MORE MEMBERS

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 154, 27 December 1935, Page 7

MORE MEMBERS

THE SOVIET PARTY

ACCEPTED AFTER JUNE

TO PASS STRICT TEST

United I'ress 'Association—By Electric Tel«craph—Copyright. / (Received December 27, 9 a.m.) MOSCOW, December 26. The Soviet Communist Party ha» decided to accept fresh members after June 1, provided they satisfy the rigorous police examination. Membership of the party was temporarily suspended in 1932. The Government of the Union consists of a Union Central Executive Committee and ■ a Union Council of People's Commissars. The former is elected by the Union Congress of Soviets, the supreme authority of the Union, and between Congresses is th« sovereign legislative, administrative, and judicial authority of the Union. It is convened three times a year, and consists of two chambers—th« Union. Council, since- March, 1931, consisting of 472 members elected on. the principle of proportional representation of the seven constituent republics, and the Council of Nationalities, since March, 1931, of 138 members, elected on the basis of 5 members for every independent and autonomous republic, and 1 member' for every autonomous region. All legislation, must be adopted by both chambers. The Presidium, or Standing Committee, which transacts current business, is composed of 27 members, 9 .from each chamber and 9 elected at a joint meeting. Subordinate legislative and executive authority is vested in the Union Council of People's Commissars, or Cabinet. Each People's Commissar is, since March, 1934, assisted by a maximum of two deputies and a council which meets at intervals. Decisions of the\Union Council of People's Commissars may be revised by the Presidium of the Union Central Executive. Committee. During the periods between the sessions of the Central Executive Committee and those of the Congresses of the Soviets, the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee it the sovereign authority of the Union and, in accordance with Article 1 of the Constitution, it has among other rights the prerogative of carrying on diplomatic negotiations, of concluding political and other treaties with other Powers, of altering the external frontiers of the Union, of declaring war and concluding peace, and of ratifying international treaties.- The Council of People's Commissars is also responsible to the full Central Executive. Committee and to the Union Congress of Soviets, to which it makes a report as ,a whole, in addition to the departmental reports. - Sovereignty in the Soviet Union derives from the Communist Party. The divisions of the party correspond to the territorial divisions of the State. Local conferences : of the party members elect delegates.to provincial con-, ferences and the provincial conferences 'send delegates to the Soviet Union Party Conference, which elects the Central Executive Committee of the party. The Central Executive Committee is not in permanent session, but elects for the general management of its affairs a Secretariat consisting of four members, of which one is the General Secretary. This General Secretary is actually the leader of the Communist Party. ' The Central Executive Committee elects sub-committees (bureaux) which deal with the various aspects of party, work, e.g., Political Bureau (Politbureiu), the Organisation Bureau (Orgbureau), and other bureaux; These bureaux work under the direction, of the Secretariat. All appointments to the posts of People's Commissars or posts of equal importance are settled by the Politbureau. . ~ . .... The Secretariat is organised in sections corresponding to the Commissariats, every section of the Party Secretariat directing the corresponding Soviet State Commissariat. All legislation and all foreign negotiations, though formally carried, through by the State"Administration (Soviet line), is either initiated or preliminarily passed by the Secretariat of the party (party line). Every organ of State Administration is practically always headed by a party member, but it also contains a, nucleus of party members who receive instructions not only from their Soviet Chief (the official head of the' organ), but also from their party chiefs. . The local administration is carried on by the local Soviets, but in every locality there is also a Communist group, whose secretary controls the Soviet administration arid who receives his own instructions from tht superior organs of the party. In every factory; in every colkhox (collective farm),-there is a Communist cell which watches the technical administration of the factory or the colkhoz, and which is in contact with the other organs of the Communist Party, In this way the members of the party distributed over the whole mechanism of the State system represent* the controlling power, which drives the State machine in the direction required by the General Secretary of the Communist Party along the socalled 'General Party Line.' The purity of the party policy and strict discipline are^ maintained, by means of a special party code of regulations and by systematic purges.