SOVIET'S WORLD POLICY.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 15 April 1922, Page 8

SOVIET'S WORLD POLICY.

r I MOVES BEHIND THE SCENES. ' THE NINTH CONGRESS. A correspondent in the London Daily Telegraph sends the following from the pen of a friend in Moscow, which deals with the Ninth Congress of Soviets, which sat in Moscow m January. He says: "There are two questions before the Congress, and two only: the famine and the new economic policy. uur masters know that something heroic must be done for the famine, which is getting worse every day, and which will spread probably in 1922 to the Ukraine. To save the situation every tibre must be strained to accumulate a great store of iood. Ho»v is tins to be achieved? Nobody knows, but some speak about public appeals to private charity; others want -to start requisitioning on a colossal scale. Subconsciously everybody hopes that hated capitalistic Europe will save the situation. Personally Lenin tries not to think about the famine. Lately, at his wife's teatable, this subject has been taboo. "When I say that the new economic policy will be discussed, i Jo not express myself with, sufficient \ reci&ion. The new policy has come to stay, and the question before the Communist party is: Should the economic eymu-tion-be accepted bona fide, or is it to be considered simply as a means to tide over temporary difficulties, and to rur ther the great object of the woiiu revolution i* The lour main points of iho Communist programme aro: 0) The land belongs to th© State; S2) the wain industries must Temain socialised • (3) the meaurf ot transport equally.so; and (4) trade with abroad mu«t be controlled by the State. The problem tor the wire-pullers at the. Congress will be w find a, compromise between these four axiomatic points and the new line of economic development, i doubt not that words will be invented to sai'bty all parties—on paper. (It is .interesting to note, comments the correspondent, that since this letter was wriutcn the Bolshevik wireless uas truu^ht us a speech by Kameneff •■here the four points enumerated above are put forward as essential;. "I enclose a cutting of Radek's article itt the Pravda. It is a inopt illuminating statement. You see that what our masters fear most is tutl mteroa'.ionai co-operation un trie ixusaian r,u?«*ioii. They want every country to nave a separate economic .agreement with Rus--Biu. Look, at the earning to Germany. .She is told f.hat if she tries to work in unison with England and France she will cease to hi of i»ite«tst to Soviet Russia, tladek also is against the co-operation of Frat^o. with. Ji'ingland. "Do not let the Finnish question escape your attention. It may develop into a very serious matter. "War v»ith Finland may oecomc popular here, because the Karelian, rising has certain national characteristics. It is important to note that the .'tussian ysrn.sants • m'tho district are against the i:sing, ' and Karelian bands have zhuwn a motx, chauvinistic spirit. Trotsky may cxi ploit this to create enthusiasm in the : army miv in tiie public. Also remember that in this way our masters would I remain in tolerably" good relations with : the rest of the world, which wouU not , dare to oppose a national movement. I "And now a last word: Watch the i leaders or the Socialist groupings. 1 cannot be certain, but I huve reason to think that Lenin has hal, through Krassm, for example, some sort of relations with the remnants of Russian Socialism. Remember, for one thing, that he continues to be in daily dread of. assassination. Alexander 111. negotiated with the Nihilists after the murder of his father. Why shtfuld not Lenin try to placate Savinkoff, who is the most active opponent left?" A* BOLSHEVIK COMEDY. All is not tragedy in Russia. For those who know where to look for it the comic element exists in abundance. Take, for example, the story of. the British captain who was sent with his ship to take a cargo to Sebastopol. He arrived in broad daylight before the entrance to the harbour; the whistle was kept going for more than an hour, the syren boomed—all to no effect; no pilot appeared. At last the captain decided to stand right in, minefields and batteries .notwithstanding. The ship made straight for the narrow entrance, and passed without being challenged into the inner harbour, where the captain made her snug alongside one of | the imposing quays. Then at last authority galore made its appearance. j Customs officials, guards, Red soldiers ( and sailors, and, last, but not least, ; agents of the Che-Ka assailed the ship i like a swarm of bees. She was searched from top to bottom, the hatches ; were sealed, and sentinels placed at all the gangways and also inside. The captain found himself treated with great suspicion, but he was happily provided with good certificates from the Bolsheviks in Constntinople; so, after a lot «f red tape, he was permitted to discharge his cargo. The Bolsheviks sent on board a large party of labourers to proceed with the work. Ihese men proved themselves unacquainted with their job. As a result j several of them were injured, and on» I was killed when handling a winch. The j captain, poor man,* was hauled before the Revolutionary Tribunal, where he wasi- condemned to pay 25,000,000 roubles to the widow of the man killed, [although it was established that he [could not be held responsible for th« accident. A sort of bailiff boarded the ship and proceeded to seize the cash In the safe only sixteen shillings was found and duly confiscated. After this no more was heard of the incident. Sixteen shillings for 25,000,000 roubles is quite a good exchange transaction, i