barnes was the accepted representative of Labour in the War Cabinet prior to the late election. He broke with the official Labour Party a few weeks before the election as a protest against the attitude of- a section of its leaders, but his own sweeping victory in Glasgow and the overwhelming success of the Coalition Government candidates in industrial constituencies suggest that he has still every tight to regard hinjself as representative of the Labour voters of the country. He may, however, be repudiated as the official representative of the ■party, and this would account for the position taken up by Mr. Clynes.
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Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 102, 24 January 1919, Page 4
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560NOTES OF THE DAY Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 102, 24 January 1919, Page 4
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