Mr. Lloyd George declared that Russia must recognize her national
obligations, though she could not pay at once, and must restore the property of Allied subjects or compensate them. She must set up impartial tribunals. She must cease to attack the institutions of other countries or to threaten her neighbours. Mr. Lloyd George professed to believe that Lenin, in a speech of November last, had virtually abandoned the Marxian faith, though Lenin has since retracted, at least in part. If the Bolsheviks really meant to respect private property and to pay their debts we could deal with them. If we recog- nized them, they would have to undergo a period of probation. Some of the more important clauses of the Trade Agreement had, he admitted, been violated, especially in regard to Bolshevik propaganda. We should gain little for some time to come if we did recognize the Bolsheviks, but we could not afford to wait any longer for them to collapse. The recent by-elections had shown successes for the Labour Party, which was more eager than the Coalition was to come to terms with Moscow. French and British critics who opposed the Coalition's Russian policy because it went too far should remember that a Labour Government would go much farther.
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