France and Italy must get oil where they can. This necessity forces France, under the present conditions, to challenge Britain's sea supremacy. In reality, it should force the two into coöperation, for Britain in the long run needs France as a buffer state, and France needs Britain to protect her communications and insure her supply. France cannot be long the preponderant European land power. Her weaknesses are too deep-seated and inherent.

Hence, probably, the present military and diplomatic situation is merely a phase, albeit a critical phase, of European politics. It is the crisis where old methods are giving place to new.

The failure of the Versailles Treaty, the economic chaos in Russia, and the imperative necessity for economy, have created a new military era. The return to the old system is unlikely; because the new weapons will be perfected while the old are retained, and thereby the Great Powers will endeavour to offset the increasing armed strength of the non-industrial states of Eastern Europe. The same influences will restore gas as a weapon. Gas is only nominally prohibited in the event of a war in which only signatories of the Washington Conference participate, and even in that event the prohibition is of doubtful value because it is founded on falsehood and ignores certain vital considerations.

Where does America come in? Aircraft, gas and the submarine cast the United States squarely in the ancient rôle of Great Britain, as the secure, impartial arbiter of the balance of power; just as they have largely destroyed Britain's position in that rôle. Distance gives us the isolation that was once Britain's shield. Britain now becomes one of the contestants for supremacy. But this is the Britain of Europe. Who shall say what influence in the future shall be exercised by the Dominions? Meanwhile, the United States can, by exerting her influence, preserve the balance of power and, perhaps, use her impartiality to help create a better understanding. Unless she resolves to do so, she, too, may be dragged into a future aëro-chemical warfare.

J. M. SCAMMELL.

GERMANY AND THE THIRD

INTERNATIONALE

BY ALFRED L. P. DENNIS

As we survey the situation in Germany, and as the headlines of the daily press suggest that a Communist uprising is on the carpet, one turns instinctively to think of the activities of the Third Internationale. In particular the influence of the Third Internationale on Germany in 1919 is in our minds, for in some respects the prospects are similar. Then as now the disgust of the German people with results of war bespoke for the time a friendly reception to foreign revolutionary doctrines. At present it is the economic war of the Ruhr which is increasing the penalties of the political débâcle of 1918. Will Germany again reject the invitations of the Third Internationale to proclaim the dictatorship of the proletariat and to try to get rid by one movement of the demands of both domestic and foreign capital? Is it fear of a social upheaval in Germany which has been dictating British notes to France? Is it the world discontent, the Weltschmerz, which is fomenting disorder and destruction in Germany? These are questions which can best be studied in the light of the recent history of propaganda and of revolutionary organization.

It has been evident since the Bolshevik revolt of November, 1917, that the original purpose of the Soviet authorities was the World Revolution. They hold it forth as the goal of their achievements and as the reward for their hardships. A revolutionist has to be an optimist; otherwise he would be out of his job. So the Soviet Government has continued to hope and to work for a change in the course of events which would result in the extension of the dictatorship of the proletariat by the setting up of a series of related Soviet republics, the world over.

In 1917 anyone who could have foreseen that the Soviet authorities would still be in power in Russia six years later

and at the same time could have foretold that a World Revolution would not have taken place, would have been looked on as an extremely subtle agent of a new form of counter-revolutionary, or anti-Bolshevik, propaganda. If he had expressed such ideas in Moscow in 1918 he would probably have been shot at

once.

The importance of the World Revolution has diminished as months have gone by; but it has never been abandoned as the ultimate end of society. This is because of the fact that the Soviet authorities are members of the Russian Communist party. That party in turn belongs to the International Socialist Communist party which has organized itself as the Third Internationale. Its headquarters are at Moscow; and it is to Moscow, as the center and head of the movement, that all other Communist parties, wherever located, must turn for direction and guidance. To this end are annual meetings, the propaganda, the development of secret lines of communication, the division of the world into districts, and the highly intensified and organized bureaucracy of the party. The Bolsheviki, therefore, look to the development of a new world in which Moscow will be the new Rome. This they have continually preached.

In a lively organization of this sort, with its tentacles reaching out across frontiers, constantly touching the daily life of millions, and consciously aiming at the social reconstruction of the world, it is only natural that differences of opinion should develop. The fact remains, however, that apart from the schism that originally divided all Socialists, the world over, the authority and power of the Third Internationale has never been seriously questioned within its own sphere. A great deal of confusion, much unnecessary and unwarranted persecution, would have been avoided if people in authority could have understood that between Snowden in England and Longuet in France, on the one hand, and on the other, Zinoviev and other members of the Communist Internationale, a division existed which was all the more effective and bitter because it spelled civil war among Socialists. The British Labour Party has again, in 1923, refused membership to the British Communist party by a decisive and tremendous vote. We all know of the vitriolic war that

Gompers and Spargo have both waged against the Communists in America and Russia. Indeed in Russia the Social Revolutionary Party has suffered as dire attacks from the Bolsheviki as have any other elements in Russian society. The Third Internationale, therefore, is not to be confused with any other Socialist body, particularly not with the "Yellow" Internationale, as it contemptuously terms the International Federation of Trade Unions, whose headquarters are at Amsterdam, nor with attempts to revive the organization which we have known for years as the Second Socialist Internationale. The Third or Communist Internationale is "Red"; and it believes in and preaches World Revolution.

Furthermore, the Third Internationale is not the Soviet Government of Russia; technically their difference is complete. One is the organization of the international propaganda body; the other is the political organization which governs Soviet Russia. Moscow is the center for both; members of the Russian Communist Party, which is in sole control of the Soviet Government, are represented in the Third Internationale. There exists, therefore, an interlocking membership and an interlocking directorate between the two. The Soviet Foreign Office is constantly reminding us that it is not the Third Internationale and, by inference, that it is not responsible for the work and the mistakes of that body. The fact remains that it is at times almost impossible to separate the activities of the Foreign Office from the activities of the Third Internationale. At times, as in the case of Litvinov, the same person has held important posts abroad under both organizations. Consequently it is impossible to keep the two apart in any study of this sort.

Naturally with the enormous task of the revolution in Russia on their shoulders, the active preaching by Communist leaders of its gospel outside of Russia was not at first effective. On December 23, 1917, two million gold rubles were voted for propaganda in western Europe; the Fakel, or Torch, was planned to start revolution in Germany. But the rigor with which the authorities of both Germany and Austria dealt with such attempts prevented any success. It was war time, and generally in those days people in belligerent countries had no time for such matters. They

were fighting, working, or struggling to get sufficient food. They could not stop to talk as the Russians had done.

Nevertheless, in spite of the tremendous burden of reorganizing Russia, of combating anti-Bolshevik plots and foreign foes, a start was made in the preaching of doctrines of Communist World Revolution. For this purpose the writings and speeches of Lenin and of Trotzky were a source of undiluted strength. Later regular propaganda schools were set up to train students for propaganda both at home and abroad. At Moscow was a propaganda college where foreign agitators were trained. Here some seventy students who could use foreign languages were trained in successive courses, each lasting about three months. In the case of the Orient there was later a sort of University to train propagandists in the languages and customs of Asia.

For immediate needs, however, attempts were made to make use of the large prison camps where were gathered troops who soon would be returning to Central Europe. Before these prisoners the gospel of the Russian Bolshevik revolution was preached with vigour by men who could speak the language of their audiences. Add to this the persistent individual work of soldiers and sailors who had suddenly become revolutionary agitators. Thus Bela Kun, formerly the editor of the Magyar newspaper Social Revolution, and later to be the head of the Hungarian Bolshevik uprising, addressed, on April 14, 1918, a monster meeting of war prisoners in Moscow:

You, who have suffered and struggled, who have borne on your shoulders the heavy cross of this war, go back and set the whole country ablaze from one end to the other! Sweep all obstacles from the path for the liberation of the enslaved, turn into ashes all castles, all palaces, to which your wealth flows and from which poverty and hunger are spread broadcast over the country. Give full sway to all your hatred and respond by revolt, for nothing can be done without armed revolt. I do not say that it is bad to kill but you must know whom to kill. Turn your weapons against your officers and generals and against the palaces. Let every one of you be a teacher of revolution in his regiment!

It was in repeated meetings of this sort that prisoners were prepared for repatriation. Indeed there were protests from the Central Powers regarding the calling of prison congresses and the