Trust Russia 179 



" As we stand to-day," sums up the editor of Current 

 Opinion in his heading to what Count Ilya Tolstoy has to 

 tells us, " it is daily becoming more apparent that Russia 

 under the Bolsheviki, is not to be allowed to govern itself 

 by a parliamentary assembly representing a majority of 

 the people, nor is the minority of non-land workers to 

 have lot or part in the administration. The early days of 

 the French Revolution developed no more positively a 

 Reign of Terror than Bolshevism has done. Count 

 Tolstoy's article is a clear call lor American aid, moral 

 rather than material, which, we are assured, will yield an 

 incalculable dividend of gratitude to the oldest from 

 the youngest democracy for which the world is being made 

 safe." 



Colonel Roosevelt must have foreseen the possibility of 

 what has happened when he warned Russia, through his 

 letter to Count Ilya not to " run riot and commit excesses" 

 as they have done, but since what is — is, it is as much to 

 the interest of America as of France and ourselves to do 

 all we can to counteract the evil influence and example of 

 the Bolsheviki, and to give the constitution-believing social 

 revolutionaries a chance of asserting themselves under 

 men of the Chernov and Miliukoff type. 



Come what will, Russia must before long be receiving 

 the railways and transport facilities that she so long has 

 lacked but of which she has stood so seriously in need. 

 She will further need and receive, thousands and even 

 millions of pounds worth of agricultural machinery and of 

 other goods which she cannot supply herself, and they will 

 be poured into her distributing centres as soon as the 

 transport routes are open, to be utilized in expanding her 

 agricultural and other industries which have been brought 

 to their present level of perfection, thanks to the milliards 

 of money that France and, in a lesser degree, her Allies 

 have lent Russia as we lent to Latin America to help 

 develop her latent resources. In both cases Germany has 

 reaped the bulk of the profits arising out of this increased 

 trade. Are we going to allow this to continue to a far 

 greater degree after the War than was the case previous 

 to July, 1914 — surely not ? 



All the same as things stand at present, and unless we 

 drive Prussia's and the Germanic domination out of Russia, 

 all these magnificent orders will go to Russia through 

 Germany unless the Allies including America can induce 

 their people to boycott Germany commercially after peace 

 is declared. But if America backs us up commercially as 



