Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23rd., 1937. RUSSIA AND ARCTIC.

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 June 1937, Page 6

Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23rd., 1937. RUSSIA AND ARCTIC.

'J’IIE Russian airmen achieved a notable performance in flyino' from Moscow to Vancouver (U.S.A.), and their accomplishment emphasises the high standard Russian aviators have reached. If they can do so much in peace, they should be formidable in war. ami. doubtless, possible enemies are duly impressed. The whole world should congratulate tin* Russians on their latest

oceanic flight, particularly as the hardships encountered and overcome were beyond the ordinary.

Litvinoff’s congratulatory mesIsage. however, was not without

irony. lie cited the flight xf as a proof of the peaceable nature of Soviet Russia at a time when .aviation was being used by certain peoples (in Spain') to destroy cities and villages and kill men, women, and children in order to impose a regime and ideology foreign to them.’* What of Stalin s purges, and the manner in which Sovietism has been thrust on various races subject to Moscow?

Russia is not indulging in these costly Arctic aerial journeys and research' camps merely for the sake of science. She has hopes of overcoming Nature’s obstacles to the use of her northern shores. Siberia is rich in natural resources, metals, fuel, and timber. The coast is ice-bound. The ground, when it thaws, thaws into

mud, which makes roads virtually impossible. The great rivers lose in transport value because nearly all of them drain to the frozen sea. The Trans-Siberian Railway is no more than a single vein, tpiite inadequate to carry the rich blood of the steppes to the heart of the Soviet Union. Russia plans to change all this, and it is well that these peaceful enterprises should be given publicity. If the news about Russia is chiefly confined to Soviet crimes and savagery, wrong impressions must be formed. A recent book, describing Russia’s challenge to'the Arctic, outlines the ambitious 'plans of the Soviet. “The North-East. Passage will be kept open for three months in the year. Ice breakers —armoured ships of great power which can climb their bows on to the flows and shatter them by their weight—will lead broods of cargo ships, as a duck leads her ducklings. From the coastal ports they will embark millions of tons of salt and metals, and timber which has.been floated down the rivers, and carry those cargoes to all parts of the world.”

All. this demands a network of meteorological stations sending out weather reports, a fleet of ice breakers with light seaplanes to act as scouts, large aeroplanes to connect the inland settlements, and an army of workers to win the raw material from the earth. If success is achieved, other nations besides Russia will benefit. Thoughts will also be. turned to the commercial possibilities of the Antarelic, which must exist, if not to the same extent as in the North.