The Hawera Star. MONDAY, AUGUST 29, 1927. RUSSIANS IN ENGLAND.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 29 August 1927, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

MONDAY, AUGUST 29, 1927. RUSSIANS IN ENGLAND.

Delivered every evening by 5 o'clock in Hawera. Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Dltham, Mangatoki, Kaponga. Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, Waverley. Mokoia, Whakama.ra, Ohangai. Meremere. Fraser Road and Ararata

Tlio ‘‘Evening News,” London, after the deportation of the Soviet delegation from England, published a cartoon depicting a Bolshevist administering a sneezing powder, labelled “provocation” to the British lion and the surprised Russian is shown being blown off the map of England by the force of the “sneeze” after the powder had done its work. The reasoning 'behind that •black and white drawing makes its appeal to other than English minds, judging by the number of times it has been reprinted by foreign papers. Russia has spent her money like water in order to undermine British prestige abroad and affect her stability at home, and only the Soviet considers it strange that Britain should take steps to protect herself from the insidious attacks made by the propaganda agents. The lion has recentlj r “sneezed” again, and this time two officials of the Russian Oil Products Company have been removed by the resultant disturbance. The order that these individuals shall leave the country has apparently no connection with their commercial activities, the ground of their expulsion being that they have been engaged in anti-British propaganda and espionage. It may be taken for granted, however, that the Soviet and its friends in England and abroad will not allow this incident to pass without seeking to turn it to their own advantage, in the furtherance of the relentless war’ they wage against what they arc pleased to term capitalism, or established law and order as the non-Conuministic countries of the world know it. Indeed, officials of the company affected by this latest deportation order have already declared it to be significant that the order to quit England should come at a time when the company’s sales were booming, and we may expect to hear in the near future whole “sermons” preached by the advocates of class war on this text, which can be so easily given the semblance of truth by clever and unscrupulous agitators. Such appeals, however, will not have effect with any but the most ignorant and the most prejudiced classes of any country, for Russia’s entry into the petrol business is too recent for the world to have forgotten all about it. The charge that has been levelled against Britain, by implication at least, that she has sought to manipulate the political machine in order to reap commercial advantage by the removal of a dangerous rival in the oil business, provides another fine example of Russian effrontery, for the product which she is now selling on the markets of the world, and pushing intensively in England, comes largely

from 'the property tlie Soviet confiscated from private owners in Russia when it seized supreme power after the revolution. In effect, the Russians who have .been asked to leave England adopt the attitude that they are perfectly justified in building up a business .with the goods they have stolen in the home market? of the very people who suffered ’the theft. Britain has not deported the two officials of the Eussian company because she feels aggrieved at that company’s methods, but there would be a big measure of support forthcoming for such action should it be taken. In the exposure of this, as well as of other pernicious activities of Eussian trade emissaries, the London “Daily Mail” has played a conspicuous part. In one of its recent articles on the subject it said: — “The introduction into Britain of huge supplies of petrol, stolen by the Soviet authorities from British subjects in Eussia, - has by degrees grown to the dimensions of a public scandal and danger. As the Soviet did not pay for the concessions or for the expensive work of testing and providing machinery, it is naturally able to sell the stolen petrol much cheaper than its honest competitors can sell their product. It is thus at a great advantage.” Con- 5 ceding that the British motorist has no sympathy with “Bed” methods, that he dislikes Communism, that he does not want to ! traffic in stolen goods even if they be cheap, and that he knows that the profit made by the Soviet on this oil is used to stir up strikes and political trouble in England, the Daily Mail recognised that he was in the difficulty that in many cases he could not tell whether he was buying Soviet petrol or not. Accordingly it has been presenting garage proprietors and filling stations with posters bearing the bold legend “No Soviet petrol sold here,” and has been publishing the names of the distributing firms that have pledged themselves not to sell the tainted article. Whether this appeal to commercial honesty has had an effect on Eussian sales we do not know —Eussian Oil Products, Ltd., would have us believe it has not —but the “Daily Mail” has revealed facts which should be borne in mind to combat the charges which will be made by the Soviet and their English agents and tools that Britain is using the “Eussian scare” for nothing higher than trade purposes.