RUSSIA IN EXTREMIS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, Issue 170572, 4 August 1921, Page 2

RUSSIA IN EXTREMIS.

TENNIS.

To tho Editor of the “Timaru Herald.” Sir, —On tho substance of a London cable, July 23rd, you proceed to write iip the position of “Russia iu Extremis.” I am not aware of any recent purification of the source of our cable messages, yet you accept them as reliable in exoelsxs. Tho need for healthy suspicion in matters of Imperial and foreign relations has noti occurred to you. The parochial mind militates severely against assimilation of the fact that, iu these matters, the cable message has never conveyed anything but a poor, and frequently an utterly unreliable indication of the truth. Jn pre-war days tho questionable character of the cable message was not so obvious because the subject of “Imperial and foreign relations” possessed littlo or no attraction for “th© man in the street.”

Now, th© “Daily Express” is a Tory paper, and its “correspondent” in this case is stationed at Riga—which, by the way, is no more reliable than Hc-1-sijigidrs'. Ho gives us no information concerning the location of th© zone — wherein thirty million people are supposed to be starving. The direction of migration is, however, indicated, i.e.. Siberia, Caucasus and “th© third and largest towards Moscow.” The fact that Hungry millions are directing their steps to such centres is a compliment to the Bolsheviks, for they had made remarkable progress in these three spheres, and crop reports, according to tlio Moscow correspondent of the ‘ ‘Daily Herald” (London) varied from ‘fair’ to ‘good’ in each of th© localities referred to. (I will furnish extracts if you desiro further proof). To-day iu China, thirty millions of people are starving, “grazing, liko cattle, in "the empty wastes for th© sparse) weed that lias survived a year of drought, and pro'onblv one human being in three is marked for death.” But the North China Government is not lndictc-cl. to Nathaniel Peffer, millions of these uni or tuna to people are migrating to Siberia. Is it possible that the ‘Tome” reierred to is not in Russia but in North China

Fighting bias commenced,” so runs the cable. In point of fact fighting lias- never ceased since the belligerent nations submerged their rival liostifitv to unite in creating a steel wall round Soviet Russia. _ Against this illegal war the Bolsheviks have been compelled to maintain huge battalions of man, viio 'Would otherwise bo employed iu reconstruction (a task which would have absorbed enormous quantities of British goods) and exported in return tilt! raw material so much; needed in. Britain. Under such circumstances tile Bolsheviks assumed office and their heroic! efforts to stem the tide of hunger and disease,—j u the treacherous intrigues of the old regime, not ksy than those ol: foreign extraction, suppoi ted by armed lore© and the infamous blockade have merited for them tho caiioid .support- of every impartial observer. The Bolshevik's suffered long in the dungeons of Imperial Russia. Ll KAlarx they lived only to "oi K and suffer for the emancipation of the useful people. Like Marx t-liev had pursued a- strenuous coursi- of study and members „f the American financial Mission testified on their i eturii that tho Bolsheviks were tho most able financiers in the world. In conclusion 1 would advise farmers--who desire more of the social value'of t.icir products than they receive and which they arc justly entitled to —to s.tudv ■■the. hind question” in Marx’s ■ ( ajntal. .1 nanking you in anticipation, — 1 am. ole OWKN J, F. McKEK. lunaru, August 2.