RUSSIA’S FINANCES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 53, Issue 202, 8 June 1933, Page 5

RUSSIA’S FINANCES.

COMPULSORY LOAN. OBJECTIVE OF THE; SOVIET. LONDON, May 27. ‘ Financial capitalism, despised and caricatured by tlie Socialists is flourishing in Russia. The Soviet Government announces the issue of a £3,000,000,000 internal loan at par, writes Dr. Edouard Luboff in the “Daily Mail.” The Soviet organ “Pravda,” boasts of the increase in the number of individual bondholders. One out of every four Russians is a “coupon-cutter,” and the new loan is expected to swell the army of rentiers to 10,000,000. This does not indicate prosperity since the Russians are capitalists by compulsion, and would prefer an immediate addition- to their food rations to guaranteed dividends or chances in lottery loans. These cleverly disguise further reductions in the tragically small wages of the v T orkers from which the compulsory loan subscriptions are deducted.

Subscribers are offered two classes of bonds. The so-called “non-losing” bonds enable every holder to win a prize within 10 years. The other sort carries a guarantee of 10 per cent. Dr. Luboff discounts the official announcement that the loan will he employed to finance the second Five-Year Plan as the money for that has already been earmarked, and suggests that it is intended to conceal a serious shortage in commodities and distract public attention from the Government’s deficiencies. ,