The Independent Labour Party Executive, who recently submitted a set
of questions to the Bolsheviks, are profoundly dissatisfied with the replies which they received. The Times published on Wednesday the I.L.P. comments on the " Third International," which deserve the attention of the moderate Labour men whom Mr. Smillie is trying to convert to Bolshevism. The I.L.P. asks British Socialists whether one section of Socialists is to dictate to all the rest, whether it is right to provoke civil war, to impose the will of a minority upon the majority, or to destroy Parliamentary institutions, and whether " Socialist fellowship " is consistent with violent abuse of all those who do not agree with the Communists. The I.L.P. comments on the " disingenuousness " and " narrow dogmatism " of the Bolsheviks and angrily repels their suggestion that the German Majority Socialists murdered Herr Liebknecht and that Mr. Henderson would do the same to, say, Mr. Smillie. If the I.L.P., which knows a good deal about the Bolsheviks, is appalled at their despotic temper, what would the sober British working man think of them if his leaders told him the plain truth ?
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