The Hawera Star. SATURDAY, AUGUST 30, 1924. THE STATE OF RUSSIA.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 30 August 1924, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 30, 1924. THE STATE OF RUSSIA.

Delivered every evening toy 6 o’clock in Ha were, Manala. N^rmanby. Okaiawa, Elfcham, Patctt, Waverley, Mokoio, Wliakamara, Obangar, Meremere. Fraser Boad. and Otakeuo Manutahi, Alton, Burleyville, llangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna, Opunake,

It is only two or three years since there were numbers of Socialists going about the Dominion exhorting workers to follow the lead of the Bolsheviks and overthrow the “capitalist system,” as they termed it, and substitute the Soviet system. Their campaign was resisted by those who were not willing to accept without, verification the glowing accounts of the Bussian “paradise” and who wanted evidence to prove that Lenin was the “greatest statesman in the world” and Bussia “the ideal popular State.” One recalls the bitter attacks of the Bolshevik advocates upon the press and those who resisted them, but one wonders how they can explain the authentic information which has since been received showing that Bussia is in a very bad state. The Bussian representatives who were recently in London seeking to arrange a treaty with Britain, which treaty was made at the eleventh hour through the efforts of Mr Ramsay MacDonald, pleaded for a reduction of Britain’s claims of debt against Russia for the following reasons: First, that the new Border States which have seceded from Bussia formed some of the most prosperous parts of the old Russian. Empire; second, that Bussia is not so wealthy or so prosperous a country as she was under the Tsarist regime. The representatives sought to attribute these changes to conditions brought about by the war, to a decrease in productivity, in transport, and in trade. But the greatest

proof of the evils of Bolshevism ami its absurd methods i s to be found in the following statements: The popula tion of the Union of Soviet Republics is approximately 134,000,000 inhabitants, compared with about 182,000,000 before the war. The income of the people is stated to be not more than 40 roubles per head of population, compared with 101 roubles pre-war, and-the national wealth, which in 1013 was estimated at 150 thousand million roubles, was at the end of 1023 estimated at approximately 60 thousand million roubles. From statements by the representatives of the Soviet Union one learns that the output of manufactured goods, valued at 4500 million roubles in 1912, was estimated at not one quarter of that amount in 1922. In 1912 the Russian fiver fleet consisted of 1978 steamers and 21,367 other vessels; in 1922 the steamers had decreased to 1870 and the other vessels to 3429. Tonnage carried decreased from 3115 million poods in 1913 to 640 million poods in 1922. The Bussian official statement of the condition of the railways shows that in September, 1923, 7773 locomotives were working, compared with 23,000 in 1914, while the number of serviceable trucks in 1923 was 100,000, compared -with 500,000 in 1914. Bussian indebtedness to Great Britain amounts to about £250,000,000, a large part of that sum due to British investors consisting of securities in Bussian municipalities. The Bussian representatives asked that these be reduced on' the ground that the population of Bussian towns declined during the war and during the revolution. The population of Leningrad (Petrograd) decreased by 50 per cent., that of Moscow 44.5 per cent., of Jaroslav 43.2 per cent., and other places in like proportion. Herein we have information giving some idea of the “glorious results of the revolution’ ’ and the ideal State which Lenin and his associates set up. And after doing such enormous damage the Soviet sends representatives to London with full powers in order that, ‘ among other things, they shall apply themselves to the task of determining the “means for the restoration of Bussia’s credit in Great Britain,” and also to secure a loan from Britain. Was there ever greater audacity? A Communist State, whose leaders had declared that'Great Britain was the greatest enemy of Communism, brings ruin upon its people, and then goes to its enemy to raise a loan! However, the treaty has been agreed to, but it awaits ratification, and it is to be hoped that it will lead to the Bussians abandoning the fiendish methods of Soviet dictatorship and enable the most unhappy country in the world to return to a healthier and more prosperous condition. The socialisation, or perhaps more correctly the nationalisation, of the means of production, distribution and exchange has not brought the millennium in Bussia as the figures show, and it must bring similar disaster in any other country where people are so foolish as to attempt to apply it.