Bolshevism And Imperial Sedition

November 4, 1920. United Wards Club Luncheon, Cannon

Street Hotel, London

I am accustomed at the present time rather to judge

world events and world tendencies from the point of view
of whether they are Bolshevist or anti-Bolshevist, and I
saw in the vote of the American nation in the Presidential
election a great repulsion by both the great parties in the
United States of the doctrine of world-wide revolution as
preached and practised by Lenin and Trotsky. I think we
say what sentiment repeated in the municipal elections
here. Indeed, the truth of the words which I uttered at the
beginning of the year, that the Labour Party -or the
Socialist Party, which is a better name in its present state
of development was unfit to govern the country [cheers]
have not been diminished by what has since taken place.
All these strikes and rumours of strikes and threats of
strikes and loss and suffering caused by them; all this talk
of revolution and "direct action" have deeply offended
most of the British people. [Cheers.] There is a growing
feeling that a considerable section of organized Labour is
trying to tyrannize over the whole public and to bully them
into submission, not by argument, not by recognized
political measures, but by brute force.
I think that the trade unions will have to review their
position very carefully in the next few years if they are to

preserve the great and, on the whole, beneficent influence

which they have exercised for so long in British public and
industrial life. There is an active and very voluble minority
which is always trying to grab the control of the
organization, and this minority has a perfectly definite and
avowed intention of trying to wreck the whole system of
society, and to wreck it by any means, however violent
and however wicked, that may be within their reach.
The responsible leaders of trade unions have very great
difficulty in standing up to these hotheads. We must make
all allowance for the difficult position in which leaders of
the Labour movement are placed in these circumstances,
but at the same time, when assertions are made which
deserve to be criticized, I do not see why they should not
be criticised, even if they are made by Labour leaders.
[Cheers.] Mr. J. H. Thomas, a man who plays a very good
part on many occasions, and not quite so good a part on
some others, but still a responsible reputable leader of
British Labour, thought it right to say, when the councils of
action were set up: "We regard them as a definite
challenge to the constitution of the country." That was a
very remarkable and improper statement. The fact that so
many of the Labour or Socialist Party said they were
challenging the constitution was in itself an admission, not
only that they had not got. but that they had no
immediate expectation of getting, the majority of their
fellow-countrymen on their side. [Cheers.]

It is quite true that the doctrines which have been given

credit among those violent circles boldly affirm that there
is no need to obtain majorities. They want to have the
power to rule, whether they have a majority or not,
whether the people wish it or not. As Lenin put it the
other day, "Fifteen per cent, ought to be enough to
dominate Great Britain, provided they are all out-and-out
Communists." [Laughter.] All the other 85 per cent, have
got to be disfranchised somehow or other in order that
this 15 per cent, of out-and-out Communists may be able
to confer their blessings on mankind. [Laughter.]
A new witness has just come from Russia whose words
always command attentionMr. H. G. Wells. Nothing can
exceed the appalling character of the conditions which Mr.
Wells has described. According to him, the whole
apparatus of civilization has collapsed. Cities are dying,
and dying fast: railways are breaking up: manufactures
and commerce of all kinds are at a standstill. Mr. Wells
said:
I find an irreparable breakdown of the great monarchy
that was here in 1914. The administrative, social,
financial, commercial systems connected with it have
fallen down under the strain of war. and are smashed
utterly. Never has there been so great a debacle before.
Of course Mr. Wells has to vindicate his theories. He
suggests that this irreparable catastrophe is not the fault

of the Bolshevists. But I submit as a most unchallengable

conviction that those disasters in Russia are solely due to
the Bolshevists, and are solely due to a very few men. to
a revolutionary and terrible sect of fanatics, whose
devastating doctrines have laid Russia low. and will lay
every nation low in which they obtain ascendancy.
Mr. Wells attributes Russia's downfall to the inherent
rottenness of Capitalism, Imperialism, and the war. What
arrant nonsense! The Bolshevists did it. and they alone to
the utmost generation of mankind will feel this fearful
responsibility. No doubt the war struck Russia a heavy
blow, but none from which she could not have survived. It
was a deadly and paralysing sect that destroyed Russia
and plunged it deep into unspeakable misery. We must
never cease proclaiming this fact as a warning to other
nations in the world, and for the preservation of our own
country. The Bolshevists are responsible for the
catastrophe.
For Russia we can do little. The fearful series of events
must run their course. One can only hope that some day
in our own time deliverance will come to the Russian
people and that they will stand again on their own feet
and be masters in their own house.
But if we can do little for Russia, we can do much for
Britain. We do not want any of these experiments here.
[Cheers.] Any such experiments in this country would be

followed by the destruction of the great majority of the

persons dwelling in these islands. We can at any rate
make sure that in our life and time the deadly disease
which has struck down Russia should not be allowed to
spring up here and poison us as it is poisoning them.
In every city there are small bands of eager men and
women, watching with hungry eyes any chance to make a
general overturn in the hopes of profiting themselves in
the confusion, and these miscreants are fed by Bolshevist
money. [Cheers.] They are ceaselessly endeavouring by
propagating the doctrines of communism, by preaching
violent revolution, by inflaming discontent, to infect us
with their disease. If there is no danger it is only because
we have an enlightened, active political life in Britain,
because we have a considered, instructed, organized
public opinion, and because we have a free Constitution
which we are determined to make an instrument of
continuous and progressive reform. In order that that
condition shall be maintained, ceaseless political exertion
must be made in all parts of the country by citizens in
every class, each using to the full his political rights.
The danger at the present time does not exist only, or
even mainly, in these islands. What of India, Egypt, and
Ireland? Do you not think it possible that there is some
connection between all the revolutionary and subversive
elements by which we are now being assailed? When we
see all these movements from so many different quarters

springing up simultaneously, does it not look as though

there is a dead set being made against the British Empire?
Why, for instance, should the Egyptian extremists give
money to the Daily Herald?' [Cheers.] Why does Lenin
send them money, too? Why does he also send money to
Sinn Fein? We know that intense efforts are being made to
disturb India, and that similar efforts are being made to
cause a great breakdown of trade and industry at home in
the hopes of creating unemployment and consequently
suffering and discontent.
It is becoming increasingly clear that all these factions are
in touch with one another, and that they are acting in
concert. In fact there is developing a world-wide
conspiracy against our country, designed to deprive us of
our place in the world and to rob us of the fruits of victory.
[Cheers.] They will not succeed. They will fail. We must be
ready: we must be on our guard to recognize every
symptom of danger, and to act with strong conviction
against it. Having beaten the most powerful military
empire in the world, having emerged triumphantly from
the fearful ordeal of Armageddon, we will not allow
ourselves to be pulled down and have our Empire
disrupted by a malevolent and subversive force, the
rascals and rapscallions of mankind who are now on the
move against us. [Loud cheers.]
Whether it is the Irish murder gang or the Egyptian
vengeance society, or the seditious extremists in India, or

the arch-traitors we have at home, they will feel the

weight of the British arm. It was strong enough to break
the Hindenburg Line, it will be strong enough to defend
the main interests of the British people, to carry us
through these stormy times into calmer and brighter days.
[Cheers.]