Mr. Lloyd George wont on to say that he had
striven to make some arrangement with Russia, for her sake and for the sake of the world. The difficulty was to restore confidence in Russia as a basis of credit. He declared that the French Revolution had been " accompanied by a wholesale confiscation of the land of France without compensation "—an assertion to which historians will strongly - demur—and suggested that the Bol- sheviks were no worse in this respect than the •men of /789, since " the conservatism of France to-day is rooted in confisca- tion." France, however, did not seek credits as the Bolsheviks were doing. The Allies had rejected the absurd Bolshevik claims upon them for the damage done in the civil war, but had agreed to wipe out part of the War loans made to Russia before March, 1917. Belgium, however, objected to a draft agreement, prepared by British, French and Belgian experts, dealing with compensation for foreign properties confiscated by the Bolsheviks. This mattered little, as the Bolsheviks would not have it. They knew that all property in Russia was not nationalized ; ninety-five per cent. of it was land, which belonged to the peasants. But their theorists, excited by May Day demonstrations, " nailed their flag to that barren tree of Com- munism under which multitudes are dying of pestilence," and professed that confiscation was " the sacred doctrine of the Revolution."
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