BAN ON SOVIET

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 84, 10 April 1931, Page 11

BAN ON SOVIET

CANADIAN EMBABGO

IfIROADS ON TRADE

(From "Tlio Post's"; Representative;).. VANCOUVER 4th 'March. The first official offer by the Soviet to exchange trade with. Canada was met with a Federal. Order-iu-Council next day, which banged, barred, and bolted the door against all Soviet products. Itwas the most effective embargo laid down by any country, against Russia since tho. inauguration of the Soviet system. Three phases of Cauaadian progress, religious, economic, and political, wero being assailed by tho Soviet. Quebec had airoady protested-'against Moscow's persecution of religion, its. avowed policy' of. atheism, and its caricaturing of the Pope. On the economic side, the Soviet had already captured somo of Canada's trade with Britain in wheat and lumber, and was preparing to secure her trade in. furs and asbestos. Politically, tho Soviet has .been very active in. Canada during the past year, in directing campaigns by disgruntled unemployed, ' mostly . foreign-born; toward the . overthrow of the present form of. government and its replacement- by the Soviet system. The Soviet'inroads on American and Canadian trade inspired the meeting of the President,. Mr. Hoover, and the Prime Minister, Mr. Bennett; of that there is no doubt, although thero has been, no hiat that such-a discussion took place. A few days after the meeting the United States placed an embargo on Russian imports of lumber. Tho embargo was not complete; it simply put the onus on the Soviet of proving that the lumber was not produced or marketed by forced labour. Knowing the fickleness of the United States Courts, Soviet immediately replied that it would send a shipment as a- test ease. . TdOK NO CHANCES, Mr. Bennett, knew that the Soviet could have driven a tractor through any partial embargo; ■= Ho took no chances. Canada was not. financially beholden to tlie .Soviet, as; was the caso with the United : States,. whose, trade with~: the- Soviet, in- .1930; .was, the sole eloment' of American: seaborne trade which -registered a-nrincrease. •.-■_ The United States' was -further beholden to tlie - Soviet, .in that her firms -and experts ' had. obtained rich; contracts -to revive Russian industries on tho American pattern.

Canadian wheat, was already Lard hit by a serious decline-iu world price when. the. Soviet, commenced to dump grain on the British market at. a-figure that could not sustain.the wheat farmer on Canadian standards. •Lumber whs hard hit. by. tho United States tariff. Two key industries were therefore being assailed-by tho Soviet. A. third was threatened when Russia entered the. fur market. It was only a step to dis,turbing the 'miuiug industry, which carried most.of the others on its back during the slump of 1930.

■ Communist propaganda was -the-last straw. Two big campaigns during, the past, year against the established order of government—World Revolution Day and International Unemployment Day —were admittedly inspired, by the Soviet. Tho- first- mpntioned ; was noisy enough to attract attention, tho second was a fiasco, - indicating that public opinion had been aroused..

The time was ripe i'or action. Mr. Beuuctt- struck at the roots of: the Soviet tree, just-as hard as the United States would have struck had she not been beholden to Moscow, and just as hard as.Britain would have struck had the clock been put forward six months, with a Conservative Government in power. The two greatest Powers will find it easier, now that a lead has been given, to reorganise their defences against further Communist inroads on Anglo-Saxon .ideals.