RUSSIA REVIVING.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 27 September 1924, Page 15

RUSSIA REVIVING.

‘ ‘ BETTER CHANCE THAN

QUEENSLAND. ’ ’

MELBOURNE UNIONIST’S VIEWS,

LONDON, Sept. 3

Mr W. P. Earsmqn, formerly organiser of the Amalgamated Society of’ Engineers in Melbourne, is visiting England .after spending three years in Russia.

He brings hopeful accounts of the Soviet regime.

“Ninety-six per cent, of the Russians,” he says, “are prepared to down their lives for the Soviet Government. They have secured, after 500 years’ struggle, land on which they pay rent, but which is taxed according to. the value of the crops and heads of cattle, a rebate being allowed according to the number of children in the family. “The loan, to Russia will be of great advantage to England. It will nbt solve the crisis, but it will not handicap trade. Russia wants machinery, which is only pbtainable through credits in England, to whom the Russians look hopefully for assistance. If Parliament turns down the agreement many members will lose their seats.

“I have crossed Russia from Archangel, in the north, to Odessa, in the south. She has a better chance of devlopment than Queensland. Certainly, there is always a sporadic famine, which is due to sectional seasonal handicaps, but transport has been restored, and the reserves of grain replaced, enabling relief to be given when needed. “Russia , will supply enough grain by 1926 to smash the American monopoly. Export is steadily increasing towards its pre-war standard. The cultivated area has already been made greater. Regarding coinage, 35 per cent of the money in circulation is gold. Silver arid copper coins are in circulation. ‘

“The housing shortage in Moscow adds to the e6st of living. Leningrad is cheaper. I would rather go to the Crimea for a holiday than to Nice and Cannes, oft the Riviera. ' The trains are regular and clean. Transport on the Volga has '.'Tjeen practically restored. ’ ’