HIS UTOPIA

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 44, 5 December 1929, Page 4

HIS UTOPIA

LABOUR WAN IN RUSSIA TO COJTVUN'CE AUSTRALIA. LONDON, November 28. “If i am given fair play, I cun convince Australia that th® only solution of the world’s problems lies in the adoption of the Soviet system,” said Mat Percy Hannett, a delegate of the Sydney Labour Council, who was one of the three Australian dele■gates to the Trades Union Conference at Vladivostocfc in Septcmber. He says he found the piece work system in operation everywhere, with the workers controlling the rates. The average earnings were £lB a month, with a maximum of £23. That is the remuneration, of M. Stalin. Only non-unionists get higher pay, hut they are denied citizenship. The rent of a cottage is 4/- a week, compared with 30/- in Australia. Income tax averages 1J per cent, of earnings. If incomes are more than £23 a month, taxation jumps by a sliding scale from 10 to 50 per cent. Mr Hannett interviewed M. Melanchansky, head of the trades unions, who told him, “We are terribly busy. Times have bear, hard, hut are brightening. Our five years’ plan terminates in 193fi and will then be a matter of wonder for the world. This is its second year, and production already exceeds the estimate by 20 per cent.j” When visiting a rubber factory in, Moscow, Mr Hannett expressed the opinion that the hands were working too fast, but was assured that they frequently requested speeding up themselves. Once a manager refused to speed up, and the Workers’ Council dismissed him.

SOVIET JUSTICE. While at Moscow Mr Hannett saw . the trial of thirty-three brigand murderers. The Soviet’s longest sentence of imprisonment was two years. A judge and two jurors tried the case. All were appointed by the unions. Jurors serve six days every two months. Majority verdicts are given. Thus the jurors can outvote the judge. There arc no prisons, but corrective > houses, with factories, where prisoners work at ruling wages, drawing two-thirds each week, and the ; balance on their release. Mr Hannett is of opinion that i Russian clothing is QO per ce*a,t. dearer than Australian, hut education is 50 per cent, better. If pari ents so desire, a child is reared by i the State until 18 years of age, when he becomes a full citizen. Asked how tourists fare in Russia, Mr Hannett« with a smile, replied: “They sting tourists because they are spending money that was wrongly obtained in countries where Socialism does not exist.” He admitted, however, that tourists are scarce. “I was in Russia as a worker, and therefore obtained citizens’ rights,” he explained. “People who are not i of the working class are treated as robbers affording justifiable plund-

AjVTI-UQUOE campaign. “There is *qo Prohibition law, but a very active campaign against the consumption of liquor is carried on everywhere. Factory walls display graphic advertisements pointing out the evils of liquor.” Mr Hannett possesses a complete set of Soviet anti-liquor propaganda posters which he intends to display io Australia. The most popular roster asks; “What can I purchase instead of a bottle of vodka?” Then follows yists of food stuffs, clothes, and so on. Mr Hannett says drunkenness is unnoliceable in Russia compared with Australia. He will leave for Sidney om, the Baradine on Dagcmbev 10, Messrs Roohls and Walsh, who accompanied him to Vladivostock, have already left for home.