"RED" RUIN

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14585, 7 February 1921, Page 7

"RED" RUIN

LENIN'S ORIMINAL FRIENDS. Thore are now no British Imprisoned in Russia according to an American wlio has just returned from .Moscow, with whom I spoke, says a correspondent of the London Daily Mail, written from the Red frontier (Latvia). My American informant (wiio represented the United SUtes at the Second congress of the Third Internationale at Moscow) says that some coal is coming from the Uonetz basin, where several mines are now in constant working order; a little oil Is coming from Astrakhan, and a good deal of wood has been piled up at Moscow for the winter. An ambitious attempt to electrify the Moscow-Petrograd railway has not been successful, and the repair of locomotives is not koeping pace with the breakdowns. This is because the best mechanics are at the front ana because of lack of materials and food. Imports from Sweden began recently, but too late to make much difference. These imports come through Murmansk and Archangel, and consist of medicines, agricultural and creamery machinery, matches, and the like. There is hardly an extra suit of underclothing in all Moscow, and there is an extreme lack of drugs, tools, hardware, shoes, and spare parts of machinery. Even the soldiers are now wearing boots made out of the bark of trees. The Reds had a horse-and-cart service in operation throughout the coun. try some time ago, when the railway was very bad, and they still have a motor-lorry service for bringing agricultural produce to the railway. There is a lack of cotton, as not much comes from Turkestan. This American met both Lenin and Trotsky, and is surprised at Lenin's invincible Ignorance of British and American conditions. Lenin, lie says, is obsessed with the Idea that the world revolution is now only a question of "weeks, and is impervious to argument. Some of the banquets held in the old banqueting hall of the Tzars in the Kremlin to celebrate the Third Internationale were extraordinary functions. Lenin presided, and round the table eat the leading commissaries of Red Russia and Bolshevik guests from every quarter of the globe. Mexico was represented by Mahendra >« T ath Roy, an East Indian, who intends to return to Mexico, well provided with funds, to stir up agitation among the negroes of the United States. Most of the guests had been in gaol somewhere or other, and some had the distinction of having done "time" in two or throe continents and of having been expelled from half a dozen countries. They had come to Russia by devious routes and in strange disguises. Some of 'lie Americans enme from Stettin, In Germany, with returned prisoners of war. while others worked their way as seamen before the mast. One American who had been in prison only three times—in America, in Australia, and in Sweden—was rather looked down on until he explained that he had been expelled from seven countries. This 'hard hick story," my friend said, quite softened the heart of Lenin, who began to tell some good yarns over the wine. Among oilier striking things he said was that 75 per cent of the. old*Communlst party—skilled and unskilled workmen mostly—had be>m killed off at the front during the last three years.