CONDITIONS IN RUSSIA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20958, 22 February 1930, Page 11

CONDITIONS IN RUSSIA.

1 TO THE EDITOR. this .morning's issue of the Pvr ly -t T™fxx Skavlnsk y" backs up Verity's letter, which he thinks struck rig x ht “ ot e m expressing inability to understand why I do not pack up and go to Russia For the life of me Ido not see why I should do so’, or what connects. 011 the suggestion that I should has with the problem under discussion. This country surety does not want to lose, its colo-nial-born population, and Russia is experiencing great difficulty in feeding her millions, and even we here are not as well off ae we might and could be if—yes. it is this if ” that stands in the way, and I am drawing attention to some nali> able anomalies and portraying what could, and might, and ought to, be done under a sane system, where co-operation by all in the interests of all for use would eupplant the present system of competition "winch benefits only the few for profit. I hen your correspondent draws a very gloomy picture of life in Russia and quotes two miners who were sent over to Russia t° r j ep -?r*'i i As a inst this let me refer to .Lord Melchetts secretary, who reported very much the reverse, and to the British trade union delegation also. It is Very obvious to any unbiassed, person that different people see differently, or else they are incapable of giving a correct report. There is a good deal of truth in the reference to the poverty that exists, but if 1 were to write to Russia depicting' the slums in Dunedin and showing a few photographs such as I have seen, and describing some ot tile poverty as a result, would that oe a fair picture by which to judge Dunedin? Of course, it would not, ypt ithis is what is palmed on to us here if . Skavmsky's” letters is a correct guide. If this person, however, has only read our two dailies and no other evidence at all, then he must either be ignorant of what has appeared in them or is wilfully trying to mislead your readers, and this applies to anyone else of the same way of thinking.—l am, etc., P, Neilson. [We have omitted from the above letter, as entirety irrelevant to anything in the letter to which it replies, a flattering description of railway architecture in Russia and a eulogy of the educational system m that country.— Ed. OJLT-J