THE SOVIET THREAT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20969, 4 September 1931, Page 12

THE SOVIET THREAT.

Sir, —Mr. Bloodworth,. in champwnbi Russia's much-vaunted five-year plat, asks what the result would have b« had Russia paid the debt owing by fc to Britain in kind, as, he says, she wtraH have, had to do, such as grain, tinbe, butter or oil, implying that it would Jan been disastrous to the creditor tsߣgs' But he fails to enlighten the pubjfc a to why restitution must taken that form. It comes to the «r& nary intelligence as a startling pr>. position that a country can be &■ poverished by its enrichment. ; I oi scarcely believe that Britain has refused to take from the Soviet Goveramett such merchandise, if any, as are unprocurable within the Empire, by way i part payment. Moreover, there is a# ing to prevent, as far as I can see, Buses from selling her goods in the world 1 ! marketsj as she must be doing now td diverting enough of the proceeds i« Britain in satisfaction of her demands, and thus, incidentally, cancelling tt«, stigma of dishonest repudiation, whiti at present besmirches the hapless Mnso vite. \ John A. Beau. Bemuera Sir, —Mr. Bloodworth asked tt|w framers of the Wellington Charabs of Commerce resolution had / .«* sidered what the result would have ben had Russia insisted on paying her dtbtfi seeing they would have hadto;bep»2 in Russian products, such as grain, timber, butter or oil. Evidently Mr. BloodWdrtk thinks that Russia had no other way' j» pay than by produce, etc., which *W» have flooded the British market on wSS we are depending, and he possibly thinb of what it would mean to toilers <rf ft* sia to supply what would be needed,** so cause a greater amount of snfferin? there. But why should they not p»y '■ gold as other countries have bad to do. If they had endeavoured to pay debts j would they not have had less gw to send to their agents.to stir up;trow» in other countries, and less to spend s war material. If nations are to be allw to repudiate their debts, and confiswj what belongs to the subjects of «"* nations as they have done, and if Soo* ism upholds these principles, andl tlfl are applied as a rule of life by roflviaWfc what would be the effect ? If fair sample of the working of ScasW» principles, then I hope that this WOT will never come under the rule of Soe* ism. A Woapus.