A NEW RUSSIA

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 12887, 13 June 1936, Page 7

A NEW RUSSIA

SOVIET CONSTITUTION REVISED “ONLY REAL DEMOCRACY SYSTEM IN WORLD.” UPPER AND LOWER HOUSES. UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE. EXTENSION OF CIVIC RIGHTS. (G.P A. by Elen. Te'., tfopyriefit). LONDON, Juno 12. Tho Daily Telegraph’s Moscow correspondent. says that the text is issued of the new Soviet constitution drafted by the commission over which M. Stalin presided. It claims to have established the world’s only real democracy system, though tho monopoly of the. Communist. party is maintained. Parliament will consist of two newly-created chambersThe Lower House will he called the “Union Council” and will be directly elected by secret ballot, with one member for each 300,000 electors. Tho Upper House will be called the “Council of Nationalities,” and will he .indirectly elected to represent the Soviet republics and autonomous national republics. The two bodies will meet in Moscow regularly twice a, year. They will form a “Supreme Council”, to elect one President for the entire Soviet Union. Every citizen, male or female, will he expected, to vote, and will he able to stand for election. Tho so-called “class enemy” is now considered to have been “liquidated.” Civic rights granted include equal pay for both sexes, pensions and holidays, while religious liberty, the right to liglcl political demonstrations, the freedom of the Press, free speech and security from arbitrary arrest are also established.