Page:Michael Farbman - Russia & the Struggle for Peace (1918).djvu/200

 188 OWADAYS much energy is spent in condemning "secret diplomacy." More and more evidence is coming to light of the immense harm which secret diplomacy has done to mankind and to the world, and the full tale of these evils is certainly not yet told. But I venture to suggest that all the harm done by secret diplomacy is trifling in comparison to the evil effects of the absolutely public and unconcealed profession of journalism. I cannot help thinking that the whole history of the last four years would have been different if journalists had not betrayed their perfectly simple and honourable profession of reporting the plain truth. Secret diplomacy could certainly never have achieved its awful complications of mistrust without the deplorable assistance of the journalists. Imagine what the relations of this country to Russia would be to-day if the British correspondents in Russia had contented themselves with reporting the simple facts, instead of considering themselves as self-appointed ambassadors with a mission to make politics. To this day, thanks to the misleading articles of the majority of the British and French correspondents, the French and British publics have no conception of the actual spirit and ideas of the revolutionary democracy of Russia, nor of its attitude to the question of war and peace.