THROUGH RUSSIA

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 74, 29 March 1933, Page 5

THROUGH RUSSIA

A GODLESS SYSTEM

LONG WAY JO GO

ENGINEER'S IMPRESSIONS

In-a letter to Mr. M. Cable, Genera] Manager' of ther Tramways and Electricity Department, Mr. Walter Binns; an electrical engineer with very ivide European and American experience, gives some impressions o£ Russia today. Mr. Cable served under Mr. Binns in England nearly thirty years ago. • From 1910 to 1930 Mr. Binns was in Sftuth Am- . erica in charge of electrical undertakings in Brazil and Parana, and during the past, two years lie has been supervising the installation of a large electrical system at Aovisad, Yugoslavia. On the completion ot this work, towards the end of last year, he returned to England via Athens, Constantinople, and Russia, and the letter deals with his experiences in Russia. The Dnieprostroi power station mentioned is the one referred to in connection with the charges, against the Metropolitan Vickeri' engineers'. ■ "I got back to England in December after an interesting journey," wrote Mr? Bmns. "Fortunately I'm pretty well accustomed to 'putting up' with things, roughing it, so I went through my experiences m Russia with a fair amount of sang-froid; but I sometimes wondered how English ladies would have felt on some of the journeys I made. I took with me a heavy overcoat lined with sheepskin and my astrakhan cap, and to me they were invaluable. I slept one or two nights on a hard bench with nought but my own, coat and a camera for a pillow, stowin"' niy boots by my. pillow to ensure their , being available next morning—you are' warned to do this! I met one American who had to get out of the train he travelled overnight in, in his stocking feet, his shoes having been appropriated by a peasant or some one else. , ■ "It would take me long to tell you of. all my experiences—how I was arrested by a big Cossack military policeman on my nrst day in Russia and spent half a day in the hands of the' Russian police for the crime of, carrying a camera', although I was assured by' printed information and Soviet agents abroad that a camera was o.k.\ in Russia. I tried French and English and German on the police officers at the police headquarters, after being marched through the streets with a crowd behind me for half a mile, but whereas before the revolution ■ many Russians, at any rate, the better class, spoke German and French fluently, now the lowerv strata appear to learn only Russian. It was only by the strenuous efforts of the Soviet, lounst Agent that my 'camera, costing £40, was not confiscated, but Iliad to surrender a film which they suspected, but which I had taken in Constantinople, and eventually I got clear and my visions of a journey to Siberia passed. I saw plenty of evidences of starvation, some terrible sights of starving ' people. AMERICAN PLANT. "I visited the great hydro-electric station of Dnieprostroi— opened early in October; the ultimate capacity will be about 800,000 h.p. One 62,000 klw. set was running and several others were almost ready, huge generators all General Electric Company, UJS.A £he dam. and works have been built by American engineers, and they are planning three other dams on the Volga,' the largest of which, one near t^Sionip: have a capacity of °ver "We must wait and .see how the next five-year plan works out. " They have a Jong way to go yet before they can turn' an illiterate peasant nation (120 million peasants) into an industrial nation The disorganisation and lack of efficiency will be a Herculean task to overcome. : ;" TH£ GHOST OF THE OGPU. , "It was freezing in Moscow and Leningrad, a fine tonic after twelve, years on' the Amazon. It was a very welcome' change to_com,e back into civilised countries like Finland and' Germany; The ghosts of •«? Ogpu, the famous Russian police, with its systems of espionage and raraifica,l«°^fe#^:#er^ ; is VsomehQw. always .fcaunfins.one.in Russia.; .'I saw:lots:of great; interest anti-religious museums and iLenm stunts, but I hope the day will be long: in coming when England and the -.•world are levelled to the Russian- state of existence. f+t,'T h -D J"°!! n S Pe°Ple are'apt to think thafr Paradise is what the. Soviets have achieved, but we older brethren know that it is a will-o'-the-wisp. The Russian1 system is to break down:home and family 'life; religion is banned; the existence of God is denied.. The; strength of. England.and her Dominions is their home lif« and character founded on religious feeling. .Jjets hope this passing phase of the world J-ill give place ,to a happier 'and more prosperous epoch. Some of. the ideals of the Soviets .and their achievements ■ are. jgmte good, but it is a Godless system "