SOVIET SECRET FUND

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 January 1928, Page 5

SOVIET SECRET FUND

TROTSKY’S ALLEGATIONS. (Australian aud N.Z. Cable Aesooiation.) RIGA, January 14. It is disclosed that M. Trotsky, at one of his meetings, made extraordinary revelations concerning secret reserve funds In the possession of the Communist Party. He said that when Denikin and Kalachak’s forces were nearing Moscow, and when the whole of Russia was ablaze with revolt, Soviet Departments, acting on Lenin’s instructtions, confiscated money, valuables and jewels wholesale, from which a secret fund of twenty millions sterling was formed, so that the leaders, in case of necessity, would be enabled to escape abroad, and to carry on the Communist Party’s work. * Trotsky stated that only Lenin and his intimates, such as Trotsky, Zinovieff, and Kameneff were aware of this fund. The Bolsheviks survived, and duly consolidated their position, and the fund remained untouched during Lenin’s lifetime. M. Stalin, however, the present head of the Soviet, had raided the fund when the Communist Party became impoverished, and he cerated many sinecures, and even commercial and semi-commercial •organisations, whereby the Stalinites, their followers, and their friends were enabled to thrive, and the system was bolstered up. Trotsky urged that the workers should demand a full account of the secert funds.

The revelations, it is stated, have produced a stunning effect. ZINOVIEFF REPRIEVED. LONDON, January 14. The British United Press Berlin correspondent says: In contrast to the punishment meted out to other Oppositionists, Zinovieff and Kameneff are being sent on a “party mission” to Voronezh, in Southern Russia. It is believed the journey is in the natifre of a disciplinary measure, and may end in their re-admission to the Communist Party. PEASANTS’ “RELAXATION.” RIGA, January 15. Soviet officials, when touring the country to induce the peasants to subscribe to the loan being raised, were pained to discover that the agriculturists were demanding public houses similar to those in vogue in Western Europe, and that they were wishing for a relaxation, without being compelled to listen to political lectures and Communists’ reports. The officials declare that there is an alarming increase of drunkenness, and that the peasants are spending one-fifth of their incomes on drink at the village clubs which the Soviet has founded.

SAVING THE TSAR. LONDON, January 4. M. Kerensky, inteiwiewed in Paris by the Central News correspondent, said that Britain could have saved the Tsar if she had wished. “At the beginning of the revolution, it was impossible to do anything, but in midsummer, 1918, when president of the Provisional Government, I requested Sir G. Buchanan to ask his Government to save the Tsar. IJe telegraphed to London, from which came a clear, precise reply that it was impossibl eto do anything before the end of the war. England did not want to irritate the workers’ sentiments. It was impossible for us to send the Emperor abroad, so I prepared to send him to Bolsk, where tjie population was peaceful. Sir G. Buchanan was first approached in March, when he offered to .arrange for the Emperor’s safety, but owing to passions running high in Russia, it was then impossible to do anything.”