"THE TRUTH ABOUT RUSSIA.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXIII, Issue 11877, 23 February 1933, Page 3

"THE TRUTH ABOUT RUSSIA.

(To the Editor.)

• ' • | j '-• >■ - . - 'V 1 Sirj—l, reficV.with “ somo ..interest your; Soviet,'sympathiser’s reply to . your j comments ?■ on the 1 lecture given by Major Pliarazyn, and, .'frankly, 1 can. say that I;. was- not impressed with !‘lNota;Bene!si’, letter.. The stock gag of;-briindingtall .Ibussian; news as manufactured in Riga, (and:(therefore b.eing .apparently^distorted'- and., exaggerated, 'leaves 5 meb:colcf/’fo i r«lvdhaye I . suplstj'se/''f6”r lr it‘, sefyes'Tis '"'purp , 6ses .with j tiie unthinlnng—perhaps.

('Npta -Bene’’" gloats! over the - fact that j theDreprotstry "> electrification projects, is- .the-largest in .-the <• world. If th ! is is. an, example of - the so-called genuine , news-(from Russia,-Alien ' I confess-th'at I prqferc'the news from Riga! 1 In idle, curiosity. T looked lit p the great hydro-electric projects -of the' world; ’and found,’without > any great .'surprise,; that • the position -in regard to-,the 'Russian ,>project 'is ‘quite 'incorrect.- Far from being.the largest in the world, ’it is only the fourth •largest. Certainly 4 it 'is’ the ,biggest in ’ the'vAvp’rlclb -so*'.far ~as! the ‘cost of- - ; •construction- -is concerned,but' thdt surely - is not ’a. matter' of which. eteii. the most .enthusiastic Sowiet supporter'can be-proud; and perhaps the least -said -on' that point the better/ ThePDneiper project, with a dam of 291,000 million -gallon's capacity,; cost. 110■ million dollars, Compared with; 36 million dollars -for the; O&age 'dam ; in’ Missouri, of .500 million gallons ; 16 million dollars for Alabama’s '448,320. million- gallons ' dam,; and 5 million dollars . for u a Spanish. project for a ’dam" of .118,000'million- gallons. The full ‘details are as follows: Osage, Missouri; built !in 1922, dam. 148 ft. high, storage capacity. 500 million galdons, cost. 30 million; dollars ; Tallapoosa .river, Alabama, built in 1926, 160 ft. high, storage capacity 448,370 .million gallons, cost 16 million dol. ; Jandula,. Spain, built in 1930, ,295 ft. .high, storage capacity 118,896 million gallons, cost 5 million dollars ; Dncipor river, Russia, completed in 1932, 200 ft. high,, storage capacity 291,000 million gallons, cost 110,000 million dollars.

Apart. altogether from the misstatement ; already exposed in "Nntn Bcno’s letter,, what is the object of belittling our own country? Surely at such a. time as the present it behoves ’all sane Britishers to eive a thought to the work done in. British countries ? Let us'take the ense of Canada, for instance. Water-power installations ‘in Canada at the end of 1932 for generating electricity totalled 7,045.260 horsc-powcr, -an increase of 378,923 h.p. over the-total installation at the close of 1931 j The increase in installation for-the year was accounted for chiefly by The Beauliarnois development in the .Province of Quebec, the Chats Falls plant on the QntnrioQuebec 1 boundary, and the-Corra Linn development on the Kootenay river in British Columbia. The Benuharnois development, on the St. Lawrence river was placed in operation in 1932 with four 50,000 h.p. units giving a total dapnoitv of 200,0000 h.p. Two 8000 h.p. service units wore also installed while , tbo power station as now completed can accommodate additional units up to a total cnpacitv of 500.000 h.P. Most of the foundations and embedded parts are in place for the additional units. The plant at Chats Falls on the Ottawa river has an installed capacity of 224,000 h.p., of which half the power was added during 1932 in four units of 28.000 h.p. each. Half of the installation is in the Province of Ontario and the other half in the province of Quebec. The outstanding feature of the year in the Province of British Columbia was" the completion and bringing -into operation of the Corra Linn "®iveiopmeHt“o]r*Hie West" ■ Kootenay Power and' Light; Company, Ltd., on the Kootenay river, a plant of 57,000 h.p. a.nd the fourth to be installed on the river. It has been estimated that undei- ordinary conditions there is sufficient potential power in the rivers of Canada, including a half of the in. ternational waters, to drive hydraulic, turbines totalling 43,7000.000 h.p. Although some of the most favourable located sites have been developed, there are still great quantities of undeveloped power within reasonable transmission distances from industrial centres. Water-power is one of Canada’s great natural resources and, unlike other resources, is not depleted with use.

1 venture to say that the average British subject is far move interested .in. the progress of Avaterpower installations in a British Dominion. like Canada, than in any project in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics T am, yours, etc..

"PRO-BRITISH.” Gisborne, February 22.