THE FIVE-YEAR PLAN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 194, 18 August 1931, Page 17

THE FIVE-YEAR PLAN.

It was reported in the "Star" of August 13 that the council of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce recently carried a resolution requesting the Government to prohibit goods emanating from Russia from entering the Dominion on the grounds that "Soviet Russia has adopted a policy of repudiation of international debts and the confiscation of property." In the same paper is a report of an address given that day at the Auckland Chamber of Commerce by the Rev. Mr. Monckton, in which he is reported to have said that of the five-year plan "above everything else it is an attempt, fundamentally, to change the spirit and the productive capacity of labour." The previous day, August 12, the "Star" published a statement by a Mr. J. P. D. Malkin, a leading financier and merchant of Vancouver, who hud just returned to Canada from a visit to Russia. He said of the Soviets, "the greatest thing they have done is to create an incentive to work, for the State and not self-interest. So far," he said, "they have succeeded. If they finally are able to maintain this ideal, and if human selfishness does not overtake them, they will be a dominating force for real good in the world, even if their system does not become worldwide." Now, it also happened that on the same day, August 12, the "Star" published a cable from London in which it was stated that a Russian vessel reached London the day previously, having on board 350 Soviet workers, who, for conspicuous service on behaff of the five-year plan, had been sent on a month's holiday tour in a steamer "whose accommodation rivals that on crack Atlantic liners," and during the tour these workers on holiday, would visit London, Geneva and Constantinople. I am wondering what attitude the Council of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce would take if, by chance, the Soviet Government should decide to send its next group of prizewinners to Wellington with money in their pockets to spend, as no doubt those have who are on the present tour. I am also wondering a little about those repudiated debts. Suppose Russia had been able to pay, and had insisted on paying, would not the debts have had to be paid in grain, or butter, or timber, the goods in which Russia paid her debts, and with which she bought the goods she needed before the war, and would not those payments have added to the difficulties of countries, say, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, which have found it difficult lately to dispose of similar goods produced for sale? Ido not advocate repudiation of debts, but I think it is pretty generally realised to-day that the world has yet to find some way in which debts between nations can be paid without causing inconvenience not only to the nation which pays, but in some cases still greater inconvenience to the nation which receives the payment. I think the lesson we might learn from the news I have quoted is that Russia has a plan; she has a national objective. We may not like the Russians, we may not approve their plan, and we may entirely disapprove their national objective, but it seems to be a fact that it has inspired millions of Russians with an ideal, and that millions of them are prepared to make sacrifices which will help forward the achievement of that ideal. Now, what I want to say is: Is Russia the only country which can have a plan? Are they the only people who can be inspired by an ideal? Who can say that we in New Zealand have a plan? True, we have a No. 5 scheme. Strange how the number "five" has come into prominence lately. A five-year plan—Mj\ Lang proposed to limit salaries to five hundred pounds — and New Zealand has a number five scheme. Seven used to be the wonder working number, and it may be that New Zealand's number seven scheme will be the one which will inspire us, decide what our national objective should be, and set us on the way toward it. TOM BLOODWORTH.