MOSCOW LEGATION SHOULD BE CLOSED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23092, 3 November 1949, Page 4

MOSCOW LEGATION SHOULD BE CLOSED

JSfE'W Zealanders are indebted to Mrs. Boswell, wife of the former Minister to Moscow, for telling them about conditions in Russia in an interview. published in the Weekly News. They had previously been denied this information by their Government, whose attitude has been of the pay up and shut up description. It is likdv, however, that the present disclosures have the consent of the Prime Minister and Minister of External Affairs. Mr. Fraser. Since Mr. Boswell’s recall from Russia recently his position has not been publicly defined, but it is presumed that Mr. Fraser is still his chief. Mrs. Boswell’s interview is the first frank statement on Russia by either her or Mr. Boswell since the Legation was opened eight years ago. The reason is that they were not allowed to talk. “We would write letters home and then tear them up, for nothing could be said,” explained Mrs. Boswell. During the war grim conditions were to be expected in a country fighting life or death battles for existence. ITarsb military security measures were necessary, as in Britain,.to prevent the innocent or deliberate passage of information which might reach the enemy, and this was fully appreciated by New Zealand’s representatives in the capital. It was no wonder that food was short. But after the war it is a different story.

Mrs. Boswell says that while the Legation staff and other foreigners were shown friendship by Russian officials up to 1944, it subsequently turned to suspicion and hate. Many civilians, it is gathered, would still like to be friendly but it is no longer “wise”; there are the secret police. Even children cannot be given sweets or Christmas cards showing the type of houses we live in. After a time servants disappear. Already, this is a vastly different picture of Russia from the one painted by Communists in New Zealand. According to them Russia is a country of unparalleled freedom, of equality of opportunity and wealth, a land of milk and honey. Sirs. Boswell exposes the falsity of those statements. For eight years she lived in the country, which is more than most of our New Zealand Communists have done. She speaks Russian fluently and has learned at first hand. She found no freedom, in speech or travel; no public opinion; a food shortage; poor housing and transport; a rapidly increasing wealthy class; an election system.with one name only on the ballot paper.

The Moscow Legation is costing New Zealanders a large sum of money each year. The vote for 1949-50 is £28,858. Each year there is a short reference to its work in the report of the Department of External Affairs. It has been described by Government leaders in justification as a valuable listening post. That is all right if you. are hearing something, but most of the listening, it seems, is being done by the Russians, with the New Zealanders debarred from travel on any scale and with limited official or civilian contacts. Mr. Fraser knows intimately the conditions in Moscow; he has recalled Mr. Boswell and there is no suggestion of the appointment of a successor; he merits criticism for delaying the final step and closing the Legation entirely. Offers of friendship have not been reciprocated, and as for the gathering of information the New Zealand staff is not likely to learn more, if as much, as could be obtained from the British Foreign Office. The continuance of the Legation in the present circumstances is a waste of public funds.