It was most refreshing to hear comrade X. and comrade
Y. at the Economic Conference explaining how we had only to take a dose of Communism to put everything right. The only drawback was that before' we could obtain a ticket of entry for the Bolshevist asylum we should have had to leave what bank balances we possessed on the doorstep of that desirable institution. And this oddly enough did not appeal to the nations which considered that the Bolshevists had already done enough plundering in their own hen-roosts. But after all, the Bolsheviks learned something at the Economic Con- ference ; if only that the rest of Europe is not completely down and out. They talked a good deal of nonsense, but they went home -wiser than when they came, and, let it be noted, less truculent. Their visit to Geneva did no harm ; indeed, it may be said to have done some good ; for the other nations learnt that the Bolsheviks were not after all such terrible people, while they learned something useful about our mentality. The League of Nations has not quite made up its mind whether it wants to see them again ; but it will be well for us all to hear what they have to say about disarmament. For if Europe is to get on with this business, it is very im- portant that it should know what the biggest of its States is going to do. Naturally the Baltic States and Poland and Rumania are nervous when they catch the echo of speeches from Moscow, and wonder whether the Red Army is not some day coming over the borders to give practical application to all the talk about world revolution. They have declared quite positively that they cannot be expected to reduce their armaments unless Russia does the same.
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