RUSSIA TO-DAY

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 30, 5 February 1925, Page 7

RUSSIA TO-DAY

BRITISH LABOUR DELEGATION

AN OPTIMISTIC REPORT

(PBOII OCR OWli CORHEBPONDEST.)

LONDON, 31st December.

A delegation appointed by the General Council of the Trades Union Congress to visit Russia and report on the position of affairs in that country has returned to London. During the six weeks' tour the delegation travelled over 6000 miles, visiting some of the niost important industrial centres in Russia, for th& purpose of investigating the, industrial, social, and economic conditions prevailing under Soviet rule.

A full report of the delegation's activities is to appear in a few weeks, but in the meantime a brief statement lias been issued. The investigations, it is stated, have covered several industries, including transport, mining, boot factories, printing, engineering, and electrical undertakings, railway shops, oilfields, water power, electrical schemes, warehouses, distributive establishments, and the several economic departments responsible for the administrative control of industries.

Social institutions, such as hospitals, rest houses, workmen's clubs, holiday homes, and children's Homes have also been visited in connection with the investigations into the working of State insurance schemes for dealing w jth" unemployment, and the health of the workers and their dependants. Facilities have been given for free entry into all Movernment institutions, and interviews readily arranged. Documents, charts, and reports have been supplied, and exper translators are now at work preparing detailed material for the del-a- ewon s report. . ■ ■ "

"ENORMOUSLY IMPROVED." • -Among other things the delegates report that the social, industrial, and economic conditions of Russia, have enormously improved since the visit of the British Delegation in 1020. Members of both delegations and the expert advisers formerly residing in Russia for many years are agreed as to the very rapid process of economic restoration now op;oratinir under the direction of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republic. The financial stability of^Russia, is more secure than was expected. The.Russians have 'almost balanced their Budget and haye restored Jheir productivity relative to the -.pre-war, standard at a rate which compares/favourably with the general European average The industrial -undertakings are being rapidly developed especially those responsible for electrical power and equipment. The hi<rh desree v _of organising- and administrative capacity arid the enthusiasm of the workers under the new system of State own?rshjp deeply impressed the delegation. • ' - . ■ a .

A great effort is being- made to eliminate illiteracy, and many kinds of educational activity are being promoted and are generously subsidised and urged forward by the Union of Socialist Republics and Trade Union organisations. The administrative departments of the Soviet btate are well organised and efficiently' controlled, especially those to which the members of the delegation devoted special attention, name^, those dealing with State insurance for health, "-unemployment, and the-medical'care of the workers i and their dependants. Religious institutions have complete freeqom to exercise'-their religious beliefs and members of the delegation visited churches and mosques during "the ser-vices-but the church has been disestabiished and is now entirely maintained by_ voluntary contributions, and no religipus instruction is given in schools or other educational institutions ■ In conclusion, it is stated that the report will prove that millions of new capital could be properly and safely invested in the development of the enormous economic possibilities of Russia, and will fully justify the claim made on behalf of British Labou.r that Russia under Soviet rule lias so far improved the material and moral condition ot its people as to have now earned a permanent place among European ' natiQns. ■ ,- ' *> •

DOUBTFUL EVIDENCE. It was admitted before the delegation parted, says "The Times," in a leading article, that they did not know Russian. But interviews through unknown interpreters and translations by unknown experts are not very satisfactory sources of information, nor.can conversations arranged by the authorities he regarded aa quite free from suspicion ma land where private 1 conversation with a foreigner is a ground for denunciation and even for arrest " ' _.Tha writer points out that Wdelegation seems.to have missed the fact that the i>ussia which the delegation of 1920 ■visited was still under the system of pure Communism, and not to have noticed how such improvement as there has been since has followed upon the partial abandonment of pure Communism which Lemu. introduced under the name of the "New Economic ' Policy." The delegation say that the economic restoration^ Very rapid.' But there lip. The 'International Labour Review,' the organ of. the. Labour' Department of he League of Nations, states J» its uum' ber for last mouth that, in Russia 'real wages now are not more than 65 per cent., of pre-war wages,'• and that the material condition of workers is so low that »t ts doubtful whether they can inS tlle f ll;, out^t «nd improve the proauction of the country.' ' ■

£1 A MONTH FOR SCHOOL-

. "Then the delegation aro deeply impressed, by the rapid development of wdnjrtrial undertakin. ss . Last' month Dzerzhinsky who controls all the metal industries, told a conference of trade unionists that these industries had reached only 27i per cent, of the pre-' WiU- output, and that the consumption of cast won had sunk from 721b a head erf the population to Hlb. while indusar|,. a'SJ'eat burden to the finances of the State. The delegates spejk 0/ the great efforts being made for education -generously subsidised* by the State. Jiiit _fW,dp. Lun-,charsky, the Soviet Comissioner for Education, reported two mpnths ago that the number of elementary schools ;iad fallen, and that village schoolmaster/had a salary of about £1 a month. So it is with the findings of t?e rlelevahon on religions■ freedom and on moral life of thn country " It will be interesting to read the full leport of the deewtion, but it seems mo c than probable that the members have boo,, carefully conducted, and have been allowed to witness nothing that would prejudice the Soviet cause