26 JANUARY 1924, Page 3

The Daily Herald has described Lenin as the best friend

the working-classes have ever had. He was, of course, one of the very worst friends. Human life was accounted as nothing by this maniac of theories. He caused the execution of hundreds of thousands of men and women. He was really a reactionary, for he insisted on the plenary inspiration of Marxism, which most educated Labour leaders here and in Europe have aban- doned. He treated democracy, personal liberty and religion with contempt. He believed in revolution for its own sake, and to his mind Russia had better remain in iso- lation than deal with nations that were tainted with any tinge of capitalism or the bourgeois spirit.