Soviet Russia

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 260, 29 July 1932, Page 13

Soviet Russia

Sir, —Major and Mrs. Pharazyn eay that all those who have written on this subject refuse to consider that their statements may be true. So far as the league is concerned it has not questioned the truth of your correspondents’ description of what they saw—we have questioned their right to imply that what they saw in two cities during a short visit, obtains all over Russia. We have read the accounts of many visitors and workers m other parts of Russia which give a very different picture, and thus discount Major and Mrs. Pharazyn’s assumption that the two cities visited are typical, of those parts of Russia which they did not see. Your correspondents seem to suggest that visits to Leningrad and Moscow could convey as much knowledge of conditions over a country which covers onesixth of the world’s land surface—as would visits to Glasgow, London, Manchester, and Bradford apply to little Britain. Surely this is too absurd to accept seriously? We note the same suggestion is repeated in the letter under reply, namely, that their critics would be disappointed to find that the. miserable conditions in Russia are improving. This assumption is entirely unjustified, at any rate so far as we are concerned, nor have we "been abusing the people in Russia for years or even for a minute. Major and Mrs. Pharazyn are deliberately clouding the issues and no one knows this better than themselves. So far as this league is concerned it has never abused the Russian people, but it has repeatedly abused the leaders in that country for their attempts to stir up industrial troubles in, and to interfere with the domestic affairs of other countries, including New Zealand. Their efforts to improve the conditions in Russia are watched with interest, and if these succeed they will give an object lesson to the world —but they have not succeeded yet, even though your correspondents seem to infer that they have. So far as Angio-Russian trade is concerned, we showed that whereas England purchased from Russia in five years up to 1931, £135,000,000 of goods for cash. Russia only bought from England £2a„000,000 on a part cash basis. We held and still hold that these figures disprove Major and Mrs. Pharazyn’s charge that British political prejudice prevents her trading with Russia —yet they still argue that such is the case because shops advertised “No Russian butter sold here. Poor old England always in the wrong 1 However, we venture to state that such advertisement was not evidence of political prejudice, but was the direct result of the discovery of unhealthy conditions under which Russian butter was produced, conditions which, in fairness to the Soviet authorities, were openly condemned in Russian official publications, and we believe have been considerably improved. Your correspondents challenge us to debate their statements on a public platform. To what end? So that a New Zealand audience should be asked to decide whether Major Pharazyn s experiences on his short visit are typical of the whole of Russia —or whether the accounts by other visitors which show grave differences are untrue? We have not attempted to refute Major and Mrs. I narazyn’s statements in detail because we believe that they correctly describe what they saw in the limited area visited. This is not inconsistent with our opinion that they are wrong in allowing their audiences to infer that such conditions obtain over the whole of that enormous territory. We are, WELEARE LBAGUE . Wellington, July 25.