CONDITIONS IN RUSSIA.

Auckland Star, Issue 111, 13 May 1935, Page 6

CONDITIONS IN RUSSIA.

In reply to "G.," we have to say that "a tree is known 'by its fruits." Judged by the quotations given from Mr. W. H. Chamberlin's book, we are compelled to say that, in spite of the high standing Mr. Chamberlin formerly held in the U.S.S.R., and which we quite frankly acknowledge, the book bears, on the evidence of its friends, every suspicion of a bitter hostility and poisoned judgment, and on these grounds we deem 'it unworthy of being accepted as a standard authority. In 1930-31 one of our own members spent a year in the Soviet Union. Late last year two more of our members returned from a shorter visit. Last month, another of our members, Max Riske, M.A., returned from a short tour of the U.S.S.R. All these members were enabled to get a thoroughly representative cross-section of the life and industry and government of the Soviet Union. They all very frankly admit much that is capable of considerable improvement, but they all give the lie direct co Chamberlin's grotesque extravagances. No one can listen in regularly to Radio Centre, Mosxv, without having brought forcibly home to them that while Soviet citizens are -uroud of their proletarian achievements, and justly >o. there is, nevertheless, no people in the world that indulges in such frank public self-criticism. If "G." imagines, and quietly we do not think that he does, that "Stalin alone"' is responsible for executions and for the many early errors associated with the collectivisation of agriculture, then he is allowing an anti-Soviet complex to seriously interfere with the spirit of studious investigation. FRIENDS OF THE SOVIET UNION.