CHANGED VIEWS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20452, 2 November 1934, Page 1

CHANGED VIEWS.

Visitor to Russia Returns Disillusioned. LONDON, October 27 “ I have returned disillusioned and | cannot be a Marxian Communist after ! what I saw in Russia.” This is the j finding of John Brown, Oxford gradu- ; ate, one of those whose expenses to . Russia were paid by Lord Nuffield, the motor magnate, as a challenge to Communist propaganda in Britain. Brown ; spent four months in Russia. “ gateI crashing factories and workers’ dwellI ings.” ' He says it was sickening to see visiting intellectuals shepherded to show i places and lapping up anything the ! officials said. ‘‘ I discovered a complete failure to maintain equality of wages,” |he said. “ Coalminers are paid more than doctors or professors, i “ The housing is vile, owing to the i great influx to the cities. Even the higher paid workers’ standard of living j is below that of a man on the dole in ! England. There are no smiling faces among the workers, who lack variety ; of foodstuffs. They subsist on melons, bread, fish and tea. The workless starve unless they beg. “ I was amazed at the efficient tanks and machine-guns being manufactured at the Putilov Works, emploving 20,000.”