IV

POLITICS

3°5

tive of true welfare, though, perhaps, not soUtopian, pursued in an intense religious spirit,as it would be if it were pursued in a matter-of-fact way. But is it appropriate to assume,as most of us have assumed hitherto, that it isinsincere or wicked?

After a long debate with Zinovieff, two Com-munist ironsides who attended him stepped for-ward to speak to me a last word with the fullfaith of fanaticism in their eyes. “We makeyou a prophecy,” they said. “Ten years hencethe level of life in Russia will be higher thanit was before the war, and in the rest of Europe it will be lower than it was before the war.”Having regard to the natural wealth of Russia and to the inefficiency of the old regime, havingregard also to the problems of Western Europe and our apparent inability to handle them, canwe feel confident that the comrades will notprove right?

(ii) Communism s Power to Survive

Can Communism in the course of time, withsufficient dilution and added impurity, catchthe multitude?

I cannot answer what only time will show.But I feel confident of one conclusion—that ifCommunism achieves a certain success, it willachieve it, not as an improved economic tech-nique, but as a religion. The tendency of ourconventional criticisms is to make two opposed