GENOA?
[To THE EDITOR Or THE " SPECTATOR."]
never disagree with you without diffidence and mis- givings, and only the strongest conviction leads me to question your verdict on the Genoa Conference. In the first place, I submit that your historical parallels are inexact. The Terror in France practically ended in 1794, though Fouquier Tinville was net executed till May, 1795. The Convention declared war upon us on February 1st, 1793, and Lord Malmesbury's abortive negotiations took place in 1796, by which time the Terrorist gang had been destroyed in obedience to the will of the French people. The preliminaries of Pitt's peace were signed in October, 1801, and Alison justly states that " The Government of the First .Consul, compared to any of the revolutionary ones which had preceded it, was stable and regular; the revolutionary fervour, the continuance of which had so long rendered any safe pacification out of the question, had exhausted itself and given place to a general and anxious disposition to submit, to the ruling authority."
The Russo-Judaic autocracy remains in full being, and the authors of murders and suffering infinitely greater in extent and atrocity than the achievements of Marat, Robespierre, and their accomplices propose to meet our Prime Minister at Genoa, and pretend to represent the Russian people who execrate them, but still live under the Terror.
Abdul Hamid was the de jure as well as the de facto ruler of Turkey. He might fairly be regarded, therefore, as repre- senting the Turks, who accepted him as Caliph. His massacres, as you point out, held the record in modern times till the " dictators of the proletariat" came upon the scene and reduced his performances to comparative insignificance. Moreover, though we did not break off relations with him, we never asked that he should send his functionaries to meet those of forty other nations in conference. I rejoice that you accept the many " arguments" against shaking hands " with callous and bloodstained murderers" as "serious"; but may I be permitted to emphasize some of them? There are now no obstacles to trade with Russia except that Russian produc- tion has almost ceased, and that the "Peasant and Workers' Soviet Republic " has no cash to spare after paying for the Red Army and for propaganda. As the necessary result of Marxian Communism, the production of coal since 1913 has dropped below 20 per cent., of timber to 5 per cent., and of cotton fabrics to 44 per cent. Agriculture has been ruined, and the great towns are largely depopulated. Nevertheless, the proportion of revenue spent on the Army and Navy is considerably larger than it was in 1913. You say most truly that " there is very little hope of trade in the immediate future," but there can be no hope of restoration until the wreckers have been cleared out. There are not now half a million Communists in Russia, and most of them are aliens. How can we dare to accept their delegates as representing the Russian people, numbering 130 millions?
You say that " Communism in Russia has shot its shaft, and people are laughing and saying what a bad shot it was It is true that the dictators of Russia have done their worst, but their influence is still far-reaching. Not long ago Finkelstein*, posing as a Russian, was the honoured guest of the Labour Conference at Leeds, where provisional Soviets were set up and a " Council of Action" was decided upon. Since then the "Commercial Mission" has been in full activity. Communists, permeating the Trade Unions, gave us the coal strike, from which we have not recovered and may
• Now apparently a delegate to the Conference.
never wholly recover. The present grave troubles in the%reat engineering industry are due to Communist intrigues. A "Council of Action" has spread murder and arson -en the Rand. Assuredly the Communist " shaft" has not yet spent its force.
The one thing certain about the Genoa Conference is that it will infallibly prolong the agony of Russia, and by the recog- nition—actual or implied—of the high priests of Communism it must add to the danger now menacing Christianity and civilization. A time will come when the great Slav nation will awake from this hideous nightmare of blood, starvation, filth, and disease. It will find its soul, which Lenin and Trotsky have laboured to destroy. It will fulfil its destiny in the world. When that time comes what will the Russian people feel towards the great Power which held out a hand to their• assassins? And what will be the moral effect upon mankind of
this cynical beau poste?—I am, Sir, &c., Sytwmilm.
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