BOLSHEVISM

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 15317, 13 September 1920, Page 6

BOLSHEVISM

SEIZURE OF FACTORIES

ITALIAN REVOLUTION DESCRIBED

(Elec. Tel. Copy ripbt— United Press Assn.* (Received Sept. 13, 1.15 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 12. The Times' Milan correspondent writes : The Government is practically non-existent. Workmen are seizing without interference factory after factory. Socialist : leaders are discussing whether the time is ripe for a revolution. They will probably. conclude it is not ripe, buY the question is whether the l«&ders will be able to control, the men if the owners grant their demands. . It is possible the stoum will pass, leaving Bolshevism a grotesque failure. Describing the seizure of the factories the correspondent says : The whistle sounds.. the gates are rushed to prevent the exit of masters and experts. These are requested to continue their, duties. Tho men are then organised under Soviet management, and hoist the Red flag. Stewards impose a discipline more rigorous than would; be tolerated under the masters. Robbers and other offenders are punished most severely. Families of the workers bring m their food. Emissaries pass between the factories and headquarters, exchanging tools, machinery, and other necessaries. The Soviet organ boasts that under the new regime production has increased ten. per cent., but its own figures disclose that it has really been reduced by seven-eigjiths. No raw material is arriving at the factories. No sales are arranged, and outside firms refuse, to give or receive orders. A tour of the city makes it hard to believe it is nursing the Soviet. All is orderly and normal excepting m the factory quarter. A .typical incident of the new rule was that four policemen walking on the footpath, were ordered to walk m the middle of the street by a sentinel on top of n buildinsr. They hastened to obey and the sentinel cried, "Alright." — A-. and N.Z.C.A.