MR. LLOYD GEORGE AND THE BOLSHEVIKS. ITo THE EDITOR Or
THE " SPECTATOR."] Sts, What Mr. Lloyd George can gain by negotiating with the Russian Soviet Government is very difficult to see! What they want to get is easy to see. They want to strengthen their power in Russia and obtain, if possible, large credits or, better still, a big loan, which they would, there is no doubt, spend on Bolshevik propaganda and military preparations to be used in supporting Germany or in attacking their other neigh- bours. Our Prime Minister's policy of opportunism, always yielding to aggression if it is troublesome and strong enough and persistent enough, with but little regard for what is right or wrong—or for the future—has worked very badly in Ireland and has made Great Britain impotent there and impotent in dealing with the unspeakable Kemalist Turks, and is en- couraging the Bolshevik Russian Government in their impudent demands—and incidentally encouraging Bolsheviks in England, Scotland, and India. It has meant, by a timorous and cowardly breach of sacred obligations to the Armenians. handing oveg
the unfortunate Christians of the Turkish Empire to starvation and massacre.
ll'he provocations by President Kruger for which we entered into the South African War were very small: and insignificant compared with the wrongs and insults now being inflicted upon us by the Irish----and by the Turks and Russians—and the out- rages that are being committed on our countrymen and loyalists in Ireland. We have great reason for thankfulness that France, Belgium, and the United States are more far-seeing than we are and refuse to follow Mr. Lloyd George's dangerous overtures to the Soviets, by which nothing but evil can result to our Empire or. to Europe. It is incontrovertible that France, Belgium, and the United States are right, and I venture to assert that most of us in Great Britain , agree with them.
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