* * * * * A Very Free Translation. "'Have you come to make peace?' '_Nous verrons pour cela_ ('That is what we have come for),' replied Krassin at once." _Daily Paper._ * * * * * [Illustration: _Martha_ (_to ancient spouse, who has narrowly escaped being run over by passing car_). "AN' SERVE YER RIGHT TOO IF IT 'AD A-KNOCKED YER. YER DU GO RACIN' A'EAD--NO SENSE."] * * * * * OUR BOOKING OFFICE. (_By Mr. Punch's Staff of Learned Clerks._) Recent developments have given an unexpectedly topical interest to a new book by Professor PAUL MILIUKOV, L.L.D., entitled _Bolshevism: an International Danger_ (ALLEN AND UNWIN). The whole question of the _de facto_ Government of Russia is so fiercely controversial that it is not to be expected that such a work should escape violent criticism from those for whom that Government can do no wrong, though the writer justly claims that (however obvious his own views) he has striven to be strictly fair to those of the enemy. The scheme of his work has been "to trace the evolution of Bolshevism from an abstract doctrine to a practical experiment." One may excusably find the history a grim and menacing one. In the course of it Professor MILIUKOV tells again the tragedy of the great betrayal (which it will do no one harm to ponder upon just now), when the Commander of the 1st corps of the Siberian Army reported: "A brilliant success crowned our efforts ... there remained before us only a few fortifications, and the battle might soon have taken the character of a complete destruction of the enemy." But the work of M. LENIN had been too thorough; instead of a victory that might have ended the War and saved thousands of lives, we saw this already triumphant army, equipped through British industry, melt into a disorganised rabble. Nor is the writer less interesting on other aspects of his theme; in particular an exposition of the notorious Third International and a survey of the present-moment activities of Bolshevist propaganda, notably in our own country. No one who wishes to read and keep for reference a clearly written and understandable survey of the most urgent problem in modern politics need go further than this short but highly concentrated study. * * * * *