SOVIET REGIME

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 51, Issue 206, 13 June 1931, Page 6

SOVIET REGIME

“ON FAIR WAY TO SUCCESS.”

A JOURNALIST’S VIEWS.

A JOURNALIST’S VIEWS

(Special to “The Guardian”). AUCKLAND, June 12

Contrary to the opinions ofton expressed, Soviet Russia is on the fairway to success, said Mr Mare T. Greene, the foreign correspondent .of many newspapers, who lias arrived' in Auckland, Mr Greene has been in Russia, recently. “So far is the five-year plan from being a failure,” said Mr Greene, “that the country is actually evolving a fifteen-yedr plan to follow. The time has come when Russia and her system can no longer be sneered at, and ignored by the rest of the world, it has been a great experiment of a great people. It is successful, and will be more so in the future. “ Socialism as it is known, there has involved great sacrifices by the peasants. They have had, and still have, to live at a bare subsistence margin But Russia is the only country where there is no unemployment. Moreover, it is no contradiction to say that though the peasants have had to make sacrifices'they are being cared for in a way they have never known. In some industrial areas, as, for example, the Baku oilfields, model and modern tenements are built for them, up-to-date hospitals equipped, and living conditions greatly improved.” “Dumping” Explained. Mr Greene explained what was known to the rest of the world as “dumping.” “Russian money is no use in any other part of the world. Consequently, if Russia wants to import, she has to pay in gold, which is the universal standard. To get that gold in sufficient quantities, she has to undersell on all the markets of the world. And she is doing it.” He instanced the' recent importation of Russian petrol into the Dominion. “More will come,” lie said, “vastly greater quantities. They have improved the Baku fields to the extent that the production is ten times what it was in 1914. It is probable that Russia will before long be one of the greatest factors, if not the geratest factor, in that particular market.” Industry had been socialised ancl production had increased enormously. The Fifteen-Year Plan was to mean socialisation of many factors on a scale undreamed of in the present-day system. All that socialisation was working. The peasants were coming under its aegis willingly. It meant surety for them, in food, clothes, and education. The Soviet was waging war against illiteracy, and there again without failure. Manv of the tales of oppression were true, Mr Greene admitted, but still more of them were exaggerated. He was asked how much truth there was in the stories which have appeared about conditions in the Soviet lumbei camps. “A short period ago a wellknown British' forestry expert visited these camps, and, as reported in the ‘Manchester Guardian, he r ® f^ d many of the rumours. On the contrary, he told of the presence of wellequipped hospitals, any amount o rough food, and, to. use his own words, ‘the work (which according to the reports, had killed the political prfsonms who were the labourers m the camps) would have, h®®" at by any lumberman in Canada.’ It had to be remembered, Mr Greene added, ‘‘that these pnsoners were not robust men. It Russia is to produce lumber these men have a working value to the Soviet and it would not be politic to kill, them off. But apart from their working value, the Soviet does not care what liecomes of them. A Cynical Outlook. “The Soviet is determined to crush, all opposition. This is still revolution, but it is economic this time. ihey know they can find markets in the world, for they realise, cynically to the rest of the world, which claims lofty ideals, gold is of more worth than principles. They are no longer isolated.” In fact, he had recommended to America, his own country, that she should recognise Russia fully, morally, as she was doing commercially. The Soviet had made mistakes, but thev were evolving another code, strange tot the world. They must in time compromise, particularly with regard to religion. “Mr Upton Sincliar, who is a friend of mine, thinks they will by the of eyents, force their svstem on the world. They are not belligerent, as they were under I rotsky. At the same time,, the- are creating a vast militaristic ment. For they believe that Capital will eventually combine to attack them, because they think that then economic arrangement will oust that of Capital, and that Capital will not rrjyo in without a figlit. And to that end they hold themselves in readiness —but they hold themselves. They look at the chaos in the rest of the world, at the depression, and they then look at "their own country, or rather at the prospects of their own country. The one, they . think, .is dying, and the other is just being born. They have a future.” The peasant by this time had realised that the Utopia that he had hoped for was afar off, but lie was beginning to see that lie was better off now than formerly. Relations would be gradually resumed normally, with the rest of the world, lie thought. It would have to be. Russia would force that recognition by her very economic potentialities, not by force.