A DEBASED RUSSIA.

Taihape Daily Times, 28 November 1917, Page 4

A DEBASED RUSSIA.

The vagaries of the Lenin-Trotsky pack in Kussia areof so extreme a character that they cannot well be discussed, nor need they be taken much notice of. It is obvious that they are largely the result of Bolshevik poverty, and these Russian traitor servants of the Kaiser are hopeful of getting supplies of cash from Ger> many. It is unthinkable that men who confiscate every man's property, those who rob and plunder the thrifty workers of Russia, who have by their labours made Russia what she is, can persuade the people that brigandage, and thievery are the most desirable processes in the re-organisation of a system of Government. The opinions from Russia are largely in favour of a saner policy being adopted. It seems that further bloody struggle cannot be avoided; Kaledin, we are informed, is marching on Moscow with a large army to oust the Lenin-Trotsky outlaws and anarchists, and a message come from Kerensky states that the majority of Socialists are oppo~s"ed to the murdering brigand gang. Conflicting reports prevent any near understanding of what action Germany will decide upon with the murderous crowd she has set set loose among the Russian people. The Kaiser is willing, it seems, to make peace with any low scum at this stage of the war. What a change; there is nothing incompatible with the great autocratic war lord extending brotherly love to arch-anarchist murderers, for they are now an important element in the upholding of his authority. Before Russia can become quiet many changes have to take place, much has to be done and many more lives sacrificed. A regrettable feature in New Zealand is that a labour leader should so far forget what he-owes as a Briton, as a leader of British Empire Labour, as to give addresses to audiences in Wellngton, belauding, praising and beslobbering such murderous hounds as Lenin and Trotsky. To hold these Russian brigands up as saints; as men whose actions are worthy of being copied and emulated, seems to us to be sedition of the worst type. Surely, the efforts of labour to reach its just place, in the community and to acquire that share of the profits of production which is labours due by all rules of justice, do not need to be associated with murder, confiscation, robbery, and all the crimes on the criminal calender. If not, why permit appeals to the worsE and foulest passions, as is being done by a man who holds Lenin and Trotsky up as men to be emulated, those traitors of an indescribable class with treachery oozing out of every pore in their foul, traitorous bodies. May God save our Empire from the labour leaders who hold up Lenin and Trotsky as men whose actions are worthy of being copied, men with propensities and proclivities so debased that, in the name of labour or socialism, they would sell their fellows into German bondage, and would go to any of confiscation and murder in so doing. If holding such men up as worthy of being copied by New Zealand labour is not sedition, we have a wider understanding of the word than our Department of Justice has.