DISILLUSIONED.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19762, 13 April 1926, Page 10

DISILLUSIONED.

“ FREEDOM ” IN RUSSIA

TOLD BY a RUSSIAN

(Pf/s United Press Association.) WELLINGTON, April 12.

While Mr Jeffreys, organiser for the Communist Party, was expatiating upon the advantages enjoyed by the workers in Russia under the Soviet rule at the Princess Theatre last night, his eloquence was considerably damaged by a Russian getting up in the body of the hall and painting a totally different picture. In halting English the Russian told his experiences of the Bolshevist Government. “I was working for a Hansford mill,” he said, “when the Russian revolution broke out, and, thinking Russia would be a fine country to live in I hurried home. I was soon disillusioned, however I found that there was less freedom under the Bolshevist rule than under the Czaiist regime. The Bolshevists are wobbling, and starving the people of Russia. I had £IOO when I got to Russia, and the Soviet Customs officials robbed me of every penny of this amount. I was very glad to leave the country.” Mr Jeffreys, in the course of his address, explained that he had attended the annual conference of the New Zealand Labour Party at Wanganui for the purpose of asking the Labour Party to allow the Ccmftiunist Party to become affiliated. “I was turned down with a thud,” he said. “The Labour Party would have nothing to do with the revolutionary methods of direct action. It is clear that the members of the New Zealand Labour Party are endeavouring to live down their past. This is the first time it has ever definitely denounced revolutionary methods of direct action.”