31 JULY 1926, Page 3

The death of the fanatical and blood-stained Dzerzhinski has been

followed in Russia by the expulsion of Zinovieff from his offices. There seems to be a mystery about Dzerzhinski's death, and it is said that he had lost his political faith and foretold disasters for Moscow. Zinovieff is still chairman of the Communist International, but according to the Times correspondent at Riga will be expelled from that too. It is useless to offer comments on the internal difficulties of Muscovite politics, but we may say that changes of personnel can hardly be for the worse. We have always held that more intercourse with other nations, official and commercial, will be the means to humanize relations, but we have had to admit that the conduct of the men in power there has put every difficulty in the way of reasonable intercourse. We can only hope that each change will make it less impossible to enlarge the intercourse.

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