THE TERRORISTS’ PLAYGROUND.

Hokitika Guardian, 5 September 1927, Page 1

THE TERRORISTS’ PLAYGROUND.

RUSSIA’S THOUSAND YEARS. (By SIR SIDNEY LOW, in the London “Daily Mail”.) The Soviet Government was bom and nurtured in bloodshed and established by massacre. It: has gone back to its old work again, as it generally does when it feels its position shaken. The suppression of Arcos in Great Britain and the measures taken against Red “ diplomatic missions ” here and elsewhere have been a nasty rebuff to the Cominissary of the U.S.S.R. and have given some encouragement to the prevailing

discontent in Russia. Abroad, the Soviet can only utter threats and emit impertinences. At home, it can act more brutally. It can ■set its horrible Cheka to ferret out the names of persons suspected of antiBolshevik tendencies and shoot them like dogs.

It is a savage hint that every Russian holds his life at the mercy of the Red Gang. Let him cringe and crawl before them, or death, swift and sudden, may be his lot. So it has been in Russia since 1917. St> it is still, and so it may be for an indefinite period. Foreigners ask in amazement why on earth the Russians endure this murderous oppression. The Soviet never represented more than a. handful of the population. Lenin began the revolution with two thousand adherents. Even now there are probably not more than two hundred thousand convinced Communists, excluding officials and servants of the Soviet Government. Why should n nation of 130 millions allow itself to be cowed and bullied by this ruffianly clique and sub-1 mil to their shocking atrocities? The answer is. Because they are Russians. Trotsky, in the hook ho wrote about tho Terror, admitted openly that the revolution was made by an insignificant minority which coerced the rest into acquiescence by unshrinking violence. lie recommended the expedient to the proletariat agitators in other countries. By this means, and by it alone, could the self-chosen lenders of the “ people ” beat down the opposition of the capitalists, the bourgeoisie, and the law-abiding masses. Trotsky’s prescription will not act with Western and civilised communities. The Terror has been tried among them from time to time and invariably failed. It bad its longest run in France after the Revolution, only to ho stamped out when the French awakened to the real meaning of rule by the guillotine and the Paris mobs.

Englishmen. Frenchmen, Italians, Dutchmen, Spaniards, and others are not good subjects for terrorism. The Communists were trying this method in Italy after the war and found themselves snuffed out by the Fnscismo and

Mussolini. In Hungary a gentleman of the right Moscow brand, who called himself Bela Ivun, kept up a good fleshly imitation, complete with murders. -of the Bolshevik system for a few months. The Hungarians, after a pause of amazement, roused themselves and packed off Bela and all bis crew. Trotsky misunderstands the psychology of a tlrilo European nation. He and bis friends may be right about the Russians, who are and always have been semi-Orientals, a great wedge of Asia thrust into Europe. The Asiatic has no rooted objection to Government by violence. Kinglake, the author of “ Eotlien,” said that some Eastern peoples seem to have a kind of respectful admiration for rulers who do them extreme and forcible injury. And the Russians have never been free men. Whatever may lie the truth about the Southern Slavs, the Slavonians of the great Sanitation Plain have lived in subjection for over a thousand years, since Rurik with a small hand of Norsemen and Swedes conquered the country and gave his name to it. Aftewnrds they accepted the yoke of the Tartars and then that of the C'zarist autocracy. AiT these regimes were based on force and cruelty. So when Lenin and his group seized the governmental machinery they found a nation trained to submission by centuries of tyranny, largely exercised by foreigners. Russia was a favourable country for the terrorist experiment. So far it has proved efficacious: and now that the usurpers are in a panicky mood they resort to it again. Will they reassert their authority by fresh outbursts of murder and torture? Will Russia stand it? Perhaps ; for slaves can put up with an almost unlimited amount of oppression. Yet, one thinks, the breaking point must eventually be reached. Slaves will revolt when they ore driven too hard.