The debate in the House of Commons on Russian inter-
ference will take place after we have gone to press, but we have written elsewhere some general thoughts on the subject. Lord Birkenhead and Mr. Churchill—par- ticularly Mr. Churchill—are credited with a very re- luctant consent to the Government policy of not breaking off relations with Russia, and certainly their speeches last Saturday fit in with the reports about their dis= pleasure. Mr. Churchill's speech, indeed, went beyond the limits prescribed by the doctrine of the collective responsibility of a Cabinet. Meanwhile we read in the Manchester Guardian a curious assortment of abusive Russian comments on British Labour leaders. The general sense of the comments is that cowardice, treachery and a miserable opportunism prevented the general strike from succeeding. Mr. Purcell, who not long ago was feted and extolled in Russia, comes in for especially severe treat- ,ment. Zinovieff describes Mr. J. H. Thomas as a " royal lackey," and as " Judas," and Mr. Ramsay MacDonald as an " official arch-traitor," and so on.
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