We have received two examples of what may be called
indirect Bolshevik propaganda from Messrs. George Allen and Unwin (2s. 6d. net each)—Bolshevism at Work, by W. T. Goode, who, it seems, is Principal of Graystoke Place Training College, and The Russian Republic, by Colonel Malone, R.A.F., who, oddly enough, was returned at the General Election as a Coalition Liberal. A comparison of the books shows that the authors were treated to a course of Bolshevik lectures and were allowed to see, in and near Moscow, just as much as the Bolsheviks thought good for them. As evidence of the real situation the books have little value. Colonel Malone is the less biassed of the two ; Mr. Goode was clearly disposed before ho went to admire all that the Bolsheviks had done or proposed to do. It may be noted, hoWever, that even
if, as Mr. Goode thinks, Lenin has created an ideal State, it is a despotism. Mr. Goode admits that two-thirds of the peasants are hostile, that the town workmen are forbidden to strike and do not control their industries, and that the new Colleges of which he speaks with enthusiasm are largely devoted to the special training of Communist agitators. We do not deny that a despotism, like that of Prussia, may confer material benefits upon a nation against its will. But we cannot under- stand how the " proletariat " gains by exchanging one despot for another.
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