3 JULY 1926, Page 6

The Russian debate in the House of Commons on Friday,

June 25th, revealed very little that was new. The Russians always behave in the same preposterous and futile way and their behaviour causes the same division here as before. The only innovations that we can see in the Russian propaganda are changes in the ridiculous phraseology. A couple of years ago the Comintern was talking about founding " cells " in the British services and industries ; now- it talks of founding "nuclei." What Jim Pinkerton would have called a " boss word" is "Agitprop "—a portmanteau title -for the organization conducting Agitation and Propaganda. The White Book on which the debate was based, and which contained facsimiles of some of the Russian correspondence, shows that Moscow clings to the old belief that British wage-earners can be seduced, and must be if the world-revolution is to come. The Russian propagandists seem to have more money to spend than humour to use and until they reverse their endowments they will not make very much impression upon the British mind. * *