Editorial: Our Forgetful Pressmen

Readers may remember that in the early days of the war we were moved to hilarity by the attempt of the Press to convince the workers that the Russians were fighting to liberate themselves from the German influence which prevented them from becoming a free and democratic nation. All that savage tyranny which may be symbolised in Siberia and the knout was laid to the door of German influence, and the picture was conjured up of that winged seraph the little white father, and all his attendant fluffy, gurgling cherubims, cheerfully sousing themselves in blood, and actually giving up their booze, in order to shake off the German hand that, prevented them giving their beloved peasants the corner seats in their ingle-nooks and the first pull at the liquor.

We laughed.

This tosh appeared in the columns of the “Daily Chronicle,” in whose pages we now find a sort of sequel in a comment upon the resignation of Mr. Sasonoff, the Russian Foreign Minister. The editor writes (Iuly 25) :

“The past 11 months have seen a steady and uniform weeding out of the Ministry of all Ministers liberal enough to be in sympathy with the not ultra-liberal Duma. Mr. Sasonoff was one of the last two left. Moreover, his resignation has been followed by the accession to the Cabinet of two very noted reactionaries—Mr. Makaroff, well-known for his severity in the course of the repression which followed the Russian revolution, and Mr. Khvostoff, not the ex-Minister of the Interior but a near relative of his with a reactionary record.”

The struggle of the Tsar and his statesmen to free themselves from the German influence seems hopeless, for the more they beat the Teutons on the battle-field the more Germanism beats them in their own Cabinet. It is a very strange world we live in, in spite of our Press prostitutes and our prostitute Press.