RUSSIA'S FINANCES.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 97, 22 April 1909, Page 6

RUSSIA'S FINANCES.

APPROACHING CRISIS

NEED OP DRASTIC REFORM

The unpromising financial condition of Russia, and the disastrous consequences which may flow from that, constitute topics claiming more widespread and more intense interest than the most disquieting aspect of the Balkan outlook (wrote the St. Petersburg correspondent of the London Telegraph last month). The subject has been thrust upon the public by the Parliamentary debates on the Estimates, which were opened by the spokesman of the Financial Committee in an unimpassioned but telling speech. Eschewing politics, operating exclusively with figures, and withholding censure from men and institutions, he impressed all groups of the Duma, and every section of the trading community, with the urgent necessity for endeavouring to avert a catastrophe. It is utterly impossible, he contended, that the Government can continue to transact the nation's business on the present thriftless lines. *

Russia is continually spending more than she.can afford; yet she is not spending' .enough on urgent cultured needs. Higher taxes will not set tilings right, because the two principal sources of taxation, namely, the railways and the alcohol monopoly, have already produced the maximum yield, and are now dwindling. The State property, woods, forests, mines, and oil wells, owing to bad management, supply much less than might

reasonably be expected. Moreover, the economic groundwork of. finances is likewise precarious. The corn export trade wnich had hitherto . furnished the wherewithal to pay the service of the foreign debt, is falling away to a disquieting extent, and exported corn has to be brought back at higher prices from foreign countries later on. Parallel with the shrinking of exports goes an increase in the_ imports. The normal increase of deposits in the savings banks is also vanishing. Russian credit abroad is distinctly deteriorating, and the task of the nation and the Government is to restore it to the level of six years ago. Retrenchment on the Estimates for the national defences forms the essence of the remedy proposed by the Financial Committee, and this delicate question will be examined at a secret sitting in the presence of the principal members of the Cabinet. The Finance Minister, who inherited a dubious legacy from his predecessor, delivered an eloquent reply, founded on a sound basis of fact, but even he could but give an account of his stewardship. He is unable to work miracles. Unbiassed onlookers are convinced that, despite the stringency of his economy and ingenuity of devices, Russia cannot be saved from disaster unless the whole system is changed, readjusted, and the wealth-creating powers of the nation largely increased. Hitherto finances in Russia, have played the part of a commissariat for war funds, helping a few rich to become richer, and preventing the poor from becoming less poor. The disastrous results .with which the nation is now confronted require creative efforts to neutralise them. Even such thrift of public money as would permanently increase the revenue will not achieve the feat; indeed, no single cause can effectually paralyse the complex forces whose workings appear to threaten the very foundations of the empire.