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Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 30, 29 October 1932, Page 10

Mr. J. A. Nash’s complimentary references to the work of the Railways Board emphasise the virtue of eliminating political influences from this important trading department. In spite of pressure from various quarters the Board has held steadily to its course, and the efficacy of its policy is now becoming apparent in results. The principle should apply in any proposal touching the establishment of a central bank. In the House yesterday a member of the Labour Party expressed the hope that such an institution would not be on the lines suggested by Sir Otto Niemeyer. The speaker, Mr. McKeen, was presumably apprehensive that if Sir Otto's ideas were adopted the politicians would not be able to have a finger in the pie. The objective of these institutions is to strengthen the mechanism of currency and credit. That would not be possible were their policies and managements subject to political influence. As with the Railways Board, they must be allowed to conduct their business on business lines.

A brief reference in a British official wireless message records some improvement in the Communist situation in Central and South China. So little reference appears in the news to the growth of the soviet system in China that its importance is often not realised. Tn the past ten years Moscow has spent much money and effort on the “sovietisation” of China, Mongolia and the Far East in general. Her success has been impressive and the world may well consider whether Russia or Japan is to prevail in the Far East, the one working through, political propaganda and the other by force of arms. A few months ago out of 2000 departments in China, 300 were governed by soviets. The territory involved extended over 300,000 square miles and contained 80 million people. To quote one authority the Communist authorities controlled a “sufficiently well-organised army” of 120,000 men, exclusive of militia units and other forces totalling over a million. Communism is in the ascendant in the central provinces, lying between Shanghai and Canton. Recently its forces have been, threatening the central Government although latest advices suggest that the thrust across the Yangtze has been checked. Nevertheless it may yet come to a question of whether Russian Communism or Japanese Imperialism is to influence the future of China.