BOLSHEVIK FINANCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17269, 19 September 1919, Page 4

BOLSHEVIK FINANCE.

ROBBERY BY DECREE. ASTOUNDING BUDGET FIGURES. No. V. BY MAJOR O. W. WILLIAMS. In these articles four propositions have been established so far: (i.) Russian Bolshevism is a tyranny supported by force and famine. It does not rest on the consent of the governed. (ii.) The very j breath of Bolshevism is propaganda ! abroad. It cannot continue to exist in i Russia alone. Hence its intrigues in I Afghanistan, China, Egypt, Germany, Britain. France, America, and in the colonies, (iii.) Under Bolshevism. Russian I industries have dwindled to a state of colj lapse, (iv.) A great farming country, as I Russia is. cannot feed its population un- ' der Bolshevik administration. Production I is arrested and internal trade is vanishi ing. | These four facts alone should warn off I solier democrats from any toleration of I Bolshevik symptoms in New Zealand. It ! is essentially the wrong road for reform Ito take. And now. when the inarticulate I hopes for a new and better world are I taking shape and crystallising in action. "it behoves us to consider carefully lest any irresponsible fanatic enthusiasm should disorder our judgment and lead us to mar the great gains of the war by irrevocable derisions. A study of Bolshevik finance will bring home the disasters attendant upon doctrinaire meddling with the factors of national prosperity. Immense Expenditure. We have already seen that enormously increased cost attends the Bolshevik system of government. Workmen's wages were raised from £6 to £12 per month to a minimum wage of £50. A vast host of committees, commissaries, inspectors, and officials of ail kinds sprang into existence clamouring for salaries. The expense of nationalising industry and subsidising producton has been stupendous. For instance, the construction of a special " propaganda train" at the largest Moscow carriage works costs 2£ million roubles (£275,000). as reported in the Bolshevik Pravda in February last. The total cost of nationalisation of industry is set down at 11 milliards. Moreover, the rule of force involves heavy expenditure for the upkeep of the twin oppressive agencies, the Red Army and the Revolutionary Tribunal. Then the half-yearly outlay on propaganda for the northern commune alone amounted to £11,500,000 sterling. Such items as £540,000.000 for railways and river transport are gigantic when it is remembered that the total pre-war Imperial Budget for all purposes was less than two-thirds of this amount. Budget for Last Half-year. The Bolshevist papers, the sole channel for communicating Government decrees, announced the following financial statement for January to June, 1919: . Estimated expenditure, 50,702,627,888 roubles. * Estimated revenue, 20,349.627,880 roubles. The deficit revealed is thus some thirty and a-half milliards of roubles. There is now absolutely no source for raising funds to meet this deficit, save by the issue of fresh avalanches of paper currency. If such unashamed confession of financial delirium leaves Bolshevism a single defender in the sober democracies, it proves that infection has gone further than is realised. The sources of the revenue aire illuminating. Socialist doctrine has always denounced indirect taxes. Yet 2£ milliards were to come from indirect, as against If milliards from dirr-ct taxes. The grand source of revenue, however, was from levies on property and capital (called State property) to the amount of 15 milliard roubles. The general character of the expenditure has been indicated above. Very significant is the item of 459,000,000 million roubles for the maintenance of the Central Executive at Moscow, with its staff of 600. Although no recognised representative of Bolshevism is maintained abroad, 11,000,000 are assigned to the Department of Foreign Affairs. This can have no meaning save the prosecution of an attempt to engineer a world revolution. In the finance of ordinary governments the interest on public loans constitutes a large part of the demand for expenditure. In all Russia's staggering Budget, howeyet this item finds no place, for the simple reason that Bolshevism has airily repudiated all national obligations. Yet its outlay is what we have indicated. French Revolution Contrasted. A very general conviction, which the Bolsheviks studiously foster, exists among some sections in Britain and New Zealand that the Russian revolution is running a similar course to the French one of 130 years ago. kuch people hold that in spite jof some regrettable excesses and irreguI larities, matters will in time settle down ! and mankind will be enriched by a new : and free political community. Such reason- , ing when it condones Bolshevism is woefully shallow and inadequate. But take the financial parallel. In 1791 the French assignats issued by the Revolutionary Government were worth 90 per cent, of their face value. In five years they had sunk tc l-833rd of their face value in cash. The Government converted them into certificates at an equivalent of 3 1-3 per cent, of their nominal value, but these certificates became equally worthless. Now France thus robbed her people of 45£ thousand j million francs in five years of unchecked l issue. But when will Russia recover from | a burden of 179,000,000,000 roubles (ten | times the French amount) of paper curI rency issued in one year? i Before the war, the Russian issue of I bank notes was covered by a large gold | reserve to the amount of 97.7 per cent. I Sow the gold cover can be little more . '• than 1 per cent. ! The Bolsheviks have been ast*ite enough I not to introduce any fresh type of money iof their own. They confine themselves to | copious reproduction of the old notes of the Kerens!..}- regime. They thus openly ', avow their sense of their own insecurity. Levies on Capital. We have referred to the compulsory contributions levied upon the bourgeoisie. These have the character of naked robbery. Local Soviets proceeded to hunt i down unfortunate gentry, shopkeepers, ! merchants, and stripped them at the re j solver points. Tin. money thus irregularly ' collected naturally dwindled at every .stage '< in its progress towards the central author- j ity, filling the pockets of each thief en ; route. 'I his out of an estimated revenue 1 for the first six months of Bolshevik rule. \ ol 892.000. millions, according to the ; Bolsheviks themselves, less than One-fifth ' »' the amount reached the Treasury. The j compulsory absorption of the hank bal- \ aii'-es of non-Bolsheviks has been already I lefened to. Preliminary to this all bank j '■'edits had to be centralised so that no me con!.l !. \e more than one banking ac'•■'lini I i: • charge made for such trans- I •■ •'■ "' »■■ i.its was 2£ ,»r cent, of the i amount inosferred. Be.- es this robbery by dei rce, enormous sums are privately I i-uibe//.|e<l l,\ the controllers of the hanks, i Li Petmgriid a lew was made, street bv street. amounting to the full value of the ' contents of the houses. I„ case of the' money m.i being forthcoming, the furni i , fire W: ' S •-"""'> iu .d removed. All goods' i" ustonis houses and warehouses were ; :' 1/ '"' i and ""'hi only he redeemed even j >.. niiuo.r societies on the payment <>! run,on.-, in.es. ' ■ I bus we have at one end of the scale ! a ,|.*/,v extravagance <~1, „ the Arabi Nights ever depicted, and at the other the most ha ret a,eo spoliation of the responsible .lasses of the population Such ;a speUa.h of financial debauch stamps l'.ussian Bolshevism as the product of a madhouse or a den of thieves. But its dav is ending. A gathering volume of patriotic, effort, is i oiling on from the South to the final destruction of this evil despotism which misrules i n the name, of socialism.