RUSSIAN CONDUIONS

Grey River Argus, 15 December 1920, Page 4

RUSSIAN CONDUIONS

BRITISH LABOUR'S REPORT

DELEGATION PRAISES 'SOVIET

WITH QUALIFICATIONS.. CAPITALIST LIES ANSWERED. The delegation sent out to Russia last spring by the Labour Party and the Trades Union Congress has now issued its report. The delegates open their report by I stating that they had freedom ot movement and inquiry while ia Russia, and they feel assured "they were able to see a substantially nor- | mal sample of Russian life," and they add: "We feel it necessary to begin by pointing out that most accounts ot Soviet Russia which we had seen .in the capitalist ress of our own country proved to be perversions of the facts. } "We did not see any Chinese soldiers. AYe saw no evidence of extraI ordinary luxury on the part of the leading Commissars. We did not find that either women or children haa bee^i nationalised. We certainly did witness a widespread breakdown in the transport system with deplorable economic consequences, and we saw terrible evidence of underfeeding and suffering. These points have beem dealt with, however, in the reports 1 already issued by the delegation on the iniquitous policy of i.iterve-ntion and blockade." A SINGLE STANDARD. . Where the general results of theRussian Revolution are concerned, the delegation finds that, though social ' equalisation is not yet complete, since I certain classes receive preference, (sol diers, those doing specially heavy manual work, and responsible workers in departments of the Central Government) and certain persons are suitable to make money by speculation, yet, "broadly speaking, a single standard of living has been established.' "This equalisation," it is added* "applies to education and entfertainment as well as to food, housing, and clothing^ . . . Means of pleasure ana cultivation have been given to the workers on a scale unknown in. earlier days. The greater part of the tickets in the principal theatres. . . are now allotted to the various trade unions, for distribution to their members a Tow fixed prices." The report also refers repeatedly to LACK OF ;i FREE SPEECH. the "enlightened policy ,of the Sovk-t 1 Government in the matter, of ciniJ ; life." ' ; The delegation fult, r.evr:t!ifk>.^, that those Socialist achieveruc ,ia "have been bought at a very Jicavy price.' 1 "Personal freedom, (the report says) with freedom of speech and .of propaI ganda, is severely repressed in the case of all those whose activities are likely to threaten the Soviet regime. "Labour is dealt with more and more on disciplinary principles. "The means now used are far less severe than those used when foreign [ invasion, civil war, and integral conspiracy were at their heights. But •the terror" has left its traces beliind in tlie form of a pervading fear which is expressed on all hands that :niy expression of opinion adverse to thu dominant party will be treated as* counter-revolutionary and lead to imprisonme.it or some kind of penalisation." NOT A FAIR CHANCE. The delegates refused for the moment to commit- themselves on the* question of whether these methods were or were not "inevitable, in view of the attacks from abroad and the internal conspiracy fomented by foreign agents. Nor do they feel able "to pronounce whether ii such a country as Russia "the ordinary process.es of democracy oould be expected to work." 'fflie Russian Revolution has not had a fair chance," they conclude "The conditions have- been such as would have rendered the task of social transformation extraordinarily difficult whoever had attempted it. We cannot forget that the responsibility for these conditions resulting from foreign interference rests not upon -he revolutionaries of Russia, but upon the capitalist Governments of other countries, including our own."