Soviet Justification

The Moscow government has not yet made any statement as to how it will spend the credits accruing from the huge sales of grain. No country has reported a Bolshevik order for agricultural tools or for cattle, which would be the only justification that they could plead for depriving their unfortunate citizens of their daily bread. On the other hand, the Bolsheviki are very busy talking about war and explaining to the world the significance of the Ruhr, Memel, Vilna. At the fifth anniversary of the formation of the Red Army, Trotzky, Minister of War, said: "We want peace, but nobody knows when the bad intentions of our enemies will compel us to get into the field." They ridicule France's attitude with regard to the Ruhr and spare no opportunity to cover that nation with caustic criticism. They have informed the Allies that they will accept no settlement of the Memel question unless they are consulted, holding that the port of Memel is of vital interest to Russian trade. With regard to the disturbance in the Vilna district, Russia openly accuses France of stirring up trouble by lending the Poles $25,000,000. It is a notorious fact that the government is spending great sums upon Communist propaganda abroad, in Ireland, for example. They seem more concerned with the world's affairs and the propagation of Bolshevik policy than in looking after their own people.