Justice October 1910
Source: Justice, (short editorial, unsigned, but almost certainly by Hyndman) “Grey’s Folly in Persia,” 29 October 1910, p.1;
Transcribed: by Ted Crawford.
We Social-Democrats have from the first condemned and protested against the alliance with Russia. We have repeatedly pointed out that such an alliance was not only against democracy and liberty; but was also part of a mischievous and foolish foreign policy on the part of our Liberal Government which was bound to have disastrous consequences not only in the Near and Far East, but even nearer home. We saw some of these mischievous consequences when this unholy alliance led to the practical partitioning of Persia between Great Britain and Russia, and the despotic attempts of the latter to suppress the Persian constitutional movement; to say nothing of the assistance this policy gave to German ascendancy in Eastern Europe. The latest move on the part of the British Foreign Office in this direction has done still more mischief. It has not only paved the way for the complete Russianising of Persia, but it has afforded the opportunity for the German Government to fish with advantage in the troubled waters, and to come forward as the champion of the Mohammedan nationalities in the East. It would be highly amusing, were it not so serious, to see Sir Edward Grey in such a fearful funk about the German menace – which he and his colleagues still try to delude the people of this country into believing does not exist at all – that, in sheer fright, he throws himself into the arms of the infamous Russian despotism, and tremblingly does its bidding, against the whole traditions of British foreign policy in the East! And the folly of it! For nothing is more likely than that Berlin and St. Petersburg understand each other perfectly well, and that Sir Edward Grey and his Government are being nicely “done” in the interests of the two great militarist and reactionary Powers – Germany and Russia.