NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18862, 10 November 1924, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

DEFENCE OF NEUTRALITY.

Switzerland is neutral by her own proclamation after the Thirty Years' War and by recognition of her neutrality by tho Vienna Congress in 1815 and by the League of Nations. Switzerland is pledged to prevent any foreign force from using her territory, and the Powers signatories of the Vienna Treaty are pledged not only to respect the Swiss neutrality, but to intervene in case it should be violated. In spite 'of these guarantees of their security, the Swiss people maintain an efficient militia on the basis of compulsory universal service, with so much enthusiasm that the number of annual recruits is being increased from 19,000 to 25,000 to enable all who wish to serve. Not only was the post-war reduction unpopular, but various practical reasons have also led the Swiss Government to believe that it should be ready for all emergencies. The German Nationalists are openly advocating a new war, and -the Corfu incident showed that the League is not yet strong enough to prevent an attack on a small country. SWISS TRAINING SCHEME. The national army of Switzerland is intended solely for defensive purposes. It is, in fact, incapable of offence. It is so equipped that it could not undertake a distant campaign. The initial training is carried out in recruits' schools, which last 65 days for infantry, engineers and fort artillery, 75 days for field "artillery, and 90 days for cavalry. The subsequent training, called "cours de repetition," lasts 11 days annually, which are sometimes devoted to division or army corps manoeuvres. The Landwehr has also to undergo 11 days' repetition courses. After his recruits' school the Swiss soldier keeps his uniform and rifle, for which he is responsible, and the cavalryman buys his horse from the army if he did not possess one before. All the men belonging to units armed with the rifle are obliged to make yearly shooting exercises, which keep them in good trainiug. The man who has forgotten to undergo his yearly shooting exercise is either fined or compelled to go for three days in a special camp, for which he does not get any pay. Switzerland began last year to reorganise her array; the annual number of recruits has been increased to the normal and former total, aviation has been very much developed, technical units of all kinds are being formed to meet all the necessities of modern warfare, artillery, especially heafcy artillery, has been supplied with new and powerful guns, the Landwehr is again to bo attached to the Elite divisions, a fifih company of machine-gunners supplied with a very quick and light machinogun is to be added to each battalion. This transformation is now being accelerated, und though the total effective strength of the Swiss Army will not be very much increased, their efficiency will bo far greater than it was before. RUSSIAN WORKERS. A first-hand account of the conditions produced in Russia by Bolshevik misrule has been given by Mr. Edward A. Smith, who was in Russia from 1910 to 1921 with intervals during the war. In a letter to the Times, ho says:—" Subjected to their tyranny as a private citizen, working as consulting engineer to the Departments of Industry and of the trade unions for 18 long months, I witnessed the hopeless inefficiency and complication of the system from top to bottom. This 18 months included the second half of 1921, when the new economic policy was already in operation. I will give ono instance only: —So desperate were matters throughout Russia during tho winter and spring of 1920-21, that most drastic reductions of* civil servants had to be made. First camo a reduction of 50 per cent, and then followed ono of 25 per cent, of tho staffs. After this, official returns for the Kutan showed 40,000 civil servants and clerks as against 13,000 productive workmen in nationalised industry. In this connection I may mention that within six months of tho Bolshevists' arrival the productivity of our works and others in the neighbourhood had fallen to one-tenth of that in Donikin's time. This was due to hopeless under-payment, abolition of piecework, long overtime hours to be worked by the men without payment, in addition to tho impossibility of obtaining permission or materials for work, undor this bureaucratic control. In addition, there was the tyranny of labour conscription, forbidding movement from factory to factory and from town to town, etc. Tho workmen were weeping for their stupidity in having listened to Communist propaganda. They could only live by stealing the factory belting and tools. Working hours were treated as far as possible as a time of rest. Small articles only, for salo by tho workmen on the market, were surreptitiously produced. Thus we had the absurdity of 40,000 clerks to control whut should under normal conditions have been produced by 1000 workmen."