Pandit Nehru on Russia
Salutary as President Roosevelt's characterisation of pro. Soviet enthusiasts is, many of them no doubt write him of in advance as a capitalist reactionary. To them an assess- ment from another quarter may be commended with SOU confidence. In an article, quoted in the Manchester Guardian of February 8th, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the Indian Congress leader, admits with laudable candour the disillusionment in which progressive forces everywhere have been plunged, now that Soviet Russia, " their symbol of hope and fulfilment, had descended from the pedestal on which her ardent friends had placed her, and bartered away her moral prestige and the friendship of so many of her friends for seeming political advantage." " There are those," adds the Indian leader most pertinently, " who have made it their creed to defend every activity of the Soviet Government and consider it heresy or lese-maiesti for anyone to criticise or condemn any such activity. That is the way of blind faith, which has nothing to do with reason." That could hardly be better said. Some sound sense of the same order will be found in a review by Dr. Gilbert Murray of two books on war aims and peace aims on p. 219 of this issue.
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