BRITAIN’S WOES

Evening Star, Issue 26043, 6 March 1947, Page 8

BRITAIN’S WOES

CAPITALISED IN SOVIET UNION RUSSIAN CONDITIONS SHOWN IN FAVOURABLE LIGHT (N.Z.P.A, Special Correspondent.) LONDON, March 4. •Recent (Russian official broadcasts and newspaper quotations monitored and recorded in London indicate that the British fuel crisis has been extensivelyused by the Russians in an effort to prove to the people of the Soviet Republics and much of Europe how favourably Russian conditions compare with those in Britain. No sympathy has been expressed in any of these broadcasts for the plight of the British people, but two main points were emphasised—first, that Britain’s difficulties in the view of the Soviet propagandists spring from over-extension of- hef military power, and secondly, from the luke-warm attitude of her Labour leaders to fhe full application of the tenets of Socialism. Commenting upon Britain’s manpower difficulties, the Russian newspaper, ‘Red Star’ said: “The British Government is spending tremendous sums in the maintenance of troops in the Near East, in l 'Greece, and else-' where. Those now in the forces could be working and adding £400,000,000 to British industry. Britain, on the pretext of defending Empire interests, is taking no real steps to cut down her armed forces.’’

LABOUR BENEFITS INVISIBLE. The ‘ New Times,' of Moscow, said: “ When they voted for a Labour Government the workers counted on improved conditions, but beneficial results of Labour Party rule are still invisible. The food situation has become worse, the housing problem has not been solved, while substantial cuts in earnings, in conjunction with big price increases, have reduced the workers’ family budget.” Broadcasting in English Moscow radio said: “Notable strides were made in the Soviet Union during 1946. Housing reconstruction was launched m a big way all over the Soviet Union, and the volume of it was 50 per cent, more than in the previous year. By way of contrast it might be remarked that in Britain, where many homes were also destroyed by war, the housing construction plan for the .first postwar- year was hot carried out.” Another Moscow broadcast last week went to considerable lengths to compare conditions enjoyed . by Russian miners with those, of Britain, to the disadvantage of the latter. 1 Izvestia,’ in an article on the Bri-. tish situation, said the nationalisation of various backward industries being carried out by the British Labour Government, “does not alter the 1 existing distribution of national wealth and income, and that the position of monopoly capital in Britain has not been m any way shaken.” , These comments were made before the publication .of the Russian equivalent to the British White Paper, which disclosed that Russia’s own internal difficulties were even more pressing than those of Britain. SPACE FOR MR BEVIN. As an offset to the comments upon Britain’s domestic troubles, on Thursday and Friday of last week Mr Be yin had six columns to himself in the Moscow Press. The first report dealt with the Palestine situation, and explained Britain’s difficulties much more fully than hitherto, and the second was devoted to a summary of his speech in the House of Commons. In this the Russian Press placed emphasis upon Mr Bevin’s unwillingness to see Europe split in two, his appreciation of Russia’s need for reparations, his awareness of the danger of a Kiffl ferivax in Germany, his belief in German economic unity, and on his forecast that a four-Power security pact would be discussed in Moscow.