Page:Through Bolshevik Russia - Snowden - 1920.djvu/69

 are 650,000 Communists according to your own published statistics."

"Published statistics are queer things," he said slowly. "It is not easy to join the Communist Party. There is six months' probation to be served. One has to have two guarantors. But when joining the Party is the only sure way to sufficient nourishment and some prospect of advancement, even the dangerous duties cannot deter all from joining." He shrugged his shoulders and walked away. He, along with the rest of the Trade Unionists, had been ordered under threat of penalties to join the parade in the Uritzky Platz which had been organised for the British Delegation.

The first public meeting in Petrograd and a similar occasion in the Moscow Opera House were like every other meeting we had in Russia. The slight difference between these two gatherings was that in Petrograd the audience was restricted to Trade Unionists as the hall-space was limited to about two thousand, and the meeting was held under the auspices of the Unions, whilst in Moscow the meeting was open to the general public and was three times as big as in Petrograd.

Speeches were made by Russians and British alternately. At the Moscow meeting a Menshevik was permitted to speak, and made a plucky performance under very trying circumstances.