Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, TUESDAY, AUGUST 9, 1921. RUSSIA'S TRAVAIL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 15593, 9 August 1921, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, TUESDAY, AUGUST 9, 1921. RUSSIA'S TRAVAIL.

JCevcr in the world's history has there been a more appalling tragedy than that which presents itself to-day in the-plight of Russia. Forty-six millions of people are facing famine and pestilence. One hundred and sixty thousand cases of cholera are officially reported. There are not the medicaments in the country for the treatment of this dread Scourge, nor the means to distribute and administer them if they were available. Ureal bands af hungry people tire roaming the country, subsisting mainly on grass and acorns, and leaving a trail of devastation behind them, whilst, to prevent their entry to the .Soviet capital, barbed wire entanglements have been erected around Moscow, and Red Guards stand sentinel with poison gas to waid off any possible invasion. \v inter is fast corning on and ,whu( is the fate of those helpless millions to be? It is a horrible picture of human misery that makes a most poignant appeal for the sympathy and assistance of the whole world. Every civilised nation is ready to • help, but assurances are required that the rebel to be sent will be used nut merely for the feeding and clothing of armies and the maintenance of the Molshcvik military organisation, bat will be promptly and efficiently distributed to the famine \ietims. Upon the Soviet Government's willingness to give such guarantees depends the initiation of one of the greatest charity campaigns the wo'rld has ever teen. We feel sure that New Zealand win be prepared to give its quota in loud, cluiinng .or raw materials to help Russia through its lerriDle. agony, but before any measure of assistance is nffoided it must be thoroughly understood that Russia's ideas of maiding war upon civilisation have been abandoned and that her damnable propaganda will eease. Wc fancy it .will not be long beiore such assurances are given. The end cji the proletarian dictatorship, as it' is called, is in sight. There is another dictatorship, more powerful than any le'ore, now ruling over the country—the dictatorship <fi hunger, of necessity, and the tyrants who have 'brought Russia, once wealthy, to a state in which, in rags and tatters, she ap--peals most piteously for the worlds charity will soon be displaced and perhaps given over to the vengeance of the moo. Already the cry has gone up for a new tzar, to be a little father to his, people. Russia, .under the Romanoff _uvui\gjv .-<i {.Hilly <-x(<Tiv(iintU-il during the mad passion of the revolution, was inlinileiy letter oil' than she is to-day or than ever siie is likely to be under the control of the wuked Jewish adventurers of the Bronstein order who have teized the reins of government. One by one Lenin and Trotsky's communistic ideas have gone smash. Capitalism has been called on, too late, to come in and

help save the country. Too late there has been recognition of the rights of the I oasants to private properly in the land and for a. free disposal of their prodace, 100 late has it been declared that the fanciful idea that since capitalism -.ias abolished and all the mcaiis of production app'ropiiated by the proletarian slate, nil workers would have to work for the State on a position of equality, proved disastrous in practice, and that heneeiorth payments snotdd he proportionate to results. Too late has it been realised that money can not be made merely by the use of a printing press, and thai the world cannot, geo along without that which money represents—- ' the wealth which comes from the thrift and energy of the people. The finance problem had troubled the Communists out little during the tjrst, three years oi their regime. They were confident that ' money was dying a natural death," and they endeavored to facilitate its decease by the wholesale manufacture of money so-called. It sounds incredible, but is a fa.l, nevertheless, that Russia with hundreds of thousands of millions ot paper money suffered not from too much, out rather from want of, money; The IJolshevik printing presses never satisfied the demand. .Many necessary works were olten sloped lor lack of money. The reason is that,the money never circulated. Russian peasants who once received money could never spend it again for Jack of manufactured goods, and so accumulated millions. For external trade the Russian paper money was valueless. When British ships went up to Riga the wharves were lined with people who would throw gold watches, or rinjs, or jewels aboard, in return for a loaf of bread, but who could buy nothing with'their paper money. Perhaps it is not 100 late for Russia to realise that she must get back to work and production before she is able to rehabilitate herself and her commerce, but it will lake a tremendous amount of

organisation to restore industries and tec the country on its feet again. Meantime the problem is "now to keep the people alive. The apprehension of scientists that the drought of last summer would commence" a period of dt'!> ght years, and that, the failure of Ihe irops last year would inaugurate a period of famine years, is unfortunately coming true. Over a great part of Russia the n'inter was extremely cold, with little snow and early thawing. The spring iwas unusually early, and very dry and hut. The country has been parched during the summer and there lias been a tremendous failure of.crops, whilst are area sown down was very considerably diminished owing to the peasants' fear of expropriation by the Soviet- authorities and their reluctance to till their tit-Ids without the prospect of due reward. Then, again, the railways of -ne country have gone into disrepair and arc totally inadequate to distribute the grain to the centres where it is needed. A few months ago the, railways were reported' to be- congested by saekmejn travelling with food to Mos cow, tempted by the reports that it is possible to obtain manufactured goods. The following extracts typify numerous items in the Moscow newspapers: "In Ibe Don legion tens of thousands ot saekmen' block the stations;" 'At Losovskaia station, lvjateriu&Eiv Government, thirty thousand saokmen are accumulated, and are smashing tin trucks." This shows that Where there was food available there was difficulty in veiling it to the people. Now the position has become most aeuie. Tin outlook for the winter is black with despair, and it .will need a complete change of policy and herculean efforts to keep multitudes from starving. inn iiMiniwiiMwimnmt