COMMUNISM

Southland Times, Issue 24000, 15 December 1939, Page 19

COMMUNISM

To The Editor

Sir, —From time to time letters have appeared in your paper on the subject of communism. Most of these letters suggest that the ideals of this creed have caught on in our country to some extent To many people like myself communism is only a word covering in general the mode of government used at present in the huge nation of Russia. From what we read it cannot be a very pleasant system of management to live under, for from many sources come reports of the sudden killings and mysterious deaths which occur in Russia. Apparently the Russians are a godless people who have turned their one-time places of worship into anything fr° m cinemas to human butchers’ shops. They seem to possess no individual freedom, all their daily efforts are cooperative and not competitive, they do not own the land on which they work, they do not own the homes in which they live nor has any person the right to inherit any moneys or property. In fact everything that goes to make life as we know it has been completely subordinated to the interests of the community. Coming from very reliable sources these reports must be true and surely point to the fact that to live as a citizen in a country ruled by a communist government would be the nearest earthly approach to living in Hades. Surely this communist party has some objective to achieve in this world; with all the brutality and lust it employs .it must be working for some ideal, either to build a better state or to ruin the world. Perhaps some person knowing what communism really is and what it hopes to do will write and explain through your columns these points and thus assist many of us whose knowledge on the subject is weak in understanding of the creed. Of course we all know that communism developed and gained power in Russia when that country was suffering from the effects of the unjust rule of a party which squeezed everything possible from the people, reducing them to a state of perpetual misery. We, the citizens of this Dominion, are slowly but surely being made aware of the fact that everything that can be taken from us will be, and as the takings dimmish so will the pressure be increased. Has the Communism Party grown in this Dominion because the people are becoming desperate?.—Yours, etc., JOHN PUBLIC. December 13, 1939.