In the Daily Herald of Friday week Mr. Lansbury developed
his explanations about his dealings with the Russian Bolsheviks, A more unintelligible statement about a transaction oapable of being treated with a straightforward yea or nay we have never read. Mr. Lansbury had already admitted that he had nego- tiated with the Russians to buy paper. .He defended that action on the ground that Russia has plenty of materials for paper-making, and that he had in the ordinary way of business a perfect.right to deal with any country he liked. So far as it goes, and particularly for an internationalist like Mr. Lansbury, that is a coherent line of argument. All the same, it leaves out of the question the fact that Mr. Lansbury, in placing.his fortunes in Russian hands, was prejudicing his judgment on all Russian affairs. He was, in fact, committing in an unusually bad form the very political sin which he is always charging against the capitalists.
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