PRESENT-DAY RUSSIA

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19890, 18 March 1939, Page 9

PRESENT-DAY RUSSIA

LEFT BOOK CLUB TALK TRAVELLED LECTURER ASPECTS OF NEW PROGRESS Aspects of progress in Soviet Russia provided the theme for an address to an audience of 150 people in the Selvyn Hall on Wednesday, the speaker being Mr. T. C. McGillick. who last year visited the Soviet Republic as leader of an Australian delegation. The address was given under the auspices of the Gisborne group of the Left Book Club, the Gisborne branch of the New Zealand Labour Party, and kindred organisations, the chair being taken by Dr. A. L. Singer. , A practiced and informative speaker Mr. McGillick expressed his appreciation of the opportunity to address the gathering, this being one of three lectures he was to give in Gisborne. He explained that though each of his addresses would be on Russian topics, the vastness of the country and the variety of problems it had faced relieved him of any necessity to use the same material twice. The subject matter was stupendous, he considered. Workers’ Living Standards Mr. McGillick described the conditions under which Soviet citizens work and live, and the great improvements which had been made, and were being made now, in the living conditions generally. He refuted the allegation that living standards of workers in the U.S.S.R. were below those of the Western countries; while he admitted that the U.S.S.R. worker was not on a level with the average New Zealander, he maintained, nevertheless, that the standards in Russia Had improved and continued to improve constantly. He confidently asserted that the conditions of the workers were equal to those of the workers in Britain, and immeasurably higher than those obtaining in the German Reich. The increase in industrial production had been accompanied by increases in wage standards. Mr. Mc•Gillick continued, and moreover the prices of commodities were falling as production technique improved. The workers thus received the benefit of higher wages and lower costs, as the development of industry justified it. Unemployment was not a problem for Russia, nor was there any dearth of labour, for when the completion of one great undertaking released large numbers of workers, they were absorbed in other works made ready for them. When the Moscow Metrotube railway was completed in 1939. as an example, the 36,000 workers were all absorbed into other projects, just as well paid. Wage-earners had no occasion, in Russia, to dread the introduction of mechanical equipment in factories, for there were avenues always open ing for the absorption of men and women workers. Religion and Tolerance The speaker dealt also with ■ the status of religion in the U.S.S.R., the constitution of which laid it down that the church was separated from the State, and the school from the church, ’ that freedom of religious worship and freedom of anti-religi-ous propaganda alike was recognised for all citizens. Freedom of religious worship was not an empty boast, Mr. McGillick claimed, for while in Moscow he had attended service at one of the Greek Orthodox churches, and during his travels through the country had seen Mohanuinedan mosques, Jewish synagogues, and'the churches of Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Baptists, and Seventh Day Adventists. Before in revolution, the State religion was that of the Greek Orthodox Creek, the disestablishment of which had led to toleration of other sects. The fact that religious worship was mainly confined to the older people in Russia was admitted by the speaker, who, however, pointed out that the decline of orthodox religion was not confined to Russia, but was observable in all civilised countries, and in New Zealand as elsewhere. The electoral system In Russia, the Red forces on land and sea and in the air, collectivised farming and the attitude of Russia towards international questions provided Mr. McGillick with further topics, the lecturer strongly urging that the nations of the Pacific should achieve an understanding, since Britain must now be regarded as having her hands full at home. New Zealand and Australia would be compelled to look to the United States and Russia for assistance, in the event of a world war, he said.

The speaker was accorded a hearty vote of thanks, on the motion of Mr E. Harris, chairman of the Gisborne branch of the New Zealand Labour Party.