Kropotkin, and thousands of others would have found no refuge in England or elsewhere. The “ sacred right of property ” for the time being has swept away the “ sacred right of asylum ” for political offenders. In defence of this International Bureaucracy it is argued that the need for it exists because of the propaganda carried on by secret Societies and Revolutionaries. It is a strange commentary on this argument that many Governments carry on a persistent secret propaganda, paid for out of secret service funds which are never checked or audited, thus enabling police officials to have at their disposal huge sums of money with which to create and stir up the violence they are employed to track down.
It is also possible to use such funds and secret power for blackmail and private revenge, and in some countries this is actually done. The one and only safeguard for democracy is perfect freedom of speech and organisation, and a free press.
Yes, fear is what we all have to fear, for this it is which makes individuals and governments cruel beyond words. We hear a great deal about Russian atrocities in prison. In at least one of the Baltic States, I know for
