The Soviet authorities are trying in every way to enlist _members in the Communist Party. Access to the party is so easy that many suspicious characters with shady and criminal pasts, even ex-spies of the old-réyime secret police and members of the so-called Black Hundreds, are now among the most prominent and active Communists. The holder of a membership card becomes a highly privileged person. For ample, instead of having to wait' for hours in a queue like an ordinary person, he is entitled to immediate entry into shops, offices, etc. Yet the members of the Communist Party in the whole of Russia with a population of nearly 120 millions, number only about 500,000, including children.
According to the Soviet regulations, the Bolshevist Press must not supply to the population any news prejudicial to Soviet ideas. As a result the Bolsheviks are publishing in the Smolny Institute in Petrograd a secret daily paper containing information intended only for the highest Bolshevist, officials. This paper is. strictly confidential, and no ordinary commissary ever sees it.
The supervision by special "black cabinets" of all correspondence has reached such a degree that although the postal service is free, scarcely anybody uses it for fear lest a casual remark or
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