HELPING RUSSIA.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLIII, Issue XLIII, 31 December 1923, Page 2

HELPING RUSSIA.

AN AUSTRALIAN LOAN

BOLSHEVIK SCHEME

I . SYDXEY, Dec. 20. The Sydney' Labour' Council has just i launched an appeal that should t©'«ch the hearts of every Bolshevist ia our I midst. I At a special meeting last Thursday evening, Mr J. M. Baddeley, M.L.A. (the late president of the Miners' Federation), explained the aims of the Workers' International Russian Reconstruction Committee, of which an Australian joint committee has been formed in Sydney, with Mr Baddeley as president. He stated that the committee hoped to raise in Australia, by means of bonds bearing interest at 5 , per oent. per annum, a loan of £200,----000, repayable in 1933, for the assist- ! ance of Soviet Russia. , I Mr Herscovicij representi»g the oen- j tral office of the committee —which, M ! appears, is conveniently situated in Berlin—said that, with Australia., 25 countries of the world were working as one in the movement for ivendering economic and practical heh> to Soviet Russia. The movement, which was now world-wide, had been started two ye t ars ago, at tiie time of the Russian famine. At the present time' it was recognised by the world's scientists and by sincere economists that the economic reconstruction ot Russia would mean at the same time the reconstruction of the economics of the world. He wished to thank all those in Sydney and .New South Wales who had helped him in the early stages of his work m organising the movement in Australia. (Ar>pkuiise). ■Mr .Baddeley s.aid the executive in Sydney had had bonds printed, and in a short time they wouM oe able to offer tliem to tile people for purchase. They would be £1 bonds, and interest would be paid on the amount subscribed at the rate of 5 per cent per annum, payable annually. The whole of the money would be sent to Russia to be used as the- executive determined, with the ex oeption of 5 pe<- cent., which would be deducted for administrative expenses, but the only local expenses would be tor stamps, stationery, etc. They wen, setting out to raise £20-0,000 " The principal would be repayable in 1933 and they expected that Soviet Russia would be in a position to meet the obligation when the loan fell due lhe Premier (Sir George Fuller) itTHT ng + upoi\ th- e schem «> s^ that nn p « IT aud. ac «>«s attempt to impose on the, people, and to bolster.up a. failing revolutionary cause that has ever com 8 under his notice "It is '' he said, « a sa d commentary on the much-vaunted, Soviet system of Red Russm. and a striking illustration of the insincerity of the Socialistic leadl'L hem W\ Jen the- y make loud-voiced condi?" Cif: ab f °Ut thi* S°-called deplorable tvsbZ™ nf ™»*er 3 under our own sj stein of government. If the workers led mW y °ff aS the Public ™>«M be led to believe, and if the co-operative use of union spare funds SXle fully applied to help Russians those funds can be llßed with muc ' b ™°^