A LABOUR VIEW

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 141, 11 December 1935, Page 11

A LABOUR VIEW

PROGRESS IN RUSSIA

Sir Walter Citrine, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, and Lady Citrine, recently returned to England from an extensive tour of Russia, says the "Daily Telegraph."

The country, Sir Walter thinks, now takes a place among the great industrial powers of the world.

"I think," he told me, "that we should be wrong to ignore her capacity as an industrial competitor if she turned to the export market."

Other opinions expressed by Sir Walter were:—

The standard of living is still distinctly lower than in most other countries.

There is great overcrowding. In the big cities it is terrible.

The foundations of Russia's industrial future are soundly laid, and I expect that in two or three years the standard of living will definitely improve.

It is claimed that 80 per cent, of the coal is mechanically produced.

Sir Walter described travel and transport as absurdly cheap, and said that rents were infinitely lower than in England. The charges in those respects were uneconomic.

The country had many great achievements to its credit. Oil production had been more than doubled in five years, and he- believed the steel production was larger now than that of the United Kingdom.

"Naturally," continued Sir Walter, "I kept my eyes open for British machinery. I found the accent to be on American and German machines. For every British machine I saw at least three American.

"They say that before they can build the- Socialist State they will have to provide the means whereby they can build factories themselves."

One of the things that struck Sir Walter was the absence of drunkenness.