THE SOVIET THREAT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20976, 12 September 1931, Page 12

THE SOVIET THREAT.

Sir, —Your correspondents, Mr. J. Thornes and Mr. John A. Beale, in their letters of September 10, are again wandering a little from the point. It is not the iFact of Russia's repudiation of her debts; it is the effect of that action on us and other countries we are concerned about. It is 6tated by Sir George Elliot in his letter to the Times, publi:hed in the Herald of the 9th, that Russia's debt to Britain amounts with interest to date to £2,000,000,000. Now, interest on that at 5 per cent, would amount to £100,000,000 per annum. It i? claimed that we ought not to trade with Russia, because she does not pay that debt. All 1 have asked is, would not the payment of the debt, seeing that it would have to be paid in goods, or gold obtained by selling goods, do more harm to our trade than repudiation of the debt does? I Would also ask the further question, how can Russia pay the debt even if she'. were willing to do so, if the country will not take her goods ? , The statement made by Mr. Thornes that the Allies found money, and also risked life and limb to "rescue Soviet Russia," might well be regarded as one of the jokes of the season. It has nothing to do with this argument, though surely Mr. Thornes knows that the expeditions into Russia by Allied forces took place mostly after the Allies had made peace with Germany, and they were undertaken with the object of rescuing Russia from the Soviets, not of rescuing Soviet Russia. Tom Bloodwobth. September 10, 1931.

Sir, —The Russian Economic News deals with a recent Soviet order instructing all factory officials ~tci reduce i costs, where it is stated that the cost of production in Soviet Russia is higher than the average all over the world. The cost of coal production was 20 per cent, higher last February than it was a year ago, and in the steel industry there was an increase of 17 per cent. It appears that the poor pay of Russian workers does not assist in the reduction of costs. The delusion that poorly-paid llabour is the most economical appears to prevail in Russia, just as it does in capitalist countries, in spite of the superior civilisation of the latter. The utterances of many Labour supporters, who fear the competition of countries where poorly-paid labour is the practice, would suggest to an observer that they are not yet free from this delusion. Trevor Hin*dle.