CONDITIONS IN RUSSIA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20961, 26 February 1930, Page 7

CONDITIONS IN RUSSIA.

TO ’THE EDITOR. Sir, Mr P._ Neilson .astutely suggests, ad a part of his pronagauda, that f have read only the two dailies, and no other at * a K Let r “te tell, him tha£ as a keen student of social affairs 1 Russia 1917I 917 ,T ghtily .JntereLted in ’the Russian Revolution, and during the past 12 years have not only carefully read, dpemorl T 1 a r lneid , e - nts in the Press i deemed free from bias and really illummahve as to affairs Bolshevist. lam at the present time more interested than the aid ,? f reliable current keep . well abreast oi all boviet eccentricities lying propaganda. horr ? r f- fascination for everything associated with the .and where j,® securities and sanctities of civilised, life have been abolished, and where ragged' and famished hordes are in being V egr ?l non-existent elsewhere on earth, furnishes the reason for my perusal oi Mr Neilson s countless impertinences, born of, to say the least, a poorlyi men t alJt y; His paucity of fecund ideas is evidenced by his petty contention that two wrongs make, a right, terror, misery, bloodshed, and ruin feature from time to time—and frequently in the social confines of the Soviet tyranny, and excuse is made by him on the ground—God save the mark! —that j ears ago the' Government of the Czar also did evil in the sight of the Lord. Unis we have it, then, that outrage ever acompanies—and justly so—the establishment of Socialism. Graham Wallas has no illusions about Socialistic cranks. He says. Anyone who has had much intercourse with those British or American artisans who have formed their habits of thought on popular expositions of Marxlamsni inust have met men and women who, it they were in power, would feel' themselves bound to show the' same kind. of scientifically conscientious ruthlessness as Lenin or Trotsky.” The “transition period calls for bullets, lamp-poets, and walls, and excuses galore are found for the bends who revel-in such surroundings. Lord Melchett, it would appear, has a secretary, and Mr Neilson cites his report of a visit to Russia as against that bf the two Rent miners. Well, the secretary would, of course, in common with other accredited visitors, be taken in charge by an official, and conducted round the show places referred to brazenly in the Russian press as “propaganda centres” kept c r ..t: :ie P ur Pose'of impressing innocents of the type of Hansome. Goode, Malone, Lyre, and scores of others. In contradistinction to these the Kent miners were determined to see for themselves, unaccompanied by official escort. On completing their round and returning to Moscow, where, before leaving Russia, they had to consult Soviet • authority, ‘ the officials were not only surprised, but offensively angry at their having eluded Soviet guidance. Imprisonment and penalties, were threatened, and, after being de- . tamed five days, they were released. Visi” tors are not allowed to perambulate Moscow at their own sweet will, and, after 1 their exposure of Russian doings at Dover, were they so indiscreet as to return, ,to. Moscow, it is quite likely they would disappear, as men do disappear who offend the commissars. These iilmauatone . workers were greatly impressed with the startling contrasts continually presented in the streets. Roone, in lectures on Russia, had been told that the Soviet GoveromeTit’s first care was for the children, and that a mother gets six weeks’, rest before and «iTr r confinement. This is what he said: M e passed several women with infants a week or two old at their breast, exposed to the terrible heat and stench of the gutter, either begging or trying- to sell fruit, and this in full view" of' the police. If that is Soviet law, then, in the interests of the Soviet, it is time to remove such sights from the eves of visitors.” Then passing along the street to their hotel, they found jewellers’ shops displaying diamond rings up to £SOO sterling, arid drapers showing most expensive and fashionable clothes which only rich people could buy. This to Roone evidenced sheer hypocrisy, and he pointed out to Crane (a Communist) that “here in the heart of Russia they do the verv things that you criticise capitalist countries for doing.” Crane cursed the isoviet for their hypocrisy, saying, “Lenin never intended this.” Quite so, neither did Trotsky. Shrunken and of little account now, this then 'great man five months after the Bolshevists took charge, spread himself in this wise to his gullible hearers; “We will create a fraternal State. That State is the land which Nature has given us; we will transform it on a reciprocal basis into a vast and flourishing garden, and we will live, our children and our great-grandchildren, gs jn a paradise. In old days they, believed in a heavenly existence, biit that was only a vague and obscure dream; we, we say, we are going to create that heaven by the hands of Workmen for everybody, hero below on this earth, until the end of the centuries.” ’ Within 12 months of - this high-falutin

drive! a Dzerjinsky was called for, and Felix Edward_ Dzerjinsky duly appeared. He travels with his friend Radck, who, lus own showing,-spent vast sums in 1922 in Egypt and Turkey in propaganda, incidentally, he bought an enormous amount of industrial shares in, capitalist England. Hear what this man has to say about his .friend Dzerjinsky: “.Last week I went to the centre of Russia with our Felix, and saw how he works. A real new broom! At every station one' felt the terror of everyone from the station master down_ to the last pointsman. During the fortnight we were together we had 300 railway men arrested. Obvionsly, more than' half of them ' were scratched from the list of the living citizens of our Socialist country.. These inbrutes have grown so bold that they imagine they see a source of existence in the railways. ' Without bribery one cannot move a step. 1 don’t care much for' Dzerjinsky, but I admit he is the best. disinfector.” I think we can leave it at that. —I am, etc., ’ February 25. . Ska Vinsky,