BOLSHEVIST FAILURE

Evening Star, Issue 18809, 6 December 1924, Page 19

BOLSHEVIST FAILURE

RUSSIA'S HUGE DEFICIT. TYRANNY AND MISERY. In Leningrad (formerly Petrograd) the roads contain pot-holes so largo that they have to bo driven round, says Lieutenantcolonel N. Assheton Pownall, M.P., telling in the ‘Nineteenth Century’ of a visit to Russia in August and September. Many of the houses are in ruins, and others are gutted. No steps aro being taken _to remedy this state of affairs. Among signs of poverty ar tho total absence of paint, the absence in large measure of traffic from tho streets, and tho all but total disappearance of trade vehicles. Above all, tho plight of tho inhabitants, as shown by dress and bearing, testifies to what the city has suffered and is still suffering. Many, if not most, of tho children aro without shoes or stockings, and many of the women ere without stockings. Anyone who is well dressed is usually found, .by speech, to bo a foreigner. Low wages are paid to manual workers (about 5s a day to dock laborers), and much lower to tiro unfortunate intelligentsia. School teachers in tho country are paid from £l3 to £l6 a year. Food prices aro not high, but rents in many cases are. They aro based on social status, and the professional classes are regarded as those who should pay tho highest rents. The prices of clothing and boots are .almost prohibitive. Domestic servants have to pay for their board and lodging, and the balance left from their wages is only about £ll a year. EVILS OF A STATE MONOPOLY. Under the N.E.P. (New Economic Policy) greater liberty was given for a time to traders, but suddenly the Bolshevist authorities raided the principal centres, demanded to see the books, and made many arrests. Certain individuals are now licensed for private trade, but the wholesale end distributing services aro wholly in the hands of or controlled by the State, under the guise of State trusts, or co-operative societies. Through mismanagement and misunderstanding of finance, these institutions are having great difficulties. And the licensed private traders are not happy, for, if they appear to prosper (and if they are not Communists), they are so assessed for taxation that they are forced out of business, Tho exchange has been fairly stable for some months, hut the stabilisation is purely artificial, as any exchange dealers who wore prepared (in tho stock exchange phra.'jg) to “bear” currency would receive short shrift at tho hands of the authorities.

In view of Mr Ramsay MacDonald’s signing of the treaty with Russia, and the possibility of Great Britain’s finding itself committed .to a loan of' £30,000,000 or £40,000,000 to tho Soviet Government, the State finances are of interest. For the year ending September 30, 1924, a deficit of £50,000,000 was expected. As there bus been a poor harvest, the deficit will probably bo nearer £70,000,000. If tho British loan to Russia were not all required to balance the Budget, it might enable Russia to buy seed for corn; this, with a good harvests, would enable her to buy other commodities from outside. But even this would not create much demand for British goods, as the co-operative socities are so much overstocked, and the State policy is not to buy anything which can bo produced in Russia. The peasantry are, as Krossin himself stated last year, uterly impoverished. Under the present regime they have no chance of material improvement, as any man who sows more than tho usual acreage is suspect at once. RUSTING RAILWAYS. Tho Press is absolutely censored. A dock strike at Leningrad, involving from 10,000 to 12,000 hands, was not mentioned in the Soviet newspapers. Dock laborers arc in Government employ, which does not prevent labor unrest, Hundreds of locomotives may bo seen rusting on side tracks, and the (rains that run are slow and unsatisfactory. On the surface Moscow is busy and fairly prosperous; as it is tho scat of Government, a good deal of money is spent there which would formerly have been spent in the city that was St. Petersburg, lint housing conditions aro appalling; whole families have to share ono room. A few British and other rms Lave endeavored to open trade, hut tho majority have given up in despair.

How long will the present regime continue? Tho position of tho Bolshevists is very strong, though, says Colonel Pownall, there are only from 300,000 to 400,000 of them. Their strength has been created by a policy of assassinating or expelling their opponents; the few who remain aro too cowed to take papt in any active contrarevolutionary movement. Whether there will ho a fresh war before tho autocrats aro dispossessed no one can sny, but it is quite impossible for the Soviet Government to continue on its present economic lines. With every advantage from confiscation and monopoly, it has an immense deficit. Even if tho British were so ill-advised as to pay (he greater part of it, this could only carry them on for another year. That they should find a succession of countries each willing to put up £10,000,000 is obviously absurd. Before long the present economic regime is doomed to failure. Colonel Pownall’s experiences have convinced him that for moral reasons Great Britain should do nothing to help those who wish to crush Christianity, and to introduce throughout tho world "the moral and physical torture to which they have subjected the Russian people.