COMMUNIST TACTICS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21423, 22 February 1933, Page 12

COMMUNIST TACTICS

REVELATIONS IN AUSTRALIA DELEGATE'S TELL-TALE DIARY [fbom our own correspondent] SYDNEY. Feb. 3G In' the course of a slashing attack on Communist propaganda in Australia, the Federal Attorney-General, Mr. Latham, has recently revealed some of the inner workings of the Soviet Union. The story he told concerned a railway employee, Frederick Gooseff, who was a member of an Australian Labour delegation to Russia last year. Gooseff, said Mr. Latham, was born in Russia, but he was a naturalised British subject. " When this man returned to Australia," said Mr. Latham, " the customs officers searched his luggage, and they found some very interesting material, among which was the report of the Australian delegation on the tour. It was apparently prepared in Russia for the public of Australia." The report, said the Attorney-General, set out that the delegation found the people healthy and well clad, particularly the children. There was plenty of good food available for factory workers at reasonable prices. Compared with conditions in Australia, conditions in Russia were much more advantageous. " But Mr. Gooseff's diary was unfortunately lying alongside this report in the luggage," said Mr. Latham. " This diary set out the difficulties he had experienced in seeing anything he wanted to see in Russia. It recorded that his impression of Moscow was poor, and he mentions the spectacle of queues of men and women in front of provision stores. There was a shortage of everything, and the people were passing through a very hard time. All over Russia there were trainloads of men, women and children going they knew not where. So-called wealthy peasants owned only one horse, one cow and a little hht. And Gooseff mentioned that he was disappointed with the conditions compared with those of 20 years ago, when he lived in Russia." Mr. Latham said that an attempt was being made in Australia to create a " proletariat." The object was a deliberate manufacture misery in Australia, and to magnify every form of distress, all for a political purpose. The object was to create a Communist world under the control of Russia, but he did not believe that British people were going to submit. The campaign was one of imposture, and it was proper that the people should be warned against it. The .position of Australia to-day was better than that of any other country in the world. Facts and figures bore that out. In-Russia there was slavery.