The Wanganui Chronicle TUESDAY, MAY 31, 1949 THE BERLIN RAILWAY STRIKE

Wanganui Chronicle, 31 May 1949, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle TUESDAY, MAY 31, 1949 THE BERLIN RAILWAY STRIKE

THE strike organised by the Berlin railwaymen came at a most unfortunate time for the Soviet officials. It advertised that insofar as Capitalism and Communism were concerned the better bargain for the workers was to be found on the side of capitalism. The continued payment of the railwaymen employed in the Soviet zone of their wages in Eastmarks was legally justifiable. Tlie Soviet Zone had its own currency and any contract performed within that zone should be settled by payment in the zone’s own currency. But legalities must conform to realities if the former are to be respected and the fact t'nat the Eastmark was of a purchasing power about one-third in value compared with a Westmark makes the same rate of wages paid in Eastmarks much lower than those paid in Westmarks. The railwaymen’s point of view is that they are entitled to equal pay for equal work in the same city and they see no reason for workers in one section of the city receiving less than workers doing the same services w'no happen to be employed in another occupational zone of the city. There does not appear to be any counter to this answer. The Russians do not appear to have been able to think one out for employment on this occasion Had it been the other way round the Russian opinion would have been that the exploitation of the working classes by the bourgeoise-capitalistic class resulted in the profits of the exploiting class reducing the margin available for the real producers of wealth. If there is any validity in this argument it should be in evidence in Berlin today in the form of a higher standard of living for the Germans enjoying the benefits of Soviet rule. That such standard of living in the Soviet zone is very much lower, notwithstanding the partial blockade of the metropolis by the Russians, indicates that no matter how attractive the exploitation argument may be when considered a pure theory, it fails to work out in actual practice. It will be remembered that when the currency issue loomed up the Russians determined to impose upon the people of Berlin a blockade: it can hardly be doubted but that the move was made in the hope that it would reduce the disparity between the Soviet zone conditions and the living standards of the other zones of the city. The relationship existing.between the two currencies would register the disparities and in some measure that is what happened, but the disparity was not as great as it would have been had the blockade not operated. To that partial extent, then, the Russians were successful, but there can hardly be any satisfaction in it for them. For the German people adversely concerned the situation was exasperating. Even a City supplied by the air-lift could outstrip conditions in the Soviet zone. The partial lifting of the blockade made it imperative that the currencies should be brought into some satisfactory relationship. The strike revealed to the whole world that the Soviet economy was not equal to the half strangulated economy of the Allied administered zones of Berlin. That was a bad enough advertisement in all conscience, but worse was to follow. The Russians were found to be not able to meet the problem which the railway strike presented to them.. Their propaganda efforts when Allied controlled police had been fighting and firing upon the strikers can easily be imagined. But they are now hard put to it to explain the Soviet fighting with and firing on the exasperated Berlin railwaymen. Tliose who deplore such results should not, without close examination, hug the theory that produced such results. NEW ZEALAND ABROAD THE win secured by the Maori team on Saturday against the * New South Wales State team was meritorious because the Mother State is a Rugby football centre. It may be that the State team was under some handicap in that it. was a newly assembled combination and that it was playing under international rules with which they were not very familiar. If this is so then it emphasises the desirability of eliminating differences between the local and the international codes. Whether the Maoris were too rough in their play can be left for future discussion when more is known of the game: there are commentators in the Australian Press who are mote concerned to make an impression upon their readers than to fulfil any other function. The win in Sydney balanced up the cricket defeat suffered at the hands of Oxford University. The University team is a good one and under the difficult conditions'that obtained were probably more at home with the wicket than were the New Zealanders. It was a game in which the tactics of the captains was highly important and brought to the notice of the publie that cricket, is a chancy game in which more than batting, bowling and fielding are required to meet the changing conditions. The strategy pursued by a cricket captain is a vital factor. A master of this side of the game was P. G. H. Fender, whose book on the subject of cricket is a masterpiece in its way. New Zealand is, in consequence of the activities of its sportsmen overseas, gaining a wide anfi favourable reputation. This is detracted from by the singular development in the political field: it is the only country in ttie British Commonwealth where Parliament, by the hand of its Prime Minister, refuses to take a line of action of which its Parliament is almost unanimously convinced is the correct, one, because of the over-riding influence of an outside body. If New Zealanders become known in consequence as good sportsmen but poor citizens, prepared to play while their constitutional Government is turned into a sham, they will deserve to be known as the Playboys of the Pacific. This would truly be an inglorious title!