ople
in there?" The officer answered, evasively: "They are thinking it over.
Perhaps they will." Whereupon his attendant blurted out: "Thinking it
over! What thinking is wanted? Did we not fight for them till we were
mowed down like grass? Did not millions of Russian bodies cover the
fields, the roads, and the camps? Did we not face the German great guns
with only bayonets and sticks? Have we done too little for them? What
more could we have done to be allowed in there with the others? I fought
since the war began, and was twice wounded. My five brothers were called
up at the same time as myself, and all five have been killed, and now
the Russians are not wanted! The door is shut in our faces...."

Sooner or later Russian anarchy, like that of China, will come to an
end, and the leaders charged with the reconstitution of the country, if
men of knowledge, patriotism, and character, will adopt a program
conducive to the well-being of the nation. To what extent, one may ask,
is its welfare compatible with the _status quo_ in eastern Europe, which
the Allies, distracted by conflicting principles and fitful impulse,
left or created and hope to perpetuate by means of a parchment
instrument?

The zeal with which the French authorities went to work to prevent the
growth of Bolshevism in their country, especially among the Russians
there, is beyond dispute. Unhappily it proved inefficacious. Indeed, it
is no exaggeration to say that it defeated its object and produced the
contrary effect. For attention was so completely absorbed by the aim
that no consideration remained over for the means of attaining it. A few
concrete examples will bring this home to the reader. The following
narratives emanate from an eminent Russian, who is devoted to the
Allies.

There were scores of thousands of Russian troops in France. Most of them
fought valiantly, others half-heartedly, and a few refused to fight at
all. But instead of making distinctions the French authorities, moved by
the instinct of self-preservation, and preferring prevention to cure,
tarred them all with the same brush. "Give a dog a bad name and hang
him," says the proverb, and it was exemplified in the case of the
Russians, who soon came to be regarded as a _tertium quid_ between
enemies of public order and suspicious neutrals. They were profoundly
mistrusted. Their officers were deprived of their authority over their
own men and placed under the command of excellent French