V. I.

Lenin

56

To:   THE ORGANISING COMMITTEE

Letter to the O.C.

We have just received the rules of the Congress. It appears that we did not
understand you and replied about the ordre du jour when you were asking
about the rules of the Congress. We hasten to say that on the whole we
are very satisfied with your draft, which is carefully and sensibly drawn
up. Clause 19, which has evoked dispute, seems reasonable to us; to exclude
certain organisations from the Congress (and, in the final analysis, the rules
are precisely regulations for the exclusion of some and the granting of rights
to others) is in fact inconvenient and impossible without the agreement of the
majority of the committees. Our only advice would be to fix a formally binding
period as short as possible (for example, not more than a week) in the course of
which the committees and organisations are obliged to draw up and send
in their amendments to the draft rules. This is essential in order to avoid
delay, which is most of all to be feared. (It is probably through fear of delay
that Ignat, too, protested. We understand his fears, but if you are able to
complete the interrogation quickly, the matter can be put right.)

For our part, we shall write to the Iskra organisations about our
advice that your draft should be accepted im mediately and completely. We
earnestly request you to make use of every facility to ensure that the dispatch
and communication of the draft (on the basis of § 19), the “session” of
the arbitration courts, and determination of the composition of the deputies
will be completed within a month at the latest.

In this connection we advise you informally to recommend all qualified
organisations to appoint as far as possible one (or two) delegates from
among comrades living abroad who are known for their past work—in order to
avoid extra expenses and difficulties involved in sending delegates abroad.

We formally propose 1) to supplement your draft only by a note to § 19:
“Organisations which have not presented their comments within a week from
the date of receipt of the draft will be regarded as having accepted the draft
rules of the Congress”; 2) to make provision for alternate delegates in
the event of delegates being arrested before the Congress.