21 AUGUST 1920, Page 3

" You may hate the word Bolshevik,' " Mr. Lansbury

goes on, " curse the Soviets as you will, but they nevertheless stand four-square for the only principle which will redeem and save mankind. . . . In Moscow thay have dared all, sacrificed all, in a mighty effort to transform slavery to freedom." We do not say that there used to be freedom in Russia, because obviously there was not, but there is certainly slavery now—the very form of industrial conscription which Mr. Lansbury preached against during the war with all his might. And what has been " sacrificed " at Moscow ? All the ideals, precious to British working men, of a good standard of living, and a countless number of innocent lives—the lives of persons whose only fault was that they disliked Bolshevism.