NEWS OF THE WORLD.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLII, Issue 1742, 18 February 1921, Page 2

NEWS OF THE WORLD.

JUSTICE FOR EX-SOLDIERS. Field-Marshal Sir D. Haig, opening the ex-service men's winter carnival at Olympia, said: "The strength of ex-service men through being united is very great indeed, but our real strength is the justice of our cause. We have behind us the whole of the right-thinking people of the nation. What we have got to do, therefore, is to stand together to make up our minds really what we want, and 1 feel Sure that we shall achieve outends. We don't want to fight anybody; wc mean to co-operate. The solution of our problem is by co-oper-ation and by working and co-operat-ing with the Government, by co-op-erating with other friendly societies, by co-operating with county councils, with the employers of labour, and with the trade unions. This new organisation is really a great guild, a guild for helping one another. I feel tltat the essential thing is work. We don't want charity; we want means to work, and a certain number of us want training for that work. By subsidising us you can increase production, and not by giving subsidies to idle people. That is the secret of achieving success. I feel that with our great organisation, our great guild of ex-service men, our Warriors' Guild, we have taken a great step forward toward solving the problem of the exservice men."

EUROPE'S OUTLOOK.

The great problem confronting- the world is the restoration of the machinery of international trade by. making- good the great gap in it caused by the impoverishment ot Central Europe and diminished production over the whole Continont. Mr Paul Warburg, an exceptionally weli-qualified observer, has lately published a speech delivered by him on the occasion of his return from Europe to America, under the title of "Europe at the Cross Roads." In the very effective picture that he draws of the present economic outlook, he -compares Europe to a big steamer sunk by a torpedo—"lt is idle to discuss to-day what kind of a Ribs restaurant or social hall she should have when she is afloat again. The first question is: 'Can we save her at all?' The second is: After we raise her, can we repair her engines and make her go?' It is evident that we cannot raise her without first stopping the leak—the breach, still wide open, between France and Germany; we cannot make her go without straightening out her machinery —that is, without settling the labour question. When these two tasks are disposed of, I am confident the good old ship Europe will gradually right herself. ENGLAND'AND AMERICA. In an address berore the members of the Overseas Club in London Major lan Hay Beith ("lan Hay") said that, rightly or wrongly, the English were looked upon by other nations as the strangest, queerest, and most incom* prehensible people on the face of the earth. The languid interest which wo as a nation took in our neighbours was negligible compared with the speechless amusement with which they sometimes regarded us. How did the French regard the British? During the war we struck the French pretty favourably, but just now the French were not quite pleased with us. It was not altogether surprising. It was the easiest thing in the world to shake»hands with an opponent, but to remain perßistent friends with an ally for an indefinite period was a feat as yet unrecorded. America was traditionally anti-British, but conscientiously pro-British. There were three barriers to understanding: Garbled history, the Atlantic Ocean, and the possession of a common language; for it was easier to start trouble with somebodv whose language you knew than with somebody whoso language you did not know. The two great sections of the Eng-lish-speaking world .were a complete mystery to one another. An Englishman's real ambition in life was to get a railway compartment to himself, while Americans were gregarious, and liked to meet together freely. The American found the Englishman always indulging in an' atmosphere of mild depreciation of himself, his affairs, and his relatives. Bui with fundamental things America and Britain were one and indivisible. LABOUR IN SOVIET RUSSIA.

The economic system of the Bolsheviks is, says a Russian correspondent, founded on the distribution of work by the State, the worker not being at liberty to choose the kind of work he is to do. The complicated police supervision and espionage make it almost impossible to evade forced labour. Nevertheless, in spite of all their decrees and severity, the Soviet authorities cannot obtain the necessarv number of workmen. They are trying to cope with their labour crisis in two ways. First of all, they try to raise the productivity of labour, arid secondly, they increase the number of workmen by means of conscription. Contrary to all the theories of Socialism, the Bolsheviks have longago adopted the system of piecework, and at the present time they have worked out a system of premiums for higher output, and are applying it everywhere. What "they are principally interested in, however, is the problem of increasing the number of workmen. All the inhabitants' have been provided with "work books," which have become their passports. Every work book has the Soviet. ;oat-of-arms on the first page with two mottoes: "Whosoever will not work, neither shall he eat," and 'Proetarians of all countries, unite" Then ;omes detailed information concerning the holder of the book; his age. occupation, under whos<> jurisdiction iie is, and notes of compulsory labour performed. Without such a book the inhabitants of Soviet Russia cannot move a step, cannot get either ration ?ards or permits to travel from one town to another, and if there are no entries of work done, the holders will bo sent to the "Labour Deserters' Committee,'*' which imposes war-time penalties, i.e., considers labour deserters as deserters from the army. As a matter of fact, the inhabitants of Soviet Russia are now serfs of the State, like the Crown serfs in Russia before the liberation of the serfs on March 17, 1861, with the exception that then such serfs were not shot for not doing their work, and had more rights (and especially the right of dis. posing of the fruits of their labour) than the inhabitants of a Socialist State in the twentieth century.