The New York herald., 1920-01-26
BOLSHEVIST MENACE
IN NEAR EAST Barred
Steady Drift of Reds Toward Yellow
and Brown Peoples Seen as
Growing Peril.
BY WILLIAM r. ELLIS.

Russian radlcai1Sm has been dealt with
in the news somewhat after the fashion
Of a world series Of baseball games. One
day victory was reported, the next a de-
feat. Single battles, single conferences,
titles. as finished bits Of news, like an
action Of legislature. Bolshevism has
been looked upon as something tangible
and objective, and therefore to be affected
definitely and Immediately by the deci-
sions of Paris. or to be blockaded or
bombed or else blistered by sizzling words.
Whereas Bolshevism is drift, tide, a
state OF mind. 1t does not change over
night. That the news of it's progress in the
Orient was sensational and alarming last
week, and non-existent the previous week,
is absurd. 1t does not alter with the cable
grams. The spread Of Bolshevism is not a
news item.
Had the information impaired so spec
tacularly few days ago been dissem-
mated six months earlier, the case would
be more hopeful today. For the world is
confronted by vast human movement
that is really now beyond the control of
the men who projected it. Instead Of being
recent, it is already ripe
There has been no sudden and stimuli
ltaneous sending out from Moscow head
quarters Of Bolshevist ambassadors and
missionaries to the Orient. The invasion
Of the Eastern countries adjacent to Russia
is no recent or rash determination Of
Lenine. The thing was under way in 1917.
found the Bolshevist emissaries in the
Russian army in the Caucasus then, and
made not few speeches to the troops in
an effort to counteract their influence.
There were at the same time Bolsheviki
in Baku. as well as in Tiflis and Tabria.
The Red leaders had dreamed and
schemed out their campaign for world
dominion long before they ever came to
power in Russia. They saw themselves
''liberating" the Orient's millions years
before they controlled a single regiment
in Petrograd. All the genuine Bolsheviki
in Russia, who really were only a small
group OF persons, were quite aware of the
imperial nature Of their project.
Even while some We're leading the fight
ing in the streets for control of Russia S
government others were putting into oper-
alton the propaganda that aimed to swing
the masses Of India and China especially,
and Of the Orient in general into the
Bolshevist movement Money was set aside
for this purpose, and agents went speeding
eastward and southwark, while yet every
gun was needed for the capture Of the
cities OF western Russia.
We may as well contemplate the situa-
tion openeyed. AS will later appear, il is
by no means so hopeless as the recent
official declarations from Paris imply
But 1t is so grave, so catastrophe in it's
possibilities that clear and fearless facing
OF all the facts involved is essential. To
know your eneny's forces and power is
a first element of strategy. Let us not
attack tanks with tomahawks or airplanes
with arrows. There has already been
manifest too general a tendency to fol-
low the old Chinese fashion of warfare
by making faces and noise. Civilization
| is today pitted against the most dangerous
foe that it has confronted for centuries.
Bolshevism Is more than an organiza-
ton, it is an idea Therefore it's spread
has been by means of proselytes, as well
as by propaganda. There is no denying
that its growth around the world. while
powerfully assisted by paid agents. has
also spread after the fashion Of n religion.
The converts become missionaries.
Just as, Spirituaism. Christlaa Science
and New Thought have OF late years
spread in the English speaking world far
faster than tho leadership of their Off
cials has marched, so Bolshevism is
winning its way in the East. There are
special reasons for this, to be gone into
later The thing is a movement rather
than organization. 1t is the world rs
commonest topic of talk. II has been ad-
vertised by its friends and by its enemies
The identity and tactics of the latter have
at times furthered its spread.
! There is moro man to man carrying OF
Bolshcvism in the East than We care to
believe. Like early Christianity its con-
verts. when scattered, go everywhere
preaching. Out of Russia and the border
ing regions have gone tens of thousands
OF persons, Asiatics as well as Europeans
(for Russia, be IL remembered, is largely
an Asiatic country, to proclaim that Boil
shevism is the dawn of the day of the dog
who has been down.
These men have been sometimes paid
emissaries, but oftener private persons
inflamed with class consciousness and a
spirit of reprisal, and also. at times. the
Fasteners love of loot. Sometimes these
men are traders. sometimes servants. such
as camel-drivers, sometimes merely rest
less travellers, but as they have gone, they
have preached.
BY waysidc caravan fires, in village
khans and coffee houses, huddled together
in boats and trains, Visiting I'm houses
and tents these unpaid representatives OF
examination In the real tenets of the party
] have told over and over again the story
! OF autocracy and aristocracy ovcrthrown
OF land distributed to all, OF rich prizes
Of plunder. of rule by the humblest classes
and of new order wherein every man
from Lenine to the latest Tartar recruit
Is acclaimed as 'Tavarish." or "Comradc.
| Such is tho nature OF the drift OF Boil
shevism. II is swelling and sweeping
southwark and eastward from Russia. The
Red aims to absorb the yellow and tho
brown. Considering tho character OF tho
propa ganda and the sort of minds against
which it IS directed, informed persons
| look upon the movement with q sort OF
| fascinated horror. Is the twentieth con.
tury again to witness a devastating ir-
ruption OF lawless hordes from mid-Asa
sweeping into ruins the structure OF west.
crn civilization which IL meets in its path
! TDr. Ellis next article will tell why Tho
native peoples or the Near t97r, are al
present susceptible " uvlshu Yisni.l