INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Grey River Argus, 11 October 1930, Page 9

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

(From rhe “Workers’ Weekly”). RUSSIA ORDERS MORE BIG GENERATORS. SCHNECTADY. N.Y. The Soviet Government has ordered t ..m General Electric five more hydro .•!<*<•!ri< besides, /the (four already ordered and under construction. Thev are described as tho world’s la! got. being of 77,500 kilowatt amperes each as compared with (i 5,000 kilowatt amperes generators in use at Niagara. Falls. They ar.- to he built here and assembled in Russia at the Dneiperstroy hydro plant.— tl Industrial Solidarity. ’ ’ •ISVESTTA” ON ITA.LO-SOVIET RELATIONS. MOSCOW, Aug. 4, 1930. To-day • * Isvestia ” comments on le agreement between Italy and -viot Union signed on 1 h-? 2nd Augu-t in Rome, and the resultant extension of trade relations between the two countries and the government credit guarantee granted by Italy. The agreement signed in Rome must 1-c welcomed as a new step to extend the trade relations between Italy ami the Soviet ’Union. The re lations between the two countries have grown and extended on the basis of the agreement concluded in 1920. and have been furthered by a number of favourable economic circumstances, one of which is that Italian industry has developed very successfully during recent years and is in a position io compete with the industries of the most powerful capitalist countries. As a result the import of industrial goods from Italy to the Soviet Union has increased. On the other ha:id, Italy is interested in obtaining a series of nt her commodli ties' f.nom the jSovfiet Union. Italy is short of very import ant raw materials for industry, for instance, petroleum and ores. The import of these necessities from the Soviet Union is therefore a necessity for Italy’s economic system. A facilitating factor Js that excellent sea transport ways exist between the two countries. As a result of the present agreement, which supplements in varpoints the agreement of 1924, orders in Italy will be doubled, particularly as the Italian Government has guaranteed a considerable portion of the credi' necessary to finance the trade relations between the two countries. SLOVAKIAN WOOD WORKERS. PRAGUE, 12 Aug., 1930. The struggle of the great saw mills belonging to the French firm Latorica, in Cinadievo, has now been joined by the workers of the saw mill at Sv. Mikulas, belonging to the same firm. The workers i n the wood works of Svalyava have also gone on strike. The strike in Cinadievo has spread to the match factory. Gendarmerie have been sent to al) the saw mills of Car-patho-Ukraine. The Mahrisch national conference called by'the revolutionary opposition in the liquidatory wood workers union participated in by all the Mahrish groups of the union, with one exception, joined the Reichs conference of the oppostion of the wood workers’ unions, elected a national committee, spoke in favour of the convocation of an idinary union congress, and sent ,iv ings to the V. R.LL.U. Congress. RED ARMY ADVANCE IN CHINA. PEKING. August I. The United States Ambassador to China. Rohnson, has conducted pro traded negotiations in Tsingtau with the Admiral commanding the Pacific Squadron of the U.S. Navy. It is reported that the main point of discus >lfnn was a. joint action of the imperial ist navies on the Yangtze River against the victorious Chinese revolution. SITUATION ABOUND NANCHANG. SHANGHAI, August I. Reports that the Rod Army had taken Nanehang have not been confirmed. In any case, the town is surrounded by red troops at a distance of about 20 miles. Red troops are also adv^ : "iug <>n the towns of Kiukiang a*dßmding in the north of the Kiangsi province. The English newspapers appearing in China express the opinion that the Nanking troops will be unable to stop the advance of the revolutionary troops. The situation of the Nanking troops ip the Hu pen province is particularly unfavourable. Three regiments have mutinied and gone over to tin* insurrectionaries. taking with them all their ammunition and supplies. The town of Siaokau, 30 miles to the north of Hankow, is now in the hands of the Communist troops. According to the reports of fugitives who have arrived in Hankow, the red troop- operating in the north have captured large quantities of rifles and machine guns from the government troops in Hunan. A state of martial law has been proclaimed over the towns Wane ha ng and Hankow. The police have made reckless arrests of persons supposed to be connected with the. Communist Party. Six such persons have already been executed. The Japanese concession in Hankow is being surrounded with sandbag barricades and barbed wire entanglements. According to reports from the

Kiangsi province, a Red Army of 10,000 men under the leadership of k Huan Kun-la is advancing on Kiang Aon the Han River, 200 kilometres south of Nanehang. The governmental troops have been defeated. Red troops under the leadership of Chu-deh are advancing on the town of

• ly’ing about 120 kilometres to the south of Nanehang. The whole dis- , triet 120 kilometres in extent north of the capital of the Anhwei province is I in the hands of insurrectionaries under Communist leadership. STRUGGLE FOR HANKOW. SHANGHAI, August 4. . The troops despatched from Hankow Ito deal with the revolutionary troops operating to the north along the PekinHankow railway line have been surrounded and disarmed by the red troops at the railway junction of Saya- ’ kan, which is now in Communist j hands. The news has caused deep de- j pression in Hankow. j I The struggle around Changsha,! | which commenced on the 2nd August iand continued furiously until the next day was the occasion for imperialist j intervention against the revolutionary I troops. Japanese torpedo boats openvd fire op the red troops from their positions on the river near the Japanese consulate. The Japanese vessel “Kotama” was the first to open fire. | The results of the struggle arc nor yet j known. SOVIET GOVERNMENT IN j CHANGSHA. SHANGHAI. Aug. 5, 1930. [ On the Ist August a Soviet Govern-' ’.non! was formed in Changsha under I rhe leadership of Comrade Li Li-siang. I The first act of the new Government I was to issue an appeal to all the toil- j ing population to support the Soviet j authorities in rhe struggle against the j native bourgeoisie and the foreign I imperialists. Food prices were low- 1 ered, and the prices of other articles of necessity fixed by Government deNew unions were rapidly organised, I particularly of the railwaymen and I transport workers. Meetings of the • population are taking place in all open spaces, where they are addressed by rcpre-scntativer of the new Government.' A revolutionary tribunal has i boon formed to deal with the enemies of the Soviet power. The new Government has already 1 published its programme; confiscation i of all large scale undertakings, including the means of transport and the banks; the distribution of the land amongst the poor peasants and landworkers; the dissolution of the old beaurocratic apparatus; the overthrow of the militarists Chiang Kai-shek. Veh Si-shan, Feng Yn-hsiaug and the others; the abolition of all unequal treaties with foreign States; the return of all foreign concessions to China. THE REVOLUTIONARIES IN NORTH MANCHURIA. MOSCOW. Aug. 12. 1930. In the district of Kirin, on the Tnngwa Railway in North Manchuria. 1 mass arrests have been made on charges of distributing proclamations for Ist August. On 3rd August the doors of trading undertakings in the province of Kirin and Tunghwa wore found inscribed with slogans against the Kuomintang and against militarism. Troops have been"sent to Tunghwa from Kirin to suppress the movement. LETTER FROM SIBERIA. BORZIA, U.S.S.R.. 17/7/30. Greetings to you and all other comrades from the laud of Soviets. I am writing this letter from Siberia where I have stopped foi; a day or ( two before going on to Moscow. | I had a beautiful t rio right up to ] the land of Mikado, and then two days of rough spin from Japan to Vladivostok, where I arrived on the | 7th July. By the way. T. was well j and truly searched in Japland; also I wasn "t allowed to go without ' a guard of honour in the person of sometimes oven two Japanese lemons. Of course, I won’t an ex?opri< n; they I honour all incoming Russians alike. j Well, at lad 1 arrived in old Vladi vostnk', and the first things to strikei my eyes are the now buildings and new warehouses at the waterfront. Th? town is not what it should have , been or what one would expect of a I port vfrith 110,000 population, but it, jisn’t the fault of present government I for it is the heritage of the old Rusj sia—the Russia of the now fallen ’churches. And there is another thing /one cannot but help noticing, and that , I is rhe book shops at every corner of » 1 a square and in most eases in the ' I middle there are book shops also, whereas in old Aussie the pubs stand • I out most prominent. (l | The living is certainly dear out hero | , for those who. don’t work, and I think | slightly cheaper in Australia for those; who work, though not everything is / procurable at times; as for money | everybody seems to have a hell of i a lot of it, at least those that nrc j travelling, and they are legion. And . as for work, why, before I even got < I off the boat I was offered a job as I a driver of a new Dodge 3-ton lorry t I at £l6 per month and with, all over- I | rime they make up to £35 to £4O per ; I month and more. Shortage of labour | [ and trucks makes overtime necessary. J And there is not one-registered unemployed worker in the whole of the Far I East, yet they want men, men, and | more men, but they can’t get them * for there is a shortage of workers all : over Russia, and this now! What of J the future, when they will build hun- \ dreds of more new factories and mills

. and mines? Hell! Even now women Jure working as navvies along the line! | I’ve‘travelled, and yet in old Aussie | they say there is unemployment in' I Russia. Well. Comrade, this is all for {the present. In a day or two I’ll be i leaving’ifor the old Moscow, where I’ll , write some more. With comradely t greetings for Communism.—S. Koche- ‘ vatkin.