RUSSIA CAN LIGHTEN BURDENS OF THE WORLD.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3113, 17 April 1922, Page 7

RUSSIA CAN LIGHTEN BURDENS OF THE WORLD.

HBy Sir Philip Gibbs.)

tiie most interesting chapters of history wiij begin when representatives of Soviet llussia. are given a hearing for the first time in a discussion

ol world affairs at the Genoa, Conference. 1 have already told readers why I think the problem of Russia. must be dealt with by other world Powers—especially by the United States and Great Britain —as one' of the keys to the solution of international peace and .European recovery. Briefly stated again, it is that in re-

turn for economic recognition and based upon the development of the immense natural resources of the Russian Empire, now lying untouched because of the utter breakdown of her industrial life, the great Powers can demand, and enforce, the demobilisation of the Red army, the abandonment of revolutionary propaganda and the establishment of a less tyrannical system of government. By such a compact, under drastic conditions, Europe will be relieved of a military menace which totally obstructs the progress of peace conditions. With the demobilisation of the Red army there will be no pretext for Poland to maintain her large- standing army or for the Letts and Lithuanians.

That will case the financial and military burdens of France, to whom Polandjooks- for support. That will make France less aggressive in regard to- German reparations and will make her friendly relations with Great Britain more assured. At the same time the resurrection of Russia from her living death wifi give back to the world a great market for manufactured goods. Before the war Russia bought 75 per cent, of all the manufactured articles used by her people. For some years to come she will need to- buy 9b per cent, in return for her grain, timber, furs, oils, minerals, flax, and other produce.

A rising tide of trade in Russia would undoubtedly do a great deal to restore the buying and selling energy of .the whole world, not rapidly but in a gradual and healthy way. We cannot ignore the possibility. Russia herself must submit to any conditions to obtain it or die out of civilisation. Upon her representatives at the Genoa Conference (if they actually get there) and upon their good sense and good faith will depend the outcome of this chance to secure a renascence of Russian life.

Their chief representative undoubtedly will bo Tchitchorin, the Secretary for Foreign Affairs. He is their most highly educated diplomat, their most respectable Minister. In Moscow a few weeks ago I had a long talk with him, and was able to make a. study of his personality. The history of the man might make the theme of a Russian novel. A young man belonging to the aristocracy of Russia, ho became many years ago an intellectual Communist long before Lenin was known by sinister reputation. Ho proved a certain sincerity of idealism by going to England after a complete abandonment of fortune and family privilege, and working in one of the trade unions. When his father died ho inherited a great estate, but refused to. accept the inheritance. Ho was one of the intellectuals behind the revolutionary movement of 1906, when the old Czarist regime was seriously threatened, and when the great revolution happened after the war he allied himself with the extreme Communist groups who overthrew the moderate men under the leadership of Kerensky. When I met him in Moscow he seemed to me a most moody, gloomy and disillusioned man as he sat in a barely furnished room in the dirty old building used as the Foreign Office which is inhabited by a swarm of Soviet officials, and guarded on evenlanding by young soldiers of the Red army. Here in a couple of rooms Tichitcherin lives an austere life, waiting upon himself, with an old woman to cook and clean, and carrying his own messages from room to room rather than depend upon other men’s service.

People say that is merely an affected pose, but I fancy the man is sincere in his desire for simplicity and self-depen-dence. But watching him closely andi listening to his manner of speech as I. sat facing him, I believed, and still believe, that Tchitcherin is haunted by a sense of ghastly failure and by “a conviction of sin,” as the old ecclesiastics used* to say, which sits heavily upon ins conscience.

He is a gentleman and an intellectual aristocrat, but lor the sake of a fanatical idea he allied himself with ruthless and vile men and supported bloodthirsty acts, from which his own insitnets revolted, in order that his ideal might he imposed upon the people for what lie believed to he their good. Now when I sat facing him he knew that his consent to bloodshed, to the suppression of liberty, to cruelty had been in vain, for the theory of Communism had failed utterly in Russia, and by its organisers, such as Lenin, had been entirely abandoned under the force of irreparable ruin. That is how I read: the thoughts of Tchitcherin, Russian Minister of State, as he sat silent for a while staring at his blotting pad. He had been sincere when others had been insincere, honest when others had been dishonest; but their failure was In’s too, and his honor was besmirched by their villainies.

My interview with him was immensely interesting, and it began by a candid confession about the breakdown of the Communist system in Russia. “It has failed,” he said, “because no country can live by itself alone, and all other countries have been hostile to the Russian experiment.” He explained to me the “new economic laws” promulgated by Lenin, and the immense change (which afterward I witnessed for my self in Russia) which had taken place. “By reason of civil war,” he said, “severe measures wore taken by the Soviet Government to concentrate all property and trading in the hands of the State. Those measures had borne very heavily upon the people owing to the breakdown of industrial life and the scarcity of food. Now the system could no longer he upheld. Private property was recognised as a right and private trading was restored. The people were again put on a wage basis and rationing was stopped except among essential Soviet workers and the unemployed. “Those people who had goods stored up brought them out into the market places and sold them. With money so 'obtained they were aide to buy other goods and, .sell those at a profit. So free trade was starting rapidly and shops were opening. This modification of Communism” —I noticed that he did not use the word abandonment, which would have been more strictly true—“has succeeded because it meets the wishes of the peasants, who form 88 per cent, of the population of Russia and were never converted to the idea of Communism.”

ftter a long analysis of the peasant character —not very favorable or friendly' though with a tribute to the shrewdness of the peasant mind —Tchitclierin answered a question which T put to him bluntly, hardly expecting him to answer. I said: “Is there any possibility of the Soviet Government recognising the old pre-war debts to France amt other nations?” His answer was without hesitation, and amazed me.

“Of course,” ho replied. “That is the logitial outcome of our present methods. We are ready to- acknowledge the pre-war debts. But it will not be much good to announce that decision, as foreign countries would take it as a sign of weakness foretell.ng the downfall of the Soviet Government—which is quite untrue.”

This was the first acknowledgment made on behalf of the Soviet Government that the pre-war debts would bo recognised, and I think I was the first man to know it. It is one of my journalistic regrets that owing to my service in Russia- as an investigator of the famine on behalf of the Imperial Belief Committee i was unable to send this news to.the world. I mot another man in Russia who is a power behind the scenes and will help to prepare the Russian case as it will be put before the Genoa Conference. That is Radek, a brilliant man of Jewish race, with an immense range of knowledge in international affairs and a perfectly unscrupulous character. He lived formerly in Now York and speaks English fluently though with a strong accent. He has been the chief propagandist of Communism and the “world revolution” in Russia, and the outside world, but when I saw him in the Kremlin of Moscow ho talked no longer of world revolution, but of balances of power.

His mam idea was the necessity of peace between Great Britain and .Russia, both of whom are Oriental Powers with immense responsibilities in the Par East. Radek admitted that Bolshevist agents had been fanning up trouble against British rule wherever they found an opportunity in India. Afghanistan, Egypt and other Mohammedan countries. But he said the time had come to abandon all that nonsense and make a pact which would be useful to both peoples—the British and Russian. This man Radek is an extraordinary type, with a fringe of reddish brown hair all round his face. He speaks in a harsh voice and has a sense of humor to which ho gives vent in shrill laughter. He is a family man and lives with his wife and small boy in a great fortress palace of the Kremlin, which, with its golden domes and high battlemcntcd walls, looks like the scene of an Arabian Night’s dream. Not being provided with a pass, I was arrested three times inside the Kremline gates, being passed on from post to post. But the name of Radek—which I am told means “scoundrel” in Russian —acted as a magic password. These two men, Tchitcherin and Radek, are at the opposite poke of character. One is cold as ice, the other r— Radek —like a tongue of fire. But they are both men of considerable intellectual brilliance, and seeing now that Communism lias failed they are ready to adopt a policy of “realism” in the hope of saving Russia —and themselves —by a return to Western methods of economic life and international trade.