Page:Lars Henning Söderhjelm - The Red Insurrection in Finland in 1918 - tr. Annie Ingebord Fausbøll (1920).djvu/71

 the labourers' liberties of association, assembly, speech and press, and on the whole to serve as a protection to the rights of the labourers," this clause in the new statutes has received the following addition: "and to act as an executive revolutionary force for the aims of the labourers." In the new statutes the second paragraph is quite new. It runs: "The Red Guard obey the commands issued by the General Staff of the Guard. If during the revolution another revolutionary institution, local or embracing the whole country, should arise, the political power will pass over to the latter." In the old Statutes the following decision is made with regard to the supreme administration of the Guard: "The administration of the Guard embracing the whole country is constituted by a management committee of five, whose members are elected and removed by the party leaders and the leaders of the Co-operating Trade Unions at a general meeting." Now it is said: "At the head of the Red Guard of the whole country is a Commander-in-Chief elected by the representative meeting of the Guard, and a General Staff. The latter consists of eight members, out of which the Party Leaders and the Leaders of the Co-operative Trade Unions each elect two, and the Representative Meeting of the Guard, four."

By these and other similar decisions the Red Guard was freed from the tutelage of the party. It now proceeded to take over the leadership of the revolution entirely. Uncertain and faltering the choragi of the party looked on at this advance of the most violent elements. It is a typical fact that they dared not utter a single manly word of warning, but wriggled through the difficulties with vague phrases. How completely they had actually been forced to submit to the power of the Guard is proved by the fact that, already several days before the outbreak of the insurrection, the party's