HOW GERMANY CHOSE LENIN

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 169, 11 April 1919, Page 8

HOW GERMANY CHOSE LENIN

THE BIRTH OF BOLSHEVISM. ("Times" Correspondent.) Washington, February 18. Tlio committee of the Senate investigating Bolshevism has been occupied since Saturday in recording the testimony of Mr. Roger E. Simmons, a former representative in Russia ot the Department of Commerce, who left Archangel last November. Mr. Simmons uescriiieit iu dramatic detail the manner m which men and women of gentle breeding were eonscribed by the isolsheviki tor Uie hardest kind of manual labuur. The Bolsheviki called this nysteni "tho levelling of intelligence." Under the regulations for tho "levelling of intelligence/' lie said, persons wlio were tnouglii to have niore intelligence than was considered healthy for the cause Lenin and Trotsky lave been arrested and thrown into prison, uml in numerous eases put to death. Air. Simmons declared the well-founded belief that all the terrorism reigning in Russia has been investigated officially by Germany, and proceeded,— "The fact I am now about to disclose has never appeared in tho Press. My informant is a mau who noted for Herr von Bethuiann-Hollweg, ex-liuperiat Chancellor of Germany. His story was told uiuter oath in iiie office oi tlio American Consul-Goneral at Moscow. In 1914, when the war started, this man was in Germany. He was a ltussian and a Socialist. Tho Germans would not permit liim to leave tho country. Ho was a conservative Socialist, one who advocated evolution instead ot revolution. One day lie was approached by an agent of tho German Government, who said that tho Imperial Chancellor desired to see him. When he saw the Chancellor he was informed that tho Imperial Government were desirous that he should go to Switzerland to study and report to the_ Chancellor regarding tho various Socialist group 3 malciug their headguarters there. The German Government, he was told, particuladly required information regaruiug tue most radical of these groups, and was ready to place .£250,000 at the disposal of a suitable group in ordor that it might send its agents to Kussia lor propaganda work. The man went to Switzerland and prepared a report extending to 300 pages, which stated that the group led by Lenin was the most radical, but recommended that it should not bo selected, because certain chaos and anarchy would follow in Kussia if it gained the upper hand. The man was commended by the German Government, and allowed to return to Kussia, where he associated lliint;elf with M. Kerensky. Subsequently Lenin lelt Switzerland, and under German protection entered Kiusia." llr. Simmons declared his conviction that if the Allied troops evacuated North Kussia (i general massacre of the iniiabilunts in the territory vacated would immediately ensue on orders from the Bolsheviki Government. Dr. Baruardo's Homes have received a telegram front Mesopotamia stating that tho 15th Division collected .£260 as a Christmas gift.