Evening star., 1927-12-04
BOLSHEVISM, ON WANE, 1
MAKES LAST CHALLENGE
Russia Turns to Foreign Affairs in t'es=T
perate Effort to Distract From o57'a 'ar
Misery at Home.

new conyulsion at home, and to do
this it turns the attention of the cotn-'
try toward real or fancied foreign
perils-the present difficulty with Pc
land the conference at Geneva. s7'cslss
Menace Dwindles.
At the same time the menace; OF
bolshevism to and in western Europe
has dwindled from a political threat -
of the first magnitude to nuisance.fie0
That it was once real DANGER Snns
one who lived through the years from
1917 to 1924 in Europe can question.
still recall vividlv that hour in ing
Paris peace conference When the news:
of the seizure Of Budapest bv Beia
Kun in the name of the Russian revo-
luton precipitated panic hardly less
general than that which broke out In
all allied nations wnen the GERMAN
armies. apparently irresistible. rolled
on toward Paris. Nor was the agita-
ton much less when, a little more ~
than year later. the Red armies ap-
preached the walls of Warsaw and all
central and eastern Europe seemed
bound to be engulfed in the flood.
Again, in the dark days of the Ruhr
occupation. not yet five years ago, theT
misery and agony within Germany
seemed a prelude to new Red exs>
plOsion.
If one undertakes to analyze the
decline of the Russian peril since
1928, nothing is clearer than that " >
keeps step with restoration in west.
ern European states. The condition
of the proletariat which Russian"
leaders sought to rally to class war:
has improved. BY contrast today, 1t !,
is only in Red Russia, the paradise of :.
| the proletariat, that bread lines are
again forming. "a
Shun Russian Ideas.
Politically. the consequences of this
| Russian failure are unmistakable. In
| Britain, in France. in Germany. the
Labor party, the Socialists and Radi-
| Gals have steadily drawn back from
all association with the Russian idea.
| Support for the Russian revolution to-
day is limited in all three countries to
| noisy, numerically unimportant
| Communist group.
On the eve of general elections in
| France, Britain and Germany the Con- y
| servatives in all three countries have
adopted the same tactics. They have
| appreciated that no single charge
| could better serve them in the battle
with the Liberals than the charge that
| they were the agents of Moscow.
And, just as clearly. the Radical
| groups are publicly and emphatically
| AS recently as five years ago bol-
| shevism was dangerous because there
! existed in many if not all European
| countries vast mass of people for
whom the m.series of the war had
| been continued by the agonies of a
peace which was still a mockery.
There was, in fact. the conviction that
| nothing could be worse than what eX.
| listed and in this mood the appeal Of
| bolshevism with its brilliant promises
was patent.
| Today the condition of the masses
| in every European country has not
only vastly improved, but stands in
| unmistakable contrast to the situa. >
ton of those other masses within
Russia.
New Line of Attack. -
| 1t is the realization of this change
| in Europe which has i'm the recent q
years moved bolshevism to a new .
line of attack. Renouncing the hope
!. OF precipitating the world revolution
directly in Europe. 1t has undertaken
to stimulate European unrest by rous-,
| ing Asia and Africa against the West. -
In China. in India, in Syria, in Moroc,
CO, it has, not without startling sue
cess. fomented and aided native un'F
i rest. And its success has been, in y
part, due to the fact that it has been,
exploiting misery. economic and po :
ntical disarray -
| But If the Chinese affair has dealtta
a heavy blow to the British, in thee.
end, China has failed to adopt Mos,
cow. Moreover, in Britain, even the
Labor party has perceived the direct;q
relation between the employment OFFS
the masses which make up it's ranks
and the sale of British goods on the :.
Chinese market. 40
Thus. 10 years after. this new chaI. u
lenge from Russia is not in fact d r.
danger to Europe. but a manifesto.
ton OF the new unrest in Russia.
which threatens to overthrow bof
shevism. Bolshevism, not beingss
strong enough to face such a force =
directly. diverts the attention Of it's
country to foreign affairs. with the "
hope that in the meantime it shall
be able to borrow money and yetaG
save itself.