SOVIET RUSSIA

Otago Witness, Issue 3619, 24 July 1923, Page 19

SOVIET RUSSIA

ITS FINANCIAL CONDITION. LONDON, July 15. M. Sckolnikoff (Minister of Finance in the Soviet Government), in a statement to foreign journalists, announced that about 88 per cent, of next year’s expenditure would be met by revenue. There would only be a 12 per cent, paper emission. He displayed the design of a new gold coin which is being minted, but which will be withheld from circulation for a few years in order to prevent hoarding by peasants in their stockings, where from 290,000,000 to 300,000,000 gold roubles are already stored. M. Sokolnikoff claimed that Russia’s financial outlook had never been brighter since the advent of the Soviet Government. THE PATRIARCH TIKHON. LONDON, duly 15. The Moscow correspondent of the Daiiy Express says:—“The Patriarch Tikhon is making a tour of the churches which were formerly controlled bv the Reformists and is purifying them with holy water. Worshippers are flocking to the services. It is believed that his influence will re-estab-lish the former position of the Greek Church of .All Russia. OBJECTION TO RIDICULE. LONDON, July 16. The Morning Post’s Helsingfors correspondent says that „he Soviet authorities in Moscow recently shot the well-known clowns Bim and Bom, who had been making themselves objectionable by ridiculing the Soviet leaders. The State circus endeavoured to conceal the shooting by billing their names and instructing other clowns to imitate Bim and Bom. An impressario named Afanaseff, however, wrote to the newspapers accusing the State circus of fraud, whereupon the State circus sued A fanascfl, alleging that his statement had caused them financial loss. With queer logic the Soviet Court rejected the circus pica, yet it ordered Afanaseff to be arrested and throw'll into prison. DUELLING. MOSCOW, July 15. On the charge of murdering Dyokonoff in a duel, Tertoff, an officer of the Red Army, was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment. Nina Mochevilli the stage beauty over whom the men quarrelled, was acquitted of the charge of complicity. Marshal Pilsudski, head of the Polish army, and General Szeptyski, Polish Minister of War, fought a bloodless duel, says the Warsaw correspondent of The Times. The quarrel arose over the marshal’s criticism of the latter as Minister. RUSSIAN REFUGEES. SHANGHAI, July 9. An appeal has been made to the American Red Cross by the Shanghai Municipal Council on behalf of the destitute Russians. Local resources are unable to cope with the emergency.

During the last six months 20,000 Russian refugees have reached Manchuria, and are almost entirely dependent on charity. They are spreading throughout China as Japan and Korea are closed to them, the Japanese authorities fearing the possibility of Bolshevik propaganda. WARSAW, July 21. A party of American University men who had been working in Russia for a year for an American Relief Association, in journeying home, expressed relief that they were no longer under tile Soviet regime. Some had worked in Moscow and Petrcgrad, but the majority worked in the land of the peasant, where their task was not only the distribution of food, but the guarding of it from raids of Soviet authorities. There is not one in the party who believes that any civilised nation shonld even consider having relations with the Soviet regime. They admit that they began with doubts of the wisdom of American relief intervention, but women and children had been saved. That was the only thing which had given tile party satisfaction. They are full of wrath against American Congressmen who had been speechmaking in favour of Russia after stage-managed tours, during which the visitors were surrounded by Soviet spies and made a sort of Cook's tour along a route where shop windows were dressed for their special benefit. “CINDERELLA” PROSCRIBED. LONDON, July 20. The Russian correspondent of the Morning Post states that “Cinderella” has been included in the Bolshevist index of prescribed counter-revolutionary works. This is the sequel to a performance of “Cinderella'’ at the Children’s Theatre, Petrograd, when the critics indulged in an orgy of sarcasm over the so-called good times when the world was governed by tsars, kings and Prince Charmings. |