Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24th., 1930. SOVIET DOOMED ?

Greymouth Evening Star, 24 November 1930, Page 4

Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24th., 1930. SOVIET DOOMED ?

’J’HE Russian Soviet leaders have been reported so often to be faced with revolt, assassination and extinction generally, and yet have overcome their opponents, that caution is now exercised be-

fore accepting any statement that Stalin and his colleagues are doomed. The wish is the father to the thought regarding most of these

'eports, and although it would be

acclaimed by the outside world,*the end of the Soviet cannot yet be expected with any confidence. There is much discontent in Russia, but whilst Stalin and his supporters have the backing of the army, they have little Io fearIt is admitted that the Russians really in favour of the Red methods are comparatively few, yet the majority of the people are so disorganised, and lack a real leader, that the Soviet leaders can enforce

their will upon the resentful multitude. Whether they will always be able to do this is for time to show. The Reds have been in power for ■ over a decade, and it is said that only internal dissensions can bring about their ruin. There has been already considerable “internal dissensions.” many former leaders such as Trotsky, having quarrelled with Stalin, but the result was to the former’s discomfiture. The longer the Reds can keep in power, the more difficult it will be to shift them, especially as years of propaganda in the country and the schools has persuaded many Russians that the capitalist-controlled armies in other lands would invade

and conquer Russia, but for the Red Army being the country’s safe-

guard. However, such propaganda is partly counter-acted by the sufferings endured by many through the Soviet’s domestic policy, which presses with increasing severity on the working classes. The 1 ‘ intellectuals,” of course, have long been harassed, biLt that infliction was to the liking of the ignorant mob. Now that the latter are being similarly '‘ ‘ controlled, ’ ’ a different note is struck. For instance, a recent decree of the Labour Commissariat at Moscow ordered the immediate stoppage of all unemployment relief, and barring for ever from the Labour Exchanges all persons who refuse a job of any kind, skilled or unskilled, manual or sedentary Whatever the worker’s special qualifications, he must henceforth accept the work he is ordered to do, and he may be sent to almost any place in the vast Soviet Union. This industrial slavery is as bad as anything the days of the Czars could produce, and has caused “comradeship” to slump s’eriously. .

The Soviet’s policy of dumping low-priced wheat in countries which have too much already, whilst the Russian people themselves cannot get enough for their own wants, is another' cause for mass-discontent. Nor is wheat the only commodity to be dumped. The European markets are to be flooded with cheap goods, next year, as part of the plan to ruin ‘‘capitalist ’ ’ countries, but far more injury will be done to the Russian people, whose serfdom alone makes such cheap production possible. Under these circumstances, there 'are bound ’ to be conspiracies against the Soviet, and as the Russian winter is severe, the next few months must? bring additional sufferings to the poor, making them desperate and more likely to rise against their oppressors. it is the Red Army which is the. deciding factor, and until the troops change their allegiance, the Soviet system is safe, no matter what may happen to individual leaders.