Page:Emile Vandervelde - Three Aspects of the Russian Revolution - tr. Jean Elmslie Henderson Findlay (1918).djvu/54

 generally to giving those of whom he wished to get rid of the concilium abeundi, without other penalty for those who did not execute it with a good grace than that of being thrown out of the principal entrance, followed by a cheering crowd. A warning is added not to return, under penalty of more drastic measures.

In a number of cases the workshop staffs had recourse to the authority of the "Soviets" of workmen and soldiers to carry out their sentences of expulsion. The Soviet would pronounce sentence of banishment from the neighbourhood, or from the Government, and their militia saw that the sentence was carried out. This application of administrative exile, following on the workmen's claims, is not one of the least strange facts of the paradoxical situation created by the Revolution.

Let us hasten to add, moreover, that apart from these overseers exiled or driven away, or who had taken to flight, there is a considerable proportion—certainly much more than half—who have quietly continued carrying on their work. Those have, as a rule, been kept at their posts by the votes