Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 1931 RUSSIA'S MENACE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17437, 8 April 1931, Page 6

Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 1931 RUSSIA'S MENACE

'Die time is rapidly approaching i when Britain will have to demtind a show down from the Soviet Governmerit of Russia. Probably this will rod he done until the Socialists and E tec traders at present occupying the i (Invcrntnenl henehes tin* ousted trout office, but il will I tie of the lirsl duties of any ndnrinisl ration which desires to preserve and foster Empire trtide to call a halt in A nglo-Russian trade relations. Premier MacDonald points with satisfaction to the growth - of that trade and the stimulation it I ' lias given to British industries. lie 1 Jails to recognise the damage it Ins

done or what it is leading to. What the Soviet regime is asking in effect, from the oilier countries of the world is the machinery and equipment to on able it to produce it) competition with them, and, by its use of forced and slave labor to swamp their markets with goods. Where it cannot obtain extended credit it is paying for this machinery with wheat, or coal or timber, produced' under forced labor conditions, acceptance of which litis debased markets for those products and is causing unprecedented hardship in 1 ho various producing countries. Whom is to Russia what gold is to other countries, and so long as the nations are content to accept Iter wheat in exchange for machinery and oilier requisites so long will the Five Year Plan go forward tot lie point at which it is designed to be used as a weapon to dominate the world. It seems not to be realised at. Home how gientlv the prosperity of Canada, A ns* 1 1 alia and other British Dominions depends upon the price of wheat. If thousands of farmers, the backbone of their respective countries, arc not to be submerged in the next few years it will be necessary to hold the world’s wheat prices at reasonable levels and !o prevent the flood of cheap Russian wheat, being clumped on the markets. It is no mere bogey this. If the plan is successfully carried through, Russia in 1933 is likely to have a surplus of over 200 million bushels of wheat for export. This is nearly equal to Australia’s record production in .1030. The Soviet wheat farms are definitely planned to cover an area of 25 million acres, and about 2,500,000 acres of grain were sown in 1030. The topography of the country favors the use of large scale 'machinery, the soil is extremely fertile,'ami the rainfall over large areas quite sat is factory. During the last live years the United Stales lias shipped about 30,000 1 factors and 500 combines to Russia and factories are being built in Russia to produce agricultural machinety. The United States has sent over 1000 of her engineers and . administrators to help in execution of the phut. A writer favorable, to (lie Soviet system, who reveals considerable admiration for the live-year-plan, says: “A terrific propaganda for a more enthusiastic devotion to work, for working better and more intensively, is being conducted in the press and the factories. All tin 1 methods that can be used to inculcate this spirit of labor and devotion—coaxing, cajoling, intimidating. entreating, threatening, appealing to the worker’s national pride —are in turn being assiduously employed.” The Soviet enthusiast’s words are worlh snaking into the brain of every working man—“coaxing, cajoling, intimidating, entreating, threatening, appealing lo national pride.” And to what purpose? There is no disguising the fact that the Soviet is attempting to apply the distorted principles of .lvarl Marx with the bludgeon of trade .disruption. If the nations of the. British Commonwealth countenance the competition of Soviet labor, which at best is forced labor and tit worst is sla\c labor, with their own free labor they ate beyond doubt preparing to reduce their own standards of living. “Under its slogan ‘Death to Capitalism,’ a catchpenny phrase to millions of workmen throughout the world,” states the Hon. Frank Carrel, a Canadian statesman, “the Soviet Government is sailing under false colors. Its ‘Dentil to Capitalism’ is itr reality ‘Death to Labor’ in all countries flooded with its sweated goods, produced under a form of Government which deprives .its people of their liberty and freedom. As long ns Russia in her endeavor to find a Utopia does not interfere with our standards of living and industrialisation we have little to say with regard to its communistic policy at homo. But when she steps beyond her border and penetrates peaceful nations with her tyrannical doctrines and death-dealing forces it is time to hold her up.” Canada, the speaker went on to say, had suffered an .immense decrease in the sale of her wheat, coal, lumber, and wood pulp, and now the world is to be flooded with raw furs which are being deliberately accumulated in order to make the attack on the markets more effective. “We in the province of Quebec,” said Mr. Carrel, “are a patient people, but we believe we have reached the limit with respect to the inroads of Russia’s industrial interference.. Communist propaganda is by no means abating, nor has the world diagnosed its power and influence upon the nations. When (his takes place it may cause the people to think seriously what Russia's success would menu to us all. Russia has 1511,00(1,000 people, mostly illiterate and more or less subservient and easily influenced in following leaders with illusory dreams. Stalin’s ambition is to increase Russia’s population to 300 millions, and educate the new generation with a modern cult--the antithesis of the Christianity ot the civilised world. Now, if this vast horde of Russians continue in the belief that their mission on earth is the conversion of the capitalistic world, it is sufficient ground to give thought to its spreading influence, Stalin is the all-powerful king,, emperor mid czar in one. With a stroke of the pen or a verbal command 150 million people are influenced or for I into his servim with the discipline atid obedience of no other nation. Imprisonment or ,1,0,111 is the alternative. Sltilin is doing this believing that with (lie coining general ion he or his followers will have no further trouble with the people; they will be impregnated with the new cult, that of working for the State.” In the meantime the various nations. Britain amongst them, are helping Russia, and the Labor poliI tiejans cannot sec that by aiding and abetting the Soviet plan they tire

jeopardising the security of British workmen by the establishment, of a social doctrine which can mean nothing .in these countries of our Empire but the turning back the clock of progress by several centuries.